www.nytimes.com Open in urlscan Pro
151.101.129.164  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

POST https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/business/economy/the-great-compression.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083

<form method="post" action="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/business/economy/the-great-compression.html&amp;apn=com.nytimes.android&amp;amv=9837&amp;ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&amp;isi=284862083"
  data-testid="MagicLinkForm" style="visibility: hidden;"><input name="client_id" type="hidden" value="web.fwk.vi"><input name="redirect_uri" type="hidden"
    value="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/business/economy/the-great-compression.html&amp;apn=com.nytimes.android&amp;amv=9837&amp;ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&amp;isi=284862083"><input name="response_type"
    type="hidden" value="code"><input name="state" type="hidden" value="no-state"><input name="scope" type="hidden" value="default"></form>

POST https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/business/economy/the-great-compression.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083

<form method="post" action="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/business/economy/the-great-compression.html&amp;apn=com.nytimes.android&amp;amv=9837&amp;ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&amp;isi=284862083"
  data-testid="MagicLinkForm" style="visibility: hidden;"><input name="client_id" type="hidden" value="web.fwk.vi"><input name="redirect_uri" type="hidden"
    value="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/business/economy/the-great-compression.html&amp;apn=com.nytimes.android&amp;amv=9837&amp;ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&amp;isi=284862083"><input name="response_type"
    type="hidden" value="code"><input name="state" type="hidden" value="no-state"><input name="scope" type="hidden" value="default"></form>

Text Content

Manage privacy preferences
We and our vendors use cookies and similar methods to recognize visitors and
remember their preferences, for analytics, to measure our marketing
effectiveness and to target and measure the effectiveness of ads, among other
things. To learn more about these methods, view our Cookie Policy and Privacy
Policy. By clicking ‘Accept all,’ you consent to the processing of your data by
us and our vendors using the above methods. You can always change your
preferences by clicking on Manage Privacy Preferences in our website footer or
in your app Privacy Settings.
Vendors 344
Vendors using consent 317
Vendors using legitimate interest 83
Precise geolocation data, and identification through device scanning
Precise geolocation and information about device characteristics can be used.
Personalised advertising, advertising measurement, audience research and
services development
Advertising can be personalised based on your profile. Your activity on this
service can be used to build or improve a profile about you for personalised
advertising. Advertising performance can be measured. Reports can be generated
based on your activity and those of others. Your activity on this service can
help develop and improve products and services.
Purposes include
 * Purpose 2: Use limited data to select advertising
 * Purpose 3: Create profiles for personalised advertising
 * Purpose 4: Use profiles to select personalised advertising
 * Purpose 7: Measure advertising performance
 * Purpose 9: Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data
   from different sources
 * Purpose 10: Develop and improve services

Store and/or access information on a device
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers,
randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other
information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported
technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each
time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes
presented here.

Manage preferences
Reject allAccept all
Manage Privacy Preferences



We and our vendors use cookies and similar methods (“Cookies”) to recognize
visitors and remember their preferences. We also use them for a variety of
purposes, including analytics, to measure marketing effectiveness and to target
and measure the effectiveness of ads. You can accept or reject the use of
Cookies for individual purposes below. If you previously accepted these methods
through our prior banner, then we will use your data for targeting.



 * Purposes
 * Features
 * Vendors

Below, you will find a list of the purposes and special features for which your
data is being processed. You may exercise your rights for specific purposes,
based on consent or legitimate interest, using the toggles below.
ConsentLegitimate interest
Purposes
Store and/or access information on a deviceOff

Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers,
randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other
information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported
technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each
time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes
presented here.

Most purposes explained in this notice rely on the storage or accessing of
information from your device when you use an app or visit a website. For
example, a vendor or publisher might need to store a cookie on your device
during your first visit on a website, to be able to recognise your device during
your next visits (by accessing this cookie each time).

