Apartments are getting smaller – but renters are paying more

• The average size of newly built apartments in 2018 is 941 square feet, which is 5 percent smaller than it was a decade ago. For studio apartments, the change is more pronounced — they`re 10 percent smaller.
  
  
• Overall, including old and new apartments, the Southeast has the largest units in the nation, while California has the smallest.
  
  
• Micro-units are becoming more popular, following on the tiny-house trend, as millennials tend to be more environmentally conscious than previous generations.

Apartments are getting smaller in much of the U.S., even as rents are rising.

The average size of newly built apartments in 2018 is 941 square feet, which is 5 percent smaller than it was a decade ago. For studio apartments, the change is more pronounced — they`re 10 percent smaller. Rents, on the other hand, have jumped 28 percent during the same time period, according to RENTCafe, a nationwide apartment search website.

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RSK: This can be a bit misleading. If just using sq. ft. and not volume or cubic sq. ft. the story may differ. Higher ceilings and fewer walls can make a smaller apartment feel much larger than it is. Same with larger windows.

Ken Notes: We are missing the boat in Wisconsin by not creating more opportunities for stick built Micro Housing think: vacation properties, retirement, student housing, homeless and low income, equity building starter properties. The apartment boom is because we are not building low cost starter homes with nice amenities in walkable neighborhoods...