For homeowners, the thought of a spare bedroom can be an enticing proposition.
Home theater. Sewing room. Maybe just a chamber left empty for the rare visits of friends or relatives.
A new study, however, finds that greater Stockton is a place where the dream of an extra bedroom may be eluding many homeowners.
Stockton placed seventh among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas in having the lowest percentage of total bedrooms that could considered excess, finds a report from Realtor.com, a real estate sales site.
The analysis lists Stockton’s share of unused bedrooms at 6.9%, tied with Worchester, Massachusetts. The city with the highest share of spare bedrooms is Ogden, Utah, at 12.2%, Realtor.com says. The nationwide average is 8.8%.
The number of spare bedrooms has grown over the decades reflecting homebuilding trends and shrinking families.
“Since the 1980s we have seen the average number of bedrooms per home increase, and maybe more importantly, the number of persons per household has declined,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com in a statement. The result is “the largest share of extra bedrooms, even with Americans using spare rooms as offices.”
The trend isn’t entirely due to bigger homes. The average number of bedrooms per home over the past 50 years grew from 2.5 in 1970 to 2.8 in 2013. But it has held steady ever since with no change through 2023, states the study.
The bigger impact has been a decline in household size. The average home was inhabited by 3.1 people in 1970, falling to a record low of 2.5 persons by 2023.
The fewest total spare bedrooms was in Miami, at 5.9%. Among other California cities, Los Angeles was fourth at 6.6% and Bakersfield was eighth, right behind Stockton, at 7%.
Realtor.com says its analysis was based on data contained in the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and focused on the 100 largest metro areas between 1970 and 2023. Researchers came up with their calculations by dividing the total number of bedrooms by the number of family members. They then subtracted one bedroom for each home in the belief that residents generally devote a bedroom to home offices or other use besides sleeping.