Vendors we use for this purpose176 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * A.Mob
 * ADventori
 * Aarki
 * AcuityAds
 * AdElement Media Solutions
 * AdGear
 * AdKernel
 * AdSpirit AdServer
 * AdTheorent

1-10 of 176




Use limited data to select advertisingOff

Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such
as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type
or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit
the number of times an ad is presented to you).

A car manufacturer wants to promote its electric vehicles to environmentally
conscious users living in the city after office hours. The advertising is
presented on a page with related content (such as an article on climate change
actions) after 6:30 p.m. to users whose non-precise location suggests that they
are in an urban zone.

A large producer of watercolour paints wants to carry out an online advertising
campaign for its latest watercolour range, diversifying its audience to reach as
many amateur and professional artists as possible and avoiding showing the ad
next to mismatched content (for instance, articles about how to paint your
house). The number of times that the ad has been presented to you is detected
and limited, to avoid presenting it too often.

Vendors we use for this purpose43 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * AcuityAds
 * AdGear
 * AdKernel
 * Adform
 * Advanced store
 * Amazon Ad Server
 * Appier
 * AudienceProject
 * Bannernow

1-10 of 43




Create profiles for personalised advertisingOff

Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit,
content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you
(for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other
websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a
profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects).
Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more
relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.

If you read several articles about the best bike accessories to buy, this
information could be used to create a profile about your interest in bike
accessories. Such a profile may be used or improved later on, on the same or a
different website or app to present you with advertising for a particular bike
accessory brand. If you also look at a configurator for a vehicle on a luxury
car manufacturer website, this information could be combined with your interest
in bikes to refine your profile and make an assumption that you are interested
in luxury cycling gear.

An apparel company wishes to promote its new line of high-end baby clothes. It
gets in touch with an agency that has a network of clients with high income
customers (such as high-end supermarkets) and asks the agency to create profiles
of young parents or couples who can be assumed to be wealthy and to have a new
child, so that these can later be used to present advertising within partner
apps based on those profiles.

Vendors we use for this purpose130 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * A.Mob
 * Aarki
 * AcuityAds
 * AdElement Media Solutions
 * AdGear
 * AdKernel
 * AdSpirit AdServer
 * AdTheorent
 * AdTiming

1-10 of 130




Use profiles to select personalised advertisingOff

Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising
profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or
apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and
personal aspects.

An online retailer wants to advertise a limited sale on running shoes. It wants
to target advertising to users who previously looked at running shoes on its
mobile app. Tracking technologies might be used to recognise that you have
previously used the mobile app to consult running shoes, in order to present you
with the corresponding advertisement on the app.

A profile created for personalised advertising in relation to a person having
searched for bike accessories on a website can be used to present the relevant
advertisement for bike accessories on a mobile app of another organisation.

Vendors we use for this purpose127 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * A.Mob
 * ADventori
 * Aarki
 * AcuityAds
 * AdElement Media Solutions
 * AdGear
 * AdKernel
 * AdSpirit AdServer
 * AdTheorent

1-10 of 127




Measure advertising performanceOff

Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact
with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other
users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance,
whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a
product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the
relevance of advertising campaigns.

You have clicked on an advertisement about a “black Friday” discount by an
online shop on the website of a publisher and purchased a product. Your click
will be linked to this purchase. Your interaction and that of other users will
be measured to know how many clicks on the ad led to a purchase.

You are one of very few to have clicked on an advertisement about an
“international appreciation day” discount by an online gift shop within the app
of a publisher. The publisher wants to have reports to understand how often a
specific ad placement within the app, and notably the “international
appreciation day” ad, has been viewed or clicked by you and other users, in
order to help the publisher and its partners (such as agencies) optimise ad
placements.

Vendors we use for this purpose77 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * Aarki
 * AcuityAds
 * AdGear
 * AdKernel
 * Adelaide
 * Adform
 * Adikteev
 * Adloox
 * Adnami

1-10 of 77




Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different
sourcesOff

Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user
profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your
interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising)
content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which
target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).

