Highlights from the Census Bureau's new housing survey ...

America?s homes, like its waistlines, continue to expand in size. But there were fewer new ones completed in 2011 than in any year since at least 1973.

This new construction townhome is typical for new homes in Philadelphia. It shares some characteristics with the average new home nationwide but differs from it in other key attributes.

Those are some of the housing statistics reported in the U.S. Census Bureau?s annual Survey of Construction, released last Friday. The survey is based on a random sample of all new residential structures started over the course of the year across the country.

According to the survey, roughly 447,000 new single-family homes were completed in 2011. That figure is slightly below 2010?s 496,000 and about one-quarter of the 1,654,000 completed in the peak housing boom year of 2006.

Those new homes were larger than those built in any previous year as well, continuing a long-term upward trend in the size of American homes. In 2011, the average new single-family home in the United States contained 2,480 square feet of interior space, 88 square feet larger than the previous year. Since 1973, new single-family homes in the U.S. have grown in size by 820 square feet ? about the size of a 1-bedroom apartment or home.

They also cost less. The average sales price for a completed new home in 2011 was $267,900, $5,000 lower than the 2010 figure. Combined with the construction figure, this suggests that the housing market is still working its way through the oversupply of the bubble years.

Some other interesting numbers from the survey:

Vinyl siding was the most common exterior wall material used on new American homes, with one-third of all new single-family homes clad in it. For attached homes, the figure rose to 41%. (New homes in Philadelphia, by contrast, are most often faced with brick, either alone or in combination with stucco or metal.)

Air conditioning has become almost universal in new homes: 88 percent of all new homes had it. In the Northeast, that figure was 81 percent.

Nearly half of all new homes completed ? 48 percent ? had three or more bedrooms. More than one-quarter ? 28 percent ? also had three or more bathrooms, and another 31 percent had 2.5 bathrooms.

-By Sandy Smith for PhiladelphiaRealEstate.com

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