Where can you be a city dweller in a house with a nice big yard? With mortgage interest rates decreasing — aka more financial bandwidth to buy a bigger property — LawnStarter ranked 2024's Cities With the Biggest and Smallest Yards.
We compared the 2,000 biggest U.S. cities based on the average yard sizes of single-family homes from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Plan your next move with our ranking and see the Top 20 below. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology.
Is having a big yard a blessing or a burden? We also conducted a survey of U.S. homeowners to find out. After perusing our ranking, explore the results of our Yard Size Survey.
Only the top 150 cities in our 2,000-city ranking enjoy lawns larger than the national average of half an acre.
Small-city living offers the most yard space: Each of our top 10 cities has a population below 50,000. Unsurprisingly, congested cities like New York (No. 1,993) and San Francisco (No. 1,998) tumbled to the bottom of our ranking with some of the smallest plots.
North Carolina and Texas tied with the most cities — 15 each — in the top 150. Most cities in other Southern states like Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee finished in the top half of our ranking.
First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Cities With the Biggest Yards. We then gathered the average yard acreage for each of the 2,000 biggest U.S. cities from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank. The highest Overall Score ranked "Biggest" (No. 1) and the lowest "Smallest" (No. 2,000).
Note: Population data was sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau for reference purposes only.
With mortgage loan limits increasing this year and lower interest rates on the horizon, homeowners may be able to put more money toward a home with their dream backyard in 2024.
Whether it's for gardening, playing with Fido, or cornhole competitions with the kids, having green space to escape to is beneficial for the body and mind.
Make the most of your large lawn with our tips and tricks below.
If your yard is on the smaller side, you can still take steps to improve your space.
This story was produced by LawnStarter and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.