One-bedroom apartments are taking over Phoenix: Developers built a whopping 13% more of this unit type in the last decade. Now, they make up half of the new apartments in your city. While these smaller living spaces offer convenience, renters won’t be pleased to know they got even more compact. Additionally, this shrinking Phoenix apartment size trend is evident all over the metro area. 

RentCafe.com’s latest Apartment Size Report reveals the shifts in apartment size in the last 10 years across America’s 100 largest renter hubs, by comparing new apartments (built between 2015-2024) to those completed a decade earlier. 

Read on for more highlights and a size breakdown by unit type: 

  • Phoenix’s shift to smaller living spaces is highlighted by the city’s apartment size average of 852 square feet — 64 less compared to units built before 2015.  
     
  • This places Phoenix 67th nationwide and last in the metro area. By comparison, the average apartment size in Glendale, Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale is over 900 square feet. Plus, all four ranked in the top 50 cities with the largest apartments. 
     
  • Developers focused more on the needs of renters looking for smaller layouts. The share of studios in Phoenix inched up by 2%, averaging 454 square feet in size. 
     
  • The newly built Phoenix one-bedroom apartments average 717 square feet, 35 less compared to those built a decade ago, the tiniest such units in the metro area.  
     
  • Do you know what else is the tiniest in the Valley? Phoenix’s two- and three-bedroom apartments, averaging 1,053 and 1,254 square feet, respectively. In fact, two-bedroom units used to be Phoenix’s main construction type, but now they amount to only a third of the city’s newly built apartments.  

DEEPER DIVE: 20 emerging business categories gaining traction in Arizona

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Want more news like this? Get our free newsletter here

How does Phoenix compare to the rest of the Valley?

  • One-bedroom apartments represent more than half of all newly built units in Scottsdale, Tempe and Phoenix. Glendale is not far behind with 48%. In these cities, one-bedroom apartments saw a construction boom between 9% and a whopping 16%. 
     
  • Despite one-bedroom apartments being the main type constructed, their floor plans got smaller across the board, with losses of up to 92 square feet.  
     
  • Glendale and Tempe rank among the top 15 biggest drops in apartment size in the nation (135 and 112 square feet, respectively). Now, the average apartment size here is around 900 square feet.  
     
  • On the other hand, Scottsdale is the nation’s 24th city with the largest apartments, averaging 943 square feet, despite a 74 square feet loss.  
     
  • Mesa stands out not only because two-bedroom apartments continue to be the main type constructed, but also for growing by 79 square feet.  
     
  • What about studios? There have been increases in studio construction in most cities in the Valley. Notably Glendale only began building them after 2014. On the flipside, the share of studios in Tempe has dropped from 10% to 7%, where they are now a whopping 177 square feet smaller.  

Zooming out, U.S. apartments are growing again after a decade of shrinking floor plans, reaching 908 square feet, while studios and one-bedroom units are getting larger. 

  • Two Florida hubs — Tallahassee and Gainesville — lead with the largest apartments averaging 1,130 and 1,122 square feet, respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, the smallest apartments are in Seattle and Portland, each with units under 700 square feet.

The full report includes detailed data and visual breakdowns of where living spaces have grown or shrunk the most. Get the report here.