Compared to 10 years ago, new apartments just coming online are an average of 8 percent smaller, but, conversely, have seen rents become 7 percent more expensive, CNN Money reports.
As rent climbs to a national average of $1,296, the average square footage for all new apartments including studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments has dropped to 934 square feet.
New studio apartments have been hit the hardest, shrinking by almost 18 percent since 2006. One-bedroom apartments, meanwhile, have decreased in size by 5 percent while two-bedroom apartments have actually remained pretty steady, increasing by 1 percent.
As developers have to deal with higher construction costs, decreasing the size of units in order to squeeze more of them into a building is one way for them to get a higher return on investment.