The owner of an online bookstore wants commercial reporting showing the
proportion of visitors who consulted and left its site without buying, or
consulted and bought the last celebrity autobiography of the month, as well as
the average age and the male/female distribution of each category. Data relating
to your navigation on its site and to your personal characteristics is then used
and combined with other such data to produce these statistics.

An advertiser wants to better understand the type of audience interacting with
its adverts. It calls upon a research institute to compare the characteristics
of users who interacted with the ad with typical attributes of users of similar
platforms, across different devices. This comparison reveals to the advertiser
that its ad audience is mainly accessing the adverts through mobile devices and
is likely in the 45-60 age range.

Vendors we use for this purpose27 vendor(s)

 * AdGear
 * Amazon Ad Server
 * Amobee (Nexxen)
 * Appier
 * AudienceProject
 * Bombora
 * Clinch
 * Crimtan
 * Emerse
 * Google Ads

1-10 of 27




Develop and improve servicesOff

Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with
ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to
build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of
audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or
improvement of user profiles and identifiers.

A technology platform working with a social media provider notices a growth in
mobile app users, and sees based on their profiles that many of them are
connecting through mobile connections. It uses a new technology to deliver ads
that are formatted for mobile devices and that are low-bandwidth, to improve
their performance.

An advertiser is looking for a way to display ads on a new type of consumer
device. It collects information regarding the way users interact with this new
kind of device to determine whether it can build a new mechanism for displaying
advertising on this type of device.

Vendors we use for this purpose50 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * Aarki
 * AcuityAds
 * AdGear
 * Adelaide
 * Adform
 * Admixer
 * Amazon Ad Server
 * Amobee (Nexxen)
 * Appier

1-10 of 50




Below, you will find a list of the features for which your data is being
processed. You may exercise your rights for special features using the toggles
below.
Features
Match and combine data from other data sources

Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with
other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for
instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card
in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in
this notice.

Vendors we use for this purpose107 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * A.Mob
 * AdGear
 * AdTheorent
 * Adara (Rate Gain)
 * Adelaide
 * Adex (Virtual Minds)
 * Admixer
 * AdsWizz
 * Amazon Ad Server

1-10 of 107




Link different devices

In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be
considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your
household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both
your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet
connection on both devices).

Vendors we use for this purpose108 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * A.Mob
 * AcuityAds
 * AdElement Media Solutions
 * AdGear
 * AdTheorent
 * Adara (Rate Gain)
 * Adex (Virtual Minds)
 * Adform
 * Adikteev

1-10 of 108




Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it
automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of
your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the
purposes exposed in this notice.

Vendors we use for this purpose126 vendor(s)

 * 6sense
 * A.Mob
 * Aarki
 * AdElement Media Solutions
 * AdGear
 * AdKernel
 * AdSpirit AdServer
 * AdTheorent
 * Adacado
 * Adara (Rate Gain)

1-10 of 126




Special features
Use precise geolocation dataOff

With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500
metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.

Vendors we use for this purpose64 vendor(s)

 * A.Mob
 * AdElement Media Solutions
 * AdGear
 * AdKernel
 * AdTheorent
 * Adacado
 * Admixer
 * Adrule mobile
 * AdsWizz
 * Amnet GmbH

1-10 of 64




Actively scan device characteristics for identificationOff

With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be
requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed
fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes
explained in this notice.

Vendors we use for this purpose23 vendor(s)

 * A.Mob
 * AdKernel
 * AdTheorent
 * Adcell (Firstlead)
 * Amnet GmbH
 * Cheq
 * Fraudlogix
 * Human
 * Hybrid
 * InMobi

1-10 of 23




Below, you will find a list of vendors processing your data and the purposes or
features of processing they declare. You may exercise your rights for each
vendor based on the legal basis they assert.
ConsentLegitimate interest
IAB TCF vendors
6senseIAB TCFOff

6sense stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 730 Day(s). This vendor
also uses other methods like "local storage" to store and access information on
your device.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device400 day(s)Create
profiles for personalised advertising400 day(s)Use profiles to select
personalised advertising400 day(s)Use limited data to select advertising400
day(s)Measure advertising performance400 day(s)Develop and improve services400
day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors400 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content400 day(s)

FeaturesMatch and combine data from other data sourcesLink different
devicesIdentify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Data categoriesIP addressesProbabilistic identifiersBrowsing and interaction
dataNon-precise location dataUsers’ profiles

A.MobIAB TCFOff

A.Mob stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 395 Day(s). This vendor
also uses other methods like "local storage" to store and access information on
your device.

