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Square Footage Surge
Builders are adding square footage, but will affordability keep up?
Splits and Caps Daily: Action for Agents
February 26, 2025
📈 Market Move:
Bigger Builds
After years of shrinking floor plans, new homes are starting to stretch out again. The median size of single-family home starts jumped to 2,205 square feet at the end of 2024—its biggest reading since mid-2023. The average? Up to 2,417 square feet.
What’s driving the growth? Builders might be betting that mortgage rates will ease, making larger homes more affordable again. But with inflation concerns still lurking, it’s too early to call this a full-blown trend. Housing affordability and construction costs remain major factors, and confidence among builders dipped in January.
One interesting shift: the price gap between new and existing homes is shrinking. At the end of 2024, the median new home price ($419K) was nearly identical to existing home prices ($410K). If affordability improves, expect home sizes to keep growing. If not, we might be looking at just a temporary blip.
🌟Quote of the Day:
"The biggest risk is not taking any risk." — Mark Zuckerberg
⚡ Quick Win:
The 24-Hour Follow-Up Rule: Did you meet someone at an open house or networking event yesterday? Follow up today. A simple, “Great meeting you! Let me know if you need anything” keeps you in their brain before they forget your name.
🎉 Fun Fact of the Day:
You Can Rent a Piece of the Moon:... Sort of. There are several companies out there selling “lunar plots.” While it’s technically not legal to own land on the Moon (thanks, 1967 Outer Space Treaty), it’s still a fun way to tell people you own property… on another planet.
📚 Book Recommendation:
"The Art of the Sale" by Philip Delves Broughton—Let’s talk sales. You know, that thing you do every day as a real estate agent—whether you realize it or not. The Art of the Sale isn’t your typical “rah-rah, close deals faster” kind of book. It’s more like a world tour of selling, from Moroccan rug merchants to Japanese insurance salespeople, breaking down what makes a great salesperson actually great.
Philip Delves Broughton (who, fun fact, also wrote about surviving Harvard Business School) dives deep into the psychology of persuasion, storytelling, and resilience—aka the real skills that separate top agents from the ones still refreshing Zillow leads.
If you want to sharpen your sales game, understand different selling styles, and pick up some next-level persuasion tactics, this one’s worth the read. Because let’s be real—selling isn’t just a job, it’s an art. 🎨
The deal you’re chasing is waiting for the version of you that refuses to quit.
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