According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, larger Vero Beach homes are making a comeback, and bigger than ever. After a few years of shrinkage in the aftermath of the Great Recession, the median square footage of newly built Vero Beach homes last year tipped the scales at over 2,400 square feet. That's nearly 1,000 square feet larger than the median home built in 1992. The death of the McMansion has been greatly exaggerated.
Buyers Screaming for Larger Vero Beach Homes
Back in 2011, many observers were predicting the end of the McMansion era. But five years into the recovery that hardly even feels like one, homebuilders have returned to the old ways of building larger Vero Beach homes. The recession was supposed to usher in a return to the dense, urban and walkable. Instead, the opposite has happened.
Young first-time buyers, who are less inclined to buy big suburban houses, are largely staying away from the market altogether. Credit requirements are still much tighter than they were before the housing collapse, so much of the activity in the housing market is from wealthier families looking to trade up – and they're looking for bigger and better Vero Beach homes.
On one level, builders building Vero Beach homes may be inclined to build communities that reflect their own values. This isn't a problem if potential buyers share those values too – but what if they don't?
One potential sign of trouble might be the homeownership rate, which at the end of 2014 reached its lowest level in 25 years. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Data shows the economy added millions of new households in 2014 as more people lived in shared arrangements – including some of those young adults staying with mom and dad – struck out on their own. Most of them decided to rent. That could carry over to an uptick in the homeownership rate in the coming year as more renters decide to buy.
Sizes of Vero Beach homes are rising even as sales have slowed because builders have competed for affluent buyers who aren't likely to run into trouble qualifying for a mortgage and saving for a down payment.
Get more information as it pertains to buying Vero Beach homes in our section on Vero Beach Real Estate to your right under Vero Beach Real Estate Categories. We also post tips daily on Twitter and Facebook, sometimes pertaining directly to Vero Beach homes and the current trend of the Vero Beach housing market. Find us there as well.