Privacy policy

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device395 day(s)Use
limited data to select advertising395 day(s)Create profiles for personalised
advertising395 day(s)Use profiles to select personalised advertising395
day(s)Measure advertising performance395 day(s)Understand audiences through
statistics or combinations of data from different sources395 day(s)Develop and
improve services395 day(s)

FeaturesMatch and combine data from other data sourcesLink different
devicesIdentify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Special featuresUse precise geolocation dataActively scan device characteristics
for identification

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice characteristicsDevice identifiersProbabilistic
identifiersAuthentication-derived identifiersBrowsing and interaction
dataUser-provided dataNon-precise location dataPrecise location dataUsers’
profilesPrivacy choices

ADventoriIAB TCFOff

ADventori stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 90 Day(s). These
cookies may be refreshed. This vendor also uses other methods like "local
storage" to store and access information on your device.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device400 day(s)Use
limited data to select advertising90 day(s)Use profiles to select personalised
advertising90 day(s)Measure advertising performance400 day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors400 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content400 day(s)

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice identifiersProbabilistic identifiersBrowsing
and interaction dataUser-provided dataNon-precise location data

AarkiIAB TCFOff

Aarki uses methods like "local storage" to store and access information on your
device.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device365 day(s)Use
limited data to select advertising365 day(s)Create profiles for personalised
advertising3650 day(s)Use profiles to select personalised advertising3650
day(s)Measure advertising performance1500 day(s)Develop and improve services365
day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors365 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content365 day(s)

FeaturesIdentify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice characteristicsDevice identifiersUser-provided
dataNon-precise location data

AcuityAdsIAB TCFOff

AcuityAds stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 365 Day(s). These
cookies may be refreshed.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device180 day(s)Create
profiles for personalised advertising180 day(s)Use profiles to select
personalised advertising180 day(s)Use limited data to select advertising180
day(s)Measure advertising performance180 day(s)Develop and improve services180
day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors180 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content180 day(s)

FeaturesLink different devices

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice characteristicsDevice
identifiersAuthentication-derived identifiersBrowsing and interaction
dataNon-precise location dataUsers’ profilesPrivacy choices

AdElement Media SolutionsIAB TCFOff

AdElement Media Solutions stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 365
Day(s). These cookies may be refreshed.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device180 day(s)Use
limited data to select advertising180 day(s)Create profiles for personalised
advertising90 day(s)Use profiles to select personalised advertising90
day(s)Measure advertising performance180 day(s)Understand audiences through
statistics or combinations of data from different sources90 day(s)Develop and
improve services180 day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors180 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content180 day(s)

FeaturesLink different devicesIdentify devices based on information transmitted
automatically

Special featuresUse precise geolocation data

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice characteristicsDevice identifiersBrowsing and
interaction dataUser-provided dataNon-precise location dataPrecise location
dataUsers’ profilesPrivacy choices

AdGearIAB TCFOff

AdGear stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 395 Day(s). This vendor
also uses other methods like "local storage" to store and access information on
your device.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device395 day(s)Create
profiles for personalised advertising395 day(s)Use profiles to select
personalised advertising395 day(s)Use limited data to select advertising395
day(s)Measure advertising performance395 day(s)Understand audiences through
statistics or combinations of data from different sources395 day(s)Develop and
improve services395 day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors395 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content395 day(s)

FeaturesMatch and combine data from other data sourcesLink different
devicesIdentify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Special featuresUse precise geolocation data

