The Bizarre Reason American Garages Are Shrinking

I'm a licensed home inspector in North Carolina. When I find a garage door that is less than 18' wide, I point out to my clients that it is a "one and a half" garage, i.e. intended for one car and then storage, workshop, or golf cart, etc. I find this to be a deceptive building practice, especially given the bloat of vehicle size in the last 25 years.

A garage is a $50,000 structure holding $500 worth of junk while $100,000 worth of cars sit in the rain.

I'm from SoCal. I noticed that once overall property price per sq/ft went over ~$1000 (and this is 5 years BEFORE the pandemic) people started using their garages as gyms, work space, etc. To the point that in zip 90272 people were parking $300k McLarens ON THE STREET under a car cover! Currently I live in south central Idaho... there's a house on the market - 12,000 sq/ft for $18m+ that has a two car garage. Deal breaker. I love that you're looking at this a factor in property values - I think it says a lot about residential real estate.

I'm glad you put this topic in a video. I noticed a consistent downsizing of garages back in 1999, and wondered why. Most of us get upset when we find a scratch on our car from a parking lot encounter, but it can happen in your own garage, even if you're careful.

Your analysis misses one point. Production home builders have learned that they can sell homes for $x per square foot of living space. They get no living square footage credit for closets, storage rooms, and garages. They maximize square feet of living area by eliminating closets (no more coat closets, for example) and utility rooms (put the water heater in the garage, the furnace in the attic....) That's another reason why garages are also tiny now.

When we built our house I purposefully made a 27’ wide 42’ deep garage with an oversized 20’x9’ garage door. It’s so nice to actually have a garage that’s actually usable unlike all the other homes in my neighborhood.

I've never watched your channel before this video, and I'm not sure how it popped up for me; I'm happy about it. This was a fascinating and informative video. Thanks!

90's home owner here. My garage is 26x22. We park two suv's in it. Have 2 storage racks, refrigerator, deep freezer, tool box chest, wall cabinets with work bench, air compressor, hot water heater and just enough space to open both car doors (one vehicle at a time).

In California this problem is being solved in the worst way possible. Houses are now so expensive that it's normal for multiple families or multiple generations of the same formerly independent family to move into the same house. When that happens there is always excess furniture that won't fit inside, so the garage is used purely for storage, a couple of cars are parked in the driveway, and a few more on the street.

I spent 6 years as an electrical inspector in the Eastern suburbs of Seattle. I was in and out of 4-6 houses on average each day. In all that time, I saw less than a dozen garages that had 2 cars in them. The vast majority were crammed full of stuff that wasn't worth 2 payments on the cars sitting outside in the rain.

When I started looking at new construction homes this year, I told my realtor it needed to be at least 21 feet deep, big enough for a full size truck. It's unbelievable how many homes we found that had 19 foot deep or smaller garages. A lot of builders don't even put the dimensions on their floor plans any more, so you have to pry it out of the salesperson. The home I ended up purchasing has a 19 foot wide by 22 foot deep garage, which is a miracle for the small 3800 square foot lot. The home itself is only 29 feet wide, with no driveway (garage backs to an alley) and no backyard.

Great information, I appreciate you compiling the data into an easy to consume and concise video. I wish more content was like this. You earned a sub! I look forward to watching more of your content. Thanks!

When I was building my house in 2013 the floor plan we chose had an option to extend the 2 car portion of the 3 car garage. I opted to do so and today I have in my garage 3 cars, and at the front about 3-4' of shelving, cabinetry, tool chests, welder, air compressor, shop press, a fridge, workbench, etc. That still leaves about 6' between the front of my wife's Honda Pilot (our longest vehicle) and the workbench. There is so much room for activities.

My house was built during peak boomer opulence in 1997. True 3 car garage at 26X34, with a 9X26 tool room, so 26X43 all combined. The luxury of being able to fully open the car doors and trunk with the garage doors closed is another level. Its quite a contrast to our first house which had a car port where I did my own oil changes during the dead of winter in Indiana.

I love how informative this video is about simple building requirements! We are guilty of storing $200 worth of junk in our garage and $50,000 vehicles in the drive. I also notice how narrow driveways have become. We live in TX where they have rear entry garages. I originally didn't like this but have learned to appreciate a yard that doesn't share a fenceline and my gated driveway. However, it means you never enter through your front door and the front yard is the forgotten aspect of the home. It also means I enter my house through the kitchen, which my mother despises in a home. Thanks for the information! New subscriber!

Excellent analysis. Very thorough. I'm impressed.

I almost didn’t watch it because I didn’t think it should take 15 min to explain why garages are so small. But I persisted and I’m glad I did because it also provides a great explanation as to why developers no longer build single story ranch houses. I found the details on how the space gets eaten up to be very informative.

In all the TV shows of homes, they neglect to show the garage … now I know why. Thank you for a very interesting video.

This is an astoundingly thorough overview of garage minimums, and will help in a future build!

Awesome video- I’m sad that I’m just now discovering your channel. I love deep dives like these! Instant subscribe 😊