Cherry Hills Village may rank No. 1, yet Greater Pittsburgh had six Zip Codes on our list of places with the biggest homes for sale: Pittsburgh, 15238; Venetia, 15367; Wexford, 15090; Sewickley, 15143; Gibsonia, 15044; and Mars, 16046.
While many large homes were built in the last 20 years, some of the largest homes in the Pittsburgh area were built before the 1980s. In the Pittsburgh metro area, 30.4 percent of all housing units were built in 1939 or earlier, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and a total of 80.5 percent were built before 1980, after which home construction in the area slowed significantly. In the city of Pittsburgh, 53 percent of homes were built before 1939.
A search on Zillow.com of single-family homes for sale in the Pittsburgh, 15238 area (No. 6 on the ranking) shows about half of the homes larger than 4,000 sq. ft. were built before 1980. About 15 miles away, Sewickley has a number of older homes for sale that were built more than 100 years ago-including a 6,262 sq. ft. residence at 4 Linden Place (listed by real estate firm Howard Hanna for $1,295,000) built in 1890, show records from the Allegheny County Office of Property Assessments.
About 15 to 20 miles north of Pittsburgh in Wexford, Gibsonia, and Mars, listed homes larger than 4,000 sq. ft. were generally built after 1990, according to a search on Zillow.com. About 17 miles south of Pittsburgh in Venetia, the large homes on Zillow.com were mostly built in the 2000s.
Americans Downsizing
Palatial living will always appeal to those who can afford it, yet practical home buyers are expressing interest in just slightly smaller homes. After the recession, the average size of single-family housing starts fell slightly-by 5 percent since 2007-to 2,382 sq. ft. in 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
In a survey by real estate search company Trulia.com, 55 percent of people prefer a home from 1,401 to 2,600 sq. ft.; only 9 percent prefer a home larger than 3,200 sq. ft. Even though homes have grown in size over the last few decades, only 3.6 percent of nearly 4.8 million homes on Trulia.com are larger than 4,000 sq. ft., according to Daisy Kong, a spokesperson for the company.
(Some companies are now specializing in extremely small homes, such as Twelve Cubed, which designs homes that only measure about 12 feet square and 12 feet tall. Still, lifestyle demands may keep residences from shrinking too much.)
While the large number of empty nesters and first-time home buyers will likely prefer smaller, affordable homes, "growing families seek larger homes that most efficiently contribute to their lifestyle demands," says NAHB's Melman.
The number of multigenerational households, for instance, grew from 5 million (4.8 percent of all households) in 2000 to 7.1 million (6.1 percent) in 2010, according to a report by the AARP Public Policy Institute. The trend has been driven in part by young adults moving back with parents and immigrant groups that tend in live in multigenerational households, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. If multigenerational living becomes more popular with Americans, it could support demand for large homes, Melman says.