The single largest purchase that most Americans will make in their lifetimes is their home (although with the cost of college tuition continuing to escalate this may not be the case for long). This interactive provides a history of the home, it's prevailing styles and how it has changed on a decade-by-decade basis. Students will scroll through and witness the ever changing features of the American home. This could be a good hook before your lesson on credit and how people buy homes with mortgages. 

Questions:

• For each of the past five decades, what was the average sq. footage and cost of a home? 
  
  • 1970s?
  • 1980s?
  • 1990s?
  • 2000s?
  • 2010s?
• Looking at the answers to the previous question, what are the recent trends in the size and cost of new homes? 
• Now that you have both the cost and square footage from the first question, calculate the cost per square foot for each of the time periods.  
  • On cost per square foot basis, are homes getting more or less expensive?
• What are the factors that affect the changing style of homes? Which era's style do you like the most?
• What decade did these items find their way into more than 50% of the new homes built?
  • Electricity
  • Garages
  • Full bathrooms
  • Major appliances
  • Central air conditioning
  • Fireplaces
• What do you think the features of a house in 2030 will be? It's size? cost? new features?

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Be sure to check out our Interactive Library for more fun and engaging interactive websites. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.