Goodbye McMansion, Hello Common Sense?

"Say goodbye to the McMansion"
CNN Money (August 26, 2010)

"The American home is shrinking. Toll the bell for the McMansion.

"After years of growth, the Census Bureau recently reported that median new home size fell to 2,135 square feet in 2009 after peaking at more than 2,300 earlier in the decade.

" 'Home buyers are asking for less, cutting back on options and reducing square footage,' said Steven Pace of the North Carolina-based Pace Development Group, which builds both custom and tract houses ranging in price from below $250,000 to more than $2 million.

" 'They're saying, "Maybe we don't need that 5,000 square footage;" ' he said. ' "Maybe our bath doesn't need to be big enough for our whole family and all our neighbors to take a shower at the same time." '..."

Another change is going from having special