More buyers house hunt with garages as the primary goal. In 2016, 24% of homes came with space for 3 or more cars in the garage – the greatest share since the Census Bureau started tracking large garages in 1992. The fact is, home builders now construct more three-car garages than one-bedroom apartments, Bloomberg reports.
Latest housing craze isn’t inside the house: Garages
Home buyers care about garage space. One out of three said they prefer a three-car garage, as outlined by a study conducted by John Burns Real Estate Consulting; 51% desire a two-car garage, and only 10 % said a one-car garage would suffice.
However, buyers don’t necessarily want more garage space because they would like to house more cars – the share of households with three or more cars has stayed mainly flat.
In 2013, 19.7 percent of homeowners had three cars in comparison with 17.3 % in 1990, in accordance with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Instead, buyers want larger garages to store extra items or as work spaces or to transform them into in-law apartments.
The trend of desiring extra garage space does seems to be mixed, however.
“We’re seeing more multi-generational housing, where the kids are taking care of elderly parents or you have the new grad moving home after college, and now you have four cars where it might have been two before,” says Pete Reeb, a principal at John Burns Real Estate Consulting.
