For new couples who are planning to start their own family or are looking to expand, one of their main priorities would be to find a house, a permanent settlement where they can raise their children, situated in a nice neighborhood.
In recent times, however, people have found it difficult to look for affordable houses, even if they had the financial capacity to buy one. Especially in the years that followed the global recession of 2008, statistics have shown that many buyers had been shut out in the new home market, between 2009 and 2015.
During this time, despite the struggles in the economy, surveys have shown how there was a marked rise in the size and quality of houses being built. According to research done by the National Association of Home Builders, the median size of a single family home in the US peaked at 2,467 square feet, or just about 230 square meters, in 2015. After that, the size declined and settled at around 2,261 square feet, or about 210 square meters in 2020.
To put that into perspective, 210 square meters is about half the size of a FIBA basketball court, or a little bigger than a standard tennis court, or perhaps, in even more familiar terms, it's about half the size of the end zone in American football. That being said, the largest single family homes do not belong to the US, no. A couple other countries surpass the US when it comes to that distinction.
According to an analysis conducted by The Perfect Rug, the five nations with the biggest houses in the world, arranged in ascending order, are: Malta, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia.
For a summary of the statistics, Malta's average home size is 1,722 square feet, about 160 square meters, with a household size of about 2.85 people. Canada averages at 1,948 square feet, about 180 square meters, and a household size of about 2.45 people. The US is at 2,164 square feet on average, with a household size of about 2.49 people.
New Zealand, on the other hand, is not that much larger than the US, averaging at 2,174 square feet with a household size of 2.67 people. While Australia takes first place with 2,303 square feet and has an average household size of 2.5 people.
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