The Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Construction (SOC) shows slight changes in the number of full and half bathrooms for new single-family homes started in 2021 compared to 2020. The current data shows that 3.1% of new single-family homes started had one full bathroom or less, 62.6% had 2 full bathrooms, 27.0% had 3 full bathrooms and 7.3% had 4 or more full bathrooms.
Figure 1 shows how the share of new single-family home starts by full bathrooms has changed dating back to 2005. The shares of new single-family homes with 1 or less full bathroom, 3 full bathrooms, and 4 or more full bathrooms all increased from 2020 while the share of new single-family homes with 2 full bathrooms decreased. As expected, homes with 2 full bathrooms continues to have the highest share of new single-family home starts. This share has fluctuated between 69.9% and 59.3% of all new starts since with the lowest level of 59.3% in 2015.
Larger homes continue to feature more full bathrooms when compared to smaller homes. 93.8% of new single-family home starts that were 5,000 square feet or more had 3 or more full bathrooms. When comparing this to new single-family homes between 2400-2999 square feet, only 44.1% of homes had 3 or more bathrooms while 55.9% had 2 or fewer full bathrooms. This is consistent with the idea that smaller homes have fewer full bathrooms.
Figure 2 shows the share of new single-family homes started in 2021 with 2 full bathrooms by census division. The share of new single-family home starts with 2 full bathrooms varies across the United States. The East North Central census division comes in with the highest share at 70.3% of new single-family home starts having 2 bathrooms. The lowest census division is the West North Central having a share of 54.0% having 2 bathrooms.
In 2021, a majority of new single-family homes (53.7%) had no half-bathrooms while 44.5% of the homes had 1 half-bathroom. New single-family homes with 2 or more half-bathrooms had a share of 1.7% in 2021.
This post was originally published on NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog, where NAHB’s economists discuss the latest housing data and policy.
