Jacksonville #2 in Lot Size in US

[jaxlongtimer]

This is a really interesting and lengthy article (excerpted from a longer article with commentary by land use experts cited in the second link below) about lot sizes nationally that features Jacksonville, as #2, prominently.  Obviously, with our consolidated county, we look good averaging housing over the decades but are more in line with the US for housing in the last decade.

....We looked at the 20 largest cities in the U.S. to discover the urban hotspots where residents enjoy the most space around their houses, a feature that has only gained in appreciation during the last 18 months as most of us spent more time at home than ever before. We’ve then tracked lot and home size evolution to see how new housing supply reshaped indoor and outdoor home spaces over the past 100 years....

Indianapolis stands out as the city with the biggest home lots overall. Phoenix ranks No. 8 for lot size among the 20 biggest cities in the U.S., with an average lot size of 7,362 square feet. Southern cities generally rank better for lot sizes when compared to West and East Coast cities. The only coastal city to make it to the top for yard space is Jacksonville, FL. Austin, TX, Charlotte, NC, and Dallas, TX round out the top 5 cities with the biggest lots. All these urban hubs boast an overall median lot size of over 8,000 square feet....

Searching for big lots in Jacksonville, FL, and Austin, TX? Shop around for homes built in the 60s and the 70s

....In Jacksonville, median lot size is over 9,100 square feet, while median home size stands at around 1,800 square feet, meaning that the home covers about 20% of the lot. Decade-to-decade evolution during the past 100 years paints a more nuanced picture. The 1970s were Jacksonville’s best decade for large lots, with a median of over 11,000 square feet – while the homes built during that period had a median size of 1,800 square feet. However, in the last decade analyzed, 2010 to 2019, the median lot size fell to around 7,700 square feet, paired with a significantly higher median new home size of over 2,300 square feet. Thus, lot usage in Jacksonville for the past decade stands at around 30%, higher than during any of the previous decades......

Excerpted article:  https://azbigmedia.com/real-estate/phoenix-ranks-no-8-among-big-cities-for-lot-size/

Original article with added commentary and more info: https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/lot-size-home-size-in-top-20-biggest-us-cities/

[thelakelander]

Makes sense. An 800 square mile city/county will have much larger lot sizes than a 50 square mile city that was built out prior to 1950. Naturally, the cities that have consolidated with their core counties or annexed hundreds of miles of suburbia during the late 20th century are going to tilt to the top of the list.