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.

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

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.

Grew up with Chicago winters - a 2 car was a must and we have always had 2 cars inside for every house we’ve owned.

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.

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.

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'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.

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).

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.

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.

Urban homesteader here. I built my garage 28x26 with an 18’ door in 2005. With a compact pickup and compact car with staircase and work bench I find it tight. I took a hard pass on many houses at the time due to garage size being too small. Opting for a fixer upper with no garage that had space to attach one and reserved the money to build it immediately after taking possession.

This explains why I'm seeing homes with single car garages and no garages being built. One of my grandparents' garages was quite narrow. It has two separate doors and not much room between the vehicle and walls. But it was also built in '48. I'm sad to hear garages are going back to a smaller size. My parents still can get both their vehicles in the garage. Mine is in the driveway because it isn't a three care garage. But most of the people in the neighborhood don't park in the garages. Too much stuff. Unlike when my parents moved here.

In Colorado, 1970's houses are my sweet spot. Two car garages that hold two cars, a big lot, and by now large trees. I just have to update everything.

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.

My house was built in 1997 and has a two stall garage. With my 1997 Ford Ranger (compact pickup) and 1999 Mercedes E320 (4-door car) it’s a tight fit. Can’t really do anything in the garage except park and uncomfortably retrieve tools etc. I plan to have a pole barn built to be what a garage should be.

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!