The Shift Back to More Affordable and Sustainable Housing
Americans have long been obsessed with big houses. For decades, the American dream of many has been the single-family home. As the affordable housing crisis deepens across the country, we are in the midst of a new wave of thinking about housing, shifting the American dream to more modest accommodations with both short-term and long-term benefits. In La Porte County and across the country, many people find that smaller homes make more sense, both for their wallets and the environment.
A Look Back: How Our Homes Got So Big
After World War II, America went through a major housing boom that solidified the American dream of homeownership of a single-family home. Millions of soldiers came home, started families, and needed places to live. The government helped by offering low-interest mortgage loans to veterans. This led to explosive growth in suburbs with bigger houses on bigger lots.
The post-war building boom used cheap land and inexpensive building materials to create houses on larger lots than most Americans had lived on before. Most new homes were built on former farmland at the edges of cities and towns.
These new suburban homes were very different from the modest city apartments and small houses that many Americans lived in before. In La Porte County, like elsewhere in Indiana, families moved from centralized urban areas to newer, larger homes in the suburbs.
As the decades went by, American homes kept getting bigger:
- In the early 1900s, the typical home was between 600 and 800 square feet
- By the 1950s, the average new home was about 983 square feet.
- By the 1970s, homes grew to 1,500 square feet.
- By the 1990s, they expanded to 2,080 square feet.
- By the early 2000s, the average new home was over 2,200 square feet.
- At their peak in 2015, new American homes averaged a massive 2,687 square feet.
All this growth happened while American families were actually reducing in size. In 1940, Indiana averaged nearly 3.6 residents per household, but this measure declined to roughly 2.6 by 2014. With fewer people living in each home but more square footage, the amount of living space per person nearly doubled in just 40 years.
Why La Porte County Households Are Changing
La Porte County is experiencing significant changes in how people live. According to census data, about 33% of all households in La Porte were made up of individuals living alone, and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size in La Porte was just 2.4 people.
Several important trends are contributing to the shift toward more single-person households, making smaller homes a smart move:
- More seniors living independently: As people live longer, they often spend more years living alone after losing a spouse.
- Young adults delaying marriage: Many young people live alone for longer before getting married.
- Declining birth rates: Today’s families typically have fewer children than families did in previous generations.
These changes mean that La Porte County, like much of Indiana, needs different types of housing than it did in the past. With one-third of households consisting of just one person, many large family homes no longer meet residents’ needs.
Why Smaller Homes Make Sense Today
1. Affordability
Housing costs have risen dramatically in recent years. In Indiana, the median home price increased by 101.3% between 2014 and 2024, while rents increased by 33%. These increases make it harder for many people to afford homes.
Smaller homes cost less to build and to buy, with lower down payments and smaller mortgages. They also have lower property taxes since they’re typically assessed at lower values.
For La Porte County, affordability is a critical issue. The rental vacancy rate in La Porte is only 3 percent, which is lower than average. When rental vacancy rates are low, there are fewer available units, and rents tend to be higher as more people compete for scarce housing. We see this first-hand across La Porte County.
2. Energy Efficiency and Lower Bills
Smaller homes are naturally more energy-efficient because they have:
- Less space to heat and cool.
- Fewer rooms that need lighting
- Smaller or fewer appliances
This efficiency translates directly into lower utility bills. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, more than half—52% in 2020—of a household’s annual energy consumption is for just two uses: space heating and air conditioning. A smaller home means significantly reduced costs for these two major expenses.
The savings on heating costs alone for La Porte County residents dealing with cold Indiana winters can be substantial.
3. Sustainability
Smaller homes tend to be better for the environment in several ways:
- They use fewer building materials.
- They require less energy to heat and cool.
- They contain fewer products and furnishings.
Building smaller doesn’t mean losing out on functional space within a home. When thoughtful architecture and design are combined with energy efficiency, the sustainability impact can be massive and have long-lasting benefits.
4. Easier Maintenance
Typically, larger homes and older homes require a lot of maintenance. Larger homes often demand more time, effort, and money from cleaning to repairs to yard work. Smaller homes are simply easier to take care of, which is especially important for:
- Busy working professionals
- Seniors who may have physical limitations.
- Single-person households managing all home tasks alone.
Who is Building Smaller?
Several groups are leading the shift back to smaller homes:
- Empty nesters and retirees: Many older adults who raised families in larger homes are downsizing once their children move out. There is a growing demand for smaller, more manageable homes, especially among older adults and empty nesters.
- Young first-time homebuyers: With high housing prices and student loan debt, many young adults choose more affordable, smaller homes as their entry point into homeownership.
- Single-person households: With one-third of La Porte households being single-person, there’s strong demand for appropriately sized housing for individuals. Additionally, this trend is expected to continue within La Porte County, encompassing all age demographics of homeowners.
- Environmentally conscious buyers: Individuals who are concerned about their carbon footprint and environmental impact look for smaller, more energy-efficient homes.
The Future is Smaller:
The trend toward smaller homes doesn’t mean everyone will live in smaller homes, but rather, it represents a shift toward “right-sized” homes that better match how people actually live today. This includes:
- Smaller single-family homes (800-1,500 square feet instead of 2,500+)
- Townhouses and duplexes that offer private ownership with less space.
- Apartments and condos designed for long-term living, not just as temporary housing.
- High-impact housing that allows for more population density in a smaller footprint.
For La Porte County, embracing this trend will help create more affordable, sustainable, and livable communities that serve residents of all ages and family types.
As demographics shift in the United States and in La Porte County, affordability concerns grow, and environmental awareness increases, smaller homes are making a strong comeback. This return to more modest homes isn’t a step backward; it’s a smart adaptation to today’s housing needs. The future of housing in La Porte County and beyond may be summed up in a simple phrase: smaller is smarter.
