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National Real Estate News: Sizing Up Garages


We would all like to have a garage, right? The car stays cleaner and warmer and we use every vacant shelf to store holiday decor, sports equipment and who knows what. Unfortunately, In our local cities, many of our homes have a carport, a small one car garage or no garage at all. In Carmel by the Sea, most lots are 4000 square feet so space is tight. Pacific Grove has even smaller lots in the downtown area so street parking is fairly standard. Multiple garages are a luxury here but other areas of the country don't seem to have the same issue....

Here is some national information about garages:

Two-car garages are the most popular option in new homes nationwide, according to an analysis by the National Association of Home Builders of 2016 new-home construction data. Of all the single-family homes completed last year, 63 percent of the homes featured a two-car garage, while 22 percent had a garage suitable for three or more cars. Only 6 percent of new homes were built with a one-car garage and just 1 percent had a carport. Eight percent of homes had neither a garage nor a carport.

Some regions of the U.S. show more preference for more garage space than others.

  • The West North Central division—which includes states like Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska—saw garages large enough for three or more cars in 50 percent of all new homes in the area in 2016.

  • The South Atlantic division—which includes the Carolinas, Florida, and Georgia—has the highest share of two-car garages at nearly 72 percent of its new homes.

  • The highest share of one-car garages was in the Middle Atlantic, which includes Pennsylvania and New York. In the New England area, “other” comprised the largest share of new homes, which includes carports, off-street parking, or other parking facilities.

Source: “Garages in New Homes: 2016 Data,” National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing blog (Dec. 11, 2017)

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