Continuing a recent trend, the share of new homes completed with patios increased for the sixth consecutive year in 2021, reaching a record-high level, according to an NAHB analysis of data from the Survey of Construction (SOC). Of the approximately 1.1 million single-family homes started in 2021, 63% included patios. The incidence of patios on new homes has increased in each of the past 12 years, excluding 2015 when the share remained flat year-over-year.
The geographic incidence of new homes with patios still in general resembles the pattern described in last year’s post. At the low end of the scale, only 17% of new single-family homes built in the Middle Atlantic and 28% in New England came with patios in 2021. At the high end, the incidence of patios on new homes was over 70% in the West South Central and South Atlantic divisions, and only a little under 70% in the Mountain states.
For the U.S. as a whole, the 2022 Annual Builder Practices Survey report conducted by Home Innovation Research Labs (based on homes built in 2021) shows that the average size of a patio on a new single-family home is just a little under 300 square feet. However, there is considerable geographic variation, with the average new-home patio reaching nearly 400 square feet in New England and the South Atlantic but falling to as low as 197 square feet in the West North Central, 210 square feet in the Mountain Division, and 229 square feet in the West South Central, averaging 229 square feet.
On a square foot basis, poured concrete continues to be builders’ overwhelming favorite material for patios, except in the New England and Mid Atlantic divisions where concrete and brick pavers, respectively, are more common.
