A growing share of new housing units in U.S. cities are ‘micro-apartments’ that measure under 441 square feet, according to a report by Mary Salmonsen in Smart Cities Dive. Cities with the highest percentage of micro-apartments in the pipeline include Seattle (66 percent), Boston (56.2 percent), and Newark (49.8 percent).
The growth of micro-apartments is due in part to the housing crisis and recent zoning changes made by cities to accommodate higher density and more housing. “Seattle’s wave of new micro-housing construction coincides with zoning reforms passed in 2024 that permit micro-apartments in all areas zoned for multifamily housing, according to the StorageCafe report.”…