Today’s Tribune has a round-up story on new construction trends in ceiling heights.
In every economic downturn I’ve seen, builders have built smaller, lower-ceiling, more energy-efficient homes and cited consumer preferences rather than economic conditions as the reason for doing so. When you have lemons, make lemonade.
The long-term trend, as some quoted in the story note, has been an increase in ceiling heights. Buyers looking at new homes today and concerned about resale values should be aware that today’s lemonade may be tomorrow’s lemons when the resale market picks up.
In the early 90s I was convinced that ceiling heights in the city were inversely correlated with the height of the developer – tall developer, lower ceilings; short developer, higher ceilings. For obvious reasons I won’t name names.
The Census has data on the size of new homes over the years — going way back. I’ll grab it and send to you as a post either late today or over the weekend. It’s popular to say that people want smaller houses because of high energy prices, but I’m not convinced. It may be true that fewer McMansions will be built, but I’m guessing that’s in spite of a continued upward trend. We have had high energy prices before.