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice characteristicsDevice identifiersProbabilistic
identifiersAuthentication-derived identifiersBrowsing and interaction
dataUser-provided dataNon-precise location dataUsers’ profilesPrivacy choices

AdKernelIAB TCFOff

AdKernel stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 18 Day(s). These
cookies may be refreshed.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device180 day(s)Create
profiles for personalised advertising180 day(s)Use profiles to select
personalised advertising180 day(s)Understand audiences through statistics or
combinations of data from different sources180 day(s)Develop and improve
services180 day(s)Use limited data to select advertising180 day(s)Measure
advertising performance180 day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors180 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content180 day(s)

FeaturesIdentify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Special featuresUse precise geolocation dataActively scan device characteristics
for identification

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice identifiersNon-precise location dataPrecise
location dataUsers’ profiles

AdSpirit AdServerIAB TCFOff

AdSpirit AdServer stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 30 Day(s).
These cookies may be refreshed.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device60 day(s)Use limited
data to select advertising14 day(s)Create profiles for personalised
advertising60 day(s)Use profiles to select personalised advertising60
day(s)Measure advertising performance14 day(s)Understand audiences through
statistics or combinations of data from different sources60 day(s)

Special purposesRetentionEnsure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix
errors60 day(s)Deliver and present advertising and content60 day(s)

FeaturesIdentify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice characteristicsDevice identifiersProbabilistic
identifiersBrowsing and interaction dataNon-precise location dataUsers’
profilesPrivacy choices

AdTheorentIAB TCFOff

AdTheorent stores cookies with a maximum duration of about 730 Day(s). These
cookies may be refreshed.

Privacy policyLegitimate interest disclosure

PurposesRetentionStore and/or access information on a device365 day(s)Use
limited data to select advertising365 day(s)Create profiles for personalised
advertising365 day(s)Use profiles to select personalised advertising365
day(s)Measure advertising performance365 day(s)Understand audiences through
statistics or combinations of data from different sources365 day(s)Develop and
improve services365 day(s)

FeaturesMatch and combine data from other data sourcesLink different
devicesIdentify devices based on information transmitted automatically

Special featuresUse precise geolocation dataActively scan device characteristics
for identification

Data categoriesIP addressesDevice characteristicsDevice identifiersProbabilistic
identifiersNon-precise location dataPrecise location dataPrivacy choices

1-10 of 317

SaveReject allAccept all
Economy|The Great Compression

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/business/economy/the-great-compression.html
 * Share full article
 * 
 * 

You have been granted access, use your keyboard to continue reading.

Many small houses sit side by side in the Elm Trails subdivision from Lennar
Homes in San Antonio.Credit...Josh Huskin for The New York Times
Skip to contentSkip to site index
Search & Section Navigation
Section Navigation






THE GREAT COMPRESSION

Thanks to soaring housing prices, the era of the 400-square-foot subdivision
house is upon us.

Many small houses sit side by side in the Elm Trails subdivision from Lennar
Homes in San Antonio.Credit...Josh Huskin for The New York Times

Supported by

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT


 * Share full article
 * 
 * 
 * Read in app
   

By Conor Dougherty

 * Feb. 17, 2024

Robert Lanter lives in a 600-square-foot house that can be traversed in five
seconds and vacuumed from a single outlet. He doesn’t have a coffee table in the
living room because it would obstruct the front door. When relatives come to
visit, Mr. Lanter says jokingly, but only partly, they have to tour one at time.

Each of these details amounts to something bigger, for Mr. Lanter’s life and the
U.S. housing market: a house under $300,000, something increasingly hard to
find. That price allowed Mr. Lanter, a 63-year-old retired nurse, to buy a new
single-family home in a subdivision in Redmond, Ore., about 30 minutes outside
Bend, where he is from and which is, along with its surrounding area, one of
Oregon’s most expensive housing markets.

Mr. Lanter’s house could easily fit on a flatbed truck, and is dwarfed by the
two-story suburban homes that prevail on the blocks around him. But, in fact,
there are even smaller homes in his subdivision, Cinder Butte, which was
developed by a local builder called Hayden Homes. Some of his neighbors live in
houses that total just 400 square feet — a 20-by-20-foot house attached to a
20-by-20-foot garage.

This is not a colony of “tiny houses,” popular among minimalists and aesthetes
looking to simplify their lives. For Mr. Lanter and his neighbors, it’s a chance
to hold on to ownership.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



Mr. Lanter, who is recently divorced, came back to central Oregon from a
condominium in Portland only to discover that home prices had surged beyond his
reach. He has owned several larger homes over the years and said he began his
recent search looking for a three-bedroom house.


Image
Robert Lanter outside his 600-square-foot home in Redmond, Ore.Credit...Ivan
McClellan for The New York Times


“I did not want to rent,” he said after a five-minute tour of his “media room”
(a small desk with a laptop) and bedroom (barely fits a queen). After being an
owner for 40 years, the idea of being a tenant felt like a backslide.

And after living on the 17th floor of a Portland condominium, he had ruled out
attached and high-rise buildings, which he described as a series of rules and
awkward interactions that made him feel as though he never really owned the
place.

There was the time he sold a sofa and the front desk attendant scolded him for
moving it down the elevator without alerting management a day in advance. Or the
times he came home to find someone parked in the spot he owned and paid property
taxes on. Try to imagine a random driver parking in a house’s driveway, he said
— there’s no way.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



A single-family home means “less people’s hands in your life,” Mr. Lanter said.

He wanted the four unshared walls of the American idyll, even if those walls had
minimal space between them and were a couch length from his neighbor.


A CHANCE AT OWNERSHIP

Several colliding trends — economic, demographic and regulatory — have made
smaller units like Mr. Lanter’s the future of American housing, or at least a
more significant part of it. Over the past decade, as the cost of housing
exploded, home builders have methodically nipped their dwellings to keep prices
in reach of buyers. The downsizing accelerated last year, when the interest rate
on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage reached a two-decade high, just shy of 8
percent.

Mortgage rates have fallen since, and sales, especially of new homes, are
beginning to thaw from the anemic pace of last year. Even so, a move toward
smaller, affordable homes — in some cases smaller than a studio apartment —
seems poised to outlast the mortgage spike, reshaping the housing market for
years to come and changing notions of what a middle-class life looks like.

“This is the front end of what we are going to see,” said Ken Perlman, a
managing principal at John Burns Research and Consulting.

Extremely small homes have long been an object of curiosity and fodder for
internet content; their tight proportions seem to say large things about their
occupants. On social media and blogs, influencers swipe at American gluttony and
extol the virtues of a life with less carbon and clutter than the standard
two-car suburb.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



Now, in the same way décor trends make their way from design magazines to Ikea,
mini homes are showing up in the kinds of subdivisions and exurbs where buyers
used to travel for maximum space.



The shift is a response to conditions that are found in cities across America:
Neighborhoods that used to be affordable are being gentrified, while new
condominiums and subdivisions mostly target the upper end of the market,
endangering the supply of “starter homes” in reach of first-time buyers. That
developers are addressing this conundrum with very small homes could be viewed
as yet another example of middle-class diminishment. But buyers say it has
helped them get on the first rung of the housing market.

“They should help out more people that are young like us to buy houses,” said
Caleb Rodriguez, a 22-year-old in San Antonio.

Mr. Rodriguez recently moved into a new community outside San Antonio called Elm
Trails, which was developed by Lennar Corporation, one of the country’s largest
homebuilders. His house sits in a line of mini dwellings, the smallest of which
is just 350 square feet.

On a recent evening after work, neighbors were walking dogs and chatting along a
row of beige, gray and olive-green two-story homes of the same shape. The
development has a pond where residents picnic and catch bass and catfish. The
houses do not have garages, and their driveways are wide enough for one vehicle
or two motorcycles — proportions that pushed the sale prices to well under
$200,000.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



“I wanted to own, and this was the cheapest I could get,” said Mr. Rodriguez,
who moved in this month and works at a poultry processing plant in nearby
Seguin, Texas. He paid $145,000 and hopes the house can be a step toward wealth
building. Maybe in a few years he will move and rent it out, Mr. Rodriguez said.

