Approximately, of course. I need an approximate measure of the fraction of an acre that a typical suburban house, with an average lawn, two-car garage, driveway decent backyard would sit on.
If you know this stuff better than I (who lives in a high rise and never reallly thinks about acreage), could you give me what you think would be a small plot for such a house (let’s say it’s a four bedroom house, not a mansion and not a cramped house either) and what would be a large plot for such a house.
I live in a four bedroom 2200 sq. ft. house that is on a quarter acre (10,000 sq. ft.) plot. That would probably be considered by most Americans to be a smallish lot for a house this size. It is the smallest size lot you are allowed to build a house on in my town, but some places of course have much lower limits.
I don’t know the area of my house’s footprint offhand, maybe 1200 sq. ft or so? (it’s a two story). So the house occupies something like 12% of the lot’s area.
A large plot for such a house? There really is no upper limit, is there? 10 acres? 20? 5000?
Also in Massachusetts, where we’ve been developing land for close to 400 years now, so space is getting tight.
1/4 acre is probably average, but to combat over-development, some communities are adopting larger lot sizes. 1/2 acre and even more. This contributes to sprawl, though, by forcing housing to spread over larger areas.
There’s no one answer to this question. I know of towns where 5,000 square foot lots are common, and others where 1 1/2 acre lots are the minimum. (Generally, larger lots are required where the houses have septic tanks and wells.)
Okay. I’m asking specifically about the village of Great Neck, Long Island, New York, closer to the downtown area (though not in it) than the larger estates on the north end of town.
The houses look like they’re on about the average suburban homes I’ve seen around the country, which is why I’m asking for typical suburban homes. I realize that in rural areas, for example, the houses will be on grossly larger sized lots.
If you’re interested in a specific community, it should be hard to call its town hall on Monday morning and ask about lot size requirements. It would be either the Building Department or Planning/Zoning you’d want.
I don’t know the area at all, but something like this? That house is on a 20,000 sq. ft. (half acre) lot, I located it through the Yahoo! Real Estate search. A quick completely unscientific scan of houses for sale in Great Neck revealed that that one seems to be at the upper end for lot size, I saw one as low as 2500 sq. ft (1/16th of an acre) although that was a smaller house. The average lot size seemed to be in the 5,000 to 10,000 sq. ft. range (1/8th to 1/4 of an acre).
That looks a little big, but only a little. I think it’s probably safe for me to write “approximately 1/4 of an acre” for the house I’m trying to describe.
(This is part of a museum exhibition catalogue I’m writing, and I suddenly realized that though I wrote an 1/8th of an acre, I actually had no idea what I was talking about.) You’ve all been very helpful. Thanks.
The 1950s-era subdivsion I live in has 1/2 acre lots for all the houses.
An acre is roughly a square 208 feet on each side. For a less abstract definition, think of a football field, goal line to goal line, sideline to sideline. Cut 8 yards off one end, and that’s approximately an acre.
The county’s website ought to have property tax/assessment information available as public record. I can visit my county’s site and plug in my address, legal address, or name and get a description of my land and the house, plus their values and tax rates.
Perhaps there’s something similar for the address in question?
My 1500-sq. ft. suburban house with built-in 2-car garage sits on a lot that is 160 x 80 ft. That’s a little over 1/4 acre. This is exceedingly typical for Ohio and most other places in the Midwest. When I lived in West Virginia, the lot sizes were typically a little smaller, but houses were built more vertically (what with the hillsides and everything).
Minimum lot sizes and house sizes are all regulated by the municipal zoning ordinance. Call your local planning office - they’re sitting by their phones waiting for your call.
Actually, all I really needed, as it happened, was an approximate conversion of acreage into square footage, and I could eyeball it from there. The house I’[m writing about looks like it’s maybe on 100" x 80" lot (maximum), so I’m guessing that’s about 1/8 to a 1/4 acre, based on what I’ve read here.
Also, if you’re just interested in turning the measurements into acreage, you can use Google’s calculator function very easily/ Just go to Google and type this into the search bar:
