House & Home - 2024's Cities with the Biggest and Smallest Yards

 

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 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. Is having a large lawn a blessing or a burden? We also conducted a survey of U.S. homeowners to find out. Explore the results of our Yard Size Survey.  See the 10 cities with the biggest (and 10 with the smallest) yards below, followed by key stats from our report.

Cities With the Biggest Yards Rank City 1 Carney, MD 2 Linton Hall, VA 3 Mequon, WI 4 Caledonia, WI 5 Fallbrook, CA 6 7 8 9 10 Derry, NH Nacogdoches, TX Weatherford, TX Barnstable Town, MA The Acreage, FL Cities With the Smallest Yards Rank City 1 Hoboken, NJ 2 Union City, NJ 3 San Francisco, CA 4 West New York, NY 5 Camden, FL 6 7 8 9 10 Philadelphia, PA Boston, MA New York, NY Atlantic City, NJ Bayonne, NJ

Key Insights: Only the top 150 cities in our 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. 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 Southern states like Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee finished in the top half of our ranking.  The average yard size among the bottom 97 cities is less than 0.1 acres (or less than 1/10th of an acre), while only the top 2 cities — Carney, Maryland (No. 1) and Linton Hall, Virginia (No. 2) — boast averages over 1 acre. Every city representing Mississippi, New Hampshire, and South Dakota scored in the top half of our ranking. Those looking for a big-city lifestyle and big backyards should house-hunt in places like Charlotte, North Carolina (No. 722), Jacksonville, Florida (No. 761), and Oklahoma City (No. 784) — each with over 680,000 residents. Many Western urbanites go without spacious yards. One California city — Fallbrook (No. 5) — landed in the top 10, while 255 Golden State cities shrank into the bottom half of our ranking.   Helpful Links: See Where Your City Ranks Full Study Article Expert Insights Methodology Having a big yard can make lawn mowing a big chore. Hire a local LawnStarter crew to keep your property looking fresh and healthy so you can relax and enjoy your green slice of heaven. More from LawnStarter:  Best Cities for Urban Gardening Best Cities for Dog Lovers Best Cities for Cornhole Lovers Best Cities for Golfers 9 Best Lawn Mowers for Big Yards 10 Best Lawn Mowers for Small Yards