Homes under 500 square feet are not taking over anytime soon: They are less than
1 percent of the new homes built in America, according to Zonda, a housing data
and consulting firm. Even Mr. Lanter, who evangelizes about his newly low
heating bill and the freedom of shedding stuff, said he would have preferred
something bigger, around 800 square feet, if he could find it.

While these floor plans might be an edge-case offering reserved for certain
kinds of buyers — “Divorced … divorced … really divorced,” Mr. Lanter said as he
pointed to the small homes around him — they are part of a clear trend. Various
surveys from private consultants and organizations like the National Association
of Home Builders, along with interviews with architects and developers, all show
a push toward much smaller designs.

“Their existence is telling,” said Ali Wolf, chief economist of Zonda. “All the
uncertainty over the past few years has just reinforced the desire for
homeownership, but land and material prices have gone up too much. So something
has to give, and what builders are doing now is testing the market and asking
what is going to work.”


Image

Elm Trails subdivision from Lennar Homes in San Antonio.Credit...Josh Huskin for
The New York Times


Builders are substituting side yards for backyards, kitchen bars for dining
rooms. Suburban neighborhoods have seen a boom in adjoined townhouses, along
with small-lot single family homes that often have shared yards and no more than
a few feet between them — a kind of mash-up of the suburb and the urban
rowhouse.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



The great compression is being encouraged by state and local governments. To
reduce housing costs, or at least keep them from rising so fast, governments
around the country have passed hundreds of new bills that make it easier for
builders to erect smaller units at greater densities. Some cities and states —
like Oregon — have essentially banned single-family zoning rules that for
generations defined the suburban form.

These new rules have been rolled out gradually over years and with varying
degrees of effectiveness. What has changed recently is that builders are much
more willing to push smaller dwellings because they have no other way to reach a
large swath of buyers.

“There is a market opportunity and people are using it,” said Michael Andersen,
a senior researcher at Sightline Institute, a Seattle think tank focused on
housing and sustainability.


A BIG HOUSE ON A LITTLE LOT

American homes have long been larger on average than those in other developed
countries. For most of the past century, the country’s appetite for size has
only grown.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



The iconic Cape Cods in Levittown, N.Y. — often considered the model post-World
War II suburb — were typically about 750 square feet, roomy for a one-bedroom
apartment but small for a free-standing house with two bedrooms. Today, though,
the median American home size is about 2,200 square feet, up from around 1,500
in the 1960s. Lot sizes have remained more or less the same, which means the
typical home is built to maximize the size of the kitchen and bedrooms even as
its yard contracts and its proximity to neighbors increases.

The expansion came despite a profound shift in household composition. Over the
past half-century, America has gone from a country in which the predominant home
buyer was a nuclear family with about three children to one in which singles,
empty nesters and couples without children have become a much larger share of
the population. Meanwhile, housing costs shot up in recent years as cities
around the nation grappled with a persistent housing shortage and a surge in
demand from millennial and Gen Z buyers.

This has created a mismatched market in which members of the Baby Boom
generation are disproportionately living in larger homes without children, while
many millennial couples with children are cramped into smaller houses or in
rental apartments, struggling to buy their first home.

Even buyers who are willing to move across state lines are finding that
affordable housing markets are increasingly hard to find. In the Bend area where
Mr. Lanter lives, housing costs have been pushed up by out-of-state buyers, many
from California, who have flocked to the area to buy second homes or work there
remotely.

