For the actual numbers, go to this site [1] which the article cites. It has XLS files containing stats over time for all kinds of characteristics of American housing.
Eyeballing the "bathrooms" file, the "bedrooms" file, and the "bathrooms by bedrooms" file, it looks to me like most of the growth in bathrooms matches the growth in bedrooms, so maybe the question should be "why do American houses have so many bedrooms?".
One reason number of bathrooms per person may have gone up on average is because people have children later. Over the past 50 years average maternal age at first birth has risen from the low 20s to the high 20s.
So 50 years ago, a young couple would buy a house, and quickly start a family, lowering the bathrooms per person ratio. Now that couple might by a house, sized for the family they plan to start, but not start that family for almost 10 years. So for 10 years they are living with a higher bathroom per person ratio, helping bring up the average.
I come from a country where most people build homes on their own. One norm that we always practice is that bathrooms are either equal in number, or more than the number of bedrooms in the house. This is because we are always an extended family, and extended family visits us. Most bedrooms have an attached bathroom + 1 (common bathroom for guests/maids/)
In America, I found that it is exact opposite. Bathrooms are less in number compared to bedrooms. My son and daughter are fighting for bathroom time as we live in a 4 Bed 2 bath house. Adding to our agony was when my parents who recently visited us. Now, one bathroom for 4 people.
I understand the cost implications. But compared to my house in my motherland, American house is 3 times bigger. Why can't the builders reduce size and build more bathrooms.
I can't say I've done a full study on this, but at least anecdotally, the claim of this article seems over-blown. I'm a software engineer for a large tech company (i.e., I make pretty good money), and I live in a relatively well off part of the US (New Jersey, in the New York suburbs). When I was looking for a house, most houses in our price range had either 1 full bathroom or 1 full bathroom and 1 half bathroom. So even in a pretty well-off situation, it's not automatically the case that you live in a huge house with lots of bath rooms.
To the extent that the claim that American houses have so many bathrooms is true, I'm not sure you can think about American real estate in such a homogenized fashion to assume it is universally true. I think it applies in certain particular circumstances, but is not universal.
I don’t think this requires that much analysis. As the article acknowledges, American houses are on average double the size of ones in the EU. That leaves plenty of space to place bathrooms to maximize convenience (as opposed to just handling maximum expected occupancy). For example, our 1950s house growing up had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, one upstairs shared by the bedrooms, and one downstairs for the family room. My parents’ current house has one more bedroom, but two more bathrooms. Two of the bedrooms get a private attached bath, and the other two share a Jack and Jill bathroom. The main level gets a powder room. If we finish the basement, that’ll be another bathroom, because people don’t want to have to go to another floor to access the bathroom.
That's a very valid point, but I assume the same trend would show up (though not as drastically) in the number of bathrooms per bedroom. (If not, then the article is bunk, but I assume it does.)
I'd also be interested to know the trend in the percentage of floor space given over to bathrooms, which would fuzz both the number of bathrooms and the increased bathroom size. It seems to me like a lot of space wasted, personally, although I admit it does feel nice to walk into a (rare) beautiful full-sized master bathroom.
> it's much more common for newer homes to have more bathrooms than older builds of similar size which obviously erodes living space.
Newer homes also seem to be kitchen heavy, and have larger closets (and also bedrooms), all of which reduces shared (and, but for the bedroom part, total) living space with the same square footage.
Some of it is age. I only have one bathroom in about an 1800 sq ft house. Presumably the indoor plumbing was added at some point. But, while a house that size would have 2 brs today, there’s just no easy way to add one and I don’t need it.
This all depends on the home. I've lived in homes where the number of bathrooms equalled bedrooms + 1/2. So each bedroom had their own bathroom, and there was a half bath (or two) in more common areas. The nicer the home, the more likely each room will get its own bathroom. It also seems more likely with newer construction.
Often as the number of bedrooms increase there is an assumption that they won't all be used. So having a full bathroom for a guest room is a cost people usually don't want to incur while building. Or the house is built with the idea of parents (who get their own bathroom) and kids, who share and then move out when they're 18. Now that kids are living at home into their 30s, that becomes more awkward.
If you won't be using the extra bathroom, they become kind of annoying. I lived alone in a house with 3 bathrooms for a while. I felt like I had to keep a schedule to remind myself to use the out of the way one, otherwise the water would evaporate in the traps.
I think that maybe a lot of little, it doesn't cost much to add things ends up costing a lot.
Think about bathrooms; my childhood home and my grandparent's home both only had 1 bathroom. My grandparent's was on the second floor with enough room for a sink with a toilet on one side and bathtub on the other. Mine was toilet, sink and single standing shower.
Newer homes started having a guest toilet. Then guest/second bath and master bath. Now newer constructions seem to have 1 bathroom per bedroom as well a guest. All while increasing the size of the bathroom. And increasing the size of the bedroom. And the size of the closets. And so on.
I bought a 3 br 2 ba ranch. Currently my 2 sons are 1 and 6, I don't need the second bathroom. It's nice when we have guests but when we don't it just sits there.
I see many new constructions but not any that are even close in size or price to what I have. I also see the older lots being bought and redeveloped.
American houses have too many square feet, and about enough bathrooms. I don't see how a three-bedroom 1-bathroom house is compatible with two people getting to work on time, especially with kids around throwing things off-schedule.
Counter to that, I live in the DC suburbs, where housing tends to be from the mid-1970s or newer. The house I grew up in was a "standard" colonial (1800swft 4 and a door) with 2.5 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms. The first home I owned was similar. My current townhome is 3 beds with 2.5 baths.
In all cases, we could have done without 1 of the full baths, or the half-bath, without problem. The extra was purely convenience (but appreciated growing up with a sister who could take some time getting ready).
> I believe it's mainly because many bathrooms allow the apartments to be shared by several flatmates.
In Europe (at least in the UK) it's common for houses/apartments to be shared by many flatmates regardless of the number of bathrooms. 4 seems to be roughly the upper limit on 1 bathroom. 5 bedroom places almost always have 2. And many houses with only 1 bathroom will have a second small toilet-only room.
I just want to know what on earth people are filling these enormous 2000+ sq.ft houses with! 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms? Even if you have 4 people in your family, do they all need separate rooms, and what is the probability that they all need to pee at the exact same time?
speaking from direct experience coming from a family that builds homes in suburban southern california, it's sorta self-reinforcing and circular
people expect familiar floorplans,
planning departments approve them faster if the same elements are repeated,
HVAC, plumbing and fire mitigation regulations generally require a hub and spoke architecture
appraisers (and more importantly bank loan approvals) are based primarily on square feet, not quality (and also bathrooms)
so we add a bonus room that is likely never to be used, to bump up valuation to spend on better plumbing (developers are liable for 20 years of defects on new homes). we also build a minimum of 4 car garages, usually 6, because it's a cheap way to add square footage without added plumbing and mainly going to be used for storage anyway...
The point is, that they usually plan one bathroom per floor, not per bedroom. The primary reasons for that are prices and available space. At the moment it is quite hard to buy land on which you can build a large house in Germany. It is not only expensive, but there is often almost nothing available.
Agree! But what I don't understand is the 8 bedroom, 14 bathroom type of houses (rich people). I mean what's the point. I agree that you need at least two bathrooms in a home and max one bathroom for each bedroom...but after that, what's the point?
Need in the sense that, it improves the quality of life, and it's a worthy expense.
I've lived in a 1 bathroom house in the US and i said never again. It was one of the first things I looked at when buying a house overseas as well, and it served me well.
Problems with a single bathroom which includes the toilet:
If you have kids, everyone is fighting over a scarce resource in the morning. Showering/shaving/etc all takes time and you're all leaving in a narrow window.
If you don't have kids the people buying the house may, and they will care. It makes selling the house so much harder.
The bathroom _must_ be cleaned to be guest ready, and they get to accidentally snoop through everything. I love my ensuite for this reason. (and if you don't care about it being clean, your partner probably does)
If you have the room, why not have an extra bathroom? So much easier to build in new construction than add later.
When I lived in Australia the toilet was in a separate room, so the 4 bedroom house worked ok with only 2 bathrooms. The toilet wasn't blocked/held hostage by someone taking a shower. (washing your hands on the other hand...) But this also helped sell the place, since with 2 full bathrooms you can have kids/house mates/etc.
My current house has 3 baths with 4 bedrooms. One is in the in-law suite, which I airbnb, so we have 2 on the main floor. It makes 2 baths for 3 bedrooms. This feels like a nice "adult" house. We have a spare rooms for house guests, and they have a full bathroom they can use. This means we can host friends/family for days/weeks and we can be annoyed by their personality, instead of annoyed fighting over a bathroom. ;)
Of all the weird things in the US, a house having "too many" bathrooms really doesn't seem like a problem.
Eyeballing the "bathrooms" file, the "bedrooms" file, and the "bathrooms by bedrooms" file, it looks to me like most of the growth in bathrooms matches the growth in bedrooms, so maybe the question should be "why do American houses have so many bedrooms?".
One reason number of bathrooms per person may have gone up on average is because people have children later. Over the past 50 years average maternal age at first birth has risen from the low 20s to the high 20s.
So 50 years ago, a young couple would buy a house, and quickly start a family, lowering the bathrooms per person ratio. Now that couple might by a house, sized for the family they plan to start, but not start that family for almost 10 years. So for 10 years they are living with a higher bathroom per person ratio, helping bring up the average.
[1] https://www.census.gov/construction/chars/
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