America's houses are getting bigger

Every year, the US Census Bureau releases a ton of statistics on the characteristics of newly built houses. Business Insider took a look at some of the interesting ways houses have changed since the 1970s.

One of the key trends we found was size: Newly built single family houses have been getting larger over the last four decades. The median area of a house built in 1973 was 1,525 square feet, and by 2014 that had grown to 2,453 square feet, a 61% increase.

Houses now are even bigger than houses built during the height of last decade's housing bubble, and aside from a couple dips in the late 70s and during the Great Recession, American houses have gotten bigger and bigger over the years:

Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from US Census Bureau