The influx of money has helped raise the median home price to almost $700,000
from a little over $400,000 in 2020, according to Redfin. Driving through the
downtown on a snowy afternoon recently, Deborah Flagan, a vice president at
Hayden Homes, pointed left and right at storefronts that used to be boarded and
are now part of a vibrant ecosystem of retailers that includes numerous high-end
coffee shops, a “foot spa” and a bar where people drink craft beer and throw
axes at wall-mounted targets.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



The upscaling extends well beyond downtown to adjacent neighborhoods, where the
small-footprint “mill houses” that once served a blue-collar work force now sit
on land that is so valuable they are being slowly erased by two-story moderns
with seven-figure sales prices. Toward the end of the snowy driving tour, Ms.
Flagan pointed toward one of those old mill houses — a compact, ranch-style home
with fading yellow paint and a white picket fence pocked with broken boards. She
estimated it was no more than 800 square feet, and framed it as an example of
the small and affordably priced housing whose stock needs to be rebuilt.

“What we are doing now is what they were doing then,” she said.


FOUR WALLS, CLOSE TOGETHER


Image

The view from the front entrance of Mr. Lanter’s small home.Credit...Ivan
McClellan for The New York Times


Hayden builds about 2,000 homes a year throughout the Pacific Northwest. Its
business model is to deliver middle-income housing that local workers can
afford, Ms. Flagan said, and it does this by skipping larger cities like
Portland and Seattle in favor of lower-cost exurbs like Redmond (where the
company is based).

Like a lot of builders, Hayden has spent the past few years whittling back sizes
on its bread-and-butter offering of one- and two-story homes between 1,400 and
2,500 square feet. But because its buyers are so price-sensitive, it decided to
go further. After rates began rising, Hayden redesigned a portion of Cinder
Butte — the Redmond subdivision where Mr. Lanter lives — for homes between 400
and 880 square feet.

Most of Cinder Butte looks like any subdivision anywhere: A mix of one- and
two-story homes that have faux exterior shutters and fill out their lots. The
corner where Mr. Lanter lives is strikingly different, however, with a line of
cinched homes that front the main road into the development and have driveways
in a back alley.



Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT



The alley is where neighbors say hi and bye, Mr. Lanter said. And because nobody
has much space, people often throw parties in their garages.

The smaller houses sold well, so Hayden has now expanded on the idea. It
recently began a new development in Albany, Ore., in which a third of the 176
homes are planned to be under 1,000 square feet. “Our buyers would rather live
in a small home than rent,” Ms. Flagan said.

A decade ago, Jesse Russell was a former reality TV producer looking to get
started in real estate. He had just moved back to Bend (his hometown) from Los
Angeles, and began with a plot of two dozen 500-square-foot cottages sprinkled
around a pond and common gardens. When he pitched it at community meetings, “the
overwhelming sentiment was ‘nobody is going to live in a house that small,’” he
said.

Then the units sold out, and his investors nearly doubled their money in two
years.

Mr. Russell’s company, Hiatus Homes, has since built about three dozen more
homes that range from 400 square feet to 900 square feet, and he has 100 more in
development — a thriving business. How does he feel about subdivision builders
getting into a product that used to belong to smaller companies like his?

“I love it!” he said. “I hope that at some point a tiny house just becomes
another thing. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s a duplex, that’s a townhouse, that’s a
single-family house, and that over there is a cottage.’ It just becomes another
type of housing you get to select.”

Additional reporting by David Montgomery.



Conor Dougherty is an economics reporter and the author of “Golden Gates:
Fighting for Housing in America.” His work focuses on the West Coast, real
estate and wage stagnation among U.S. workers. More about Conor Dougherty

A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 18, 2024, Section BU, Page 4
of the New York edition with the headline: The Shrinking of the American Home.
Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
 * Share full article
 * 
 * 
 * Read in app
   





Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT


Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times.


6-month Welcome Offer
original price:   $6.25sale price:   $1/week
Learn more


SITE INDEX




SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION

 * © 2024 The New York Times Company

 * NYTCo
 * Contact Us
 * Accessibility
 * Work with us
 * Advertise
 * T Brand Studio
 * Your Ad Choices
 * Privacy Policy
 * Terms of Service
 * Terms of Sale
 * Site Map
 * Canada
 * International
 * Help
 * Subscriptions

 * Manage Privacy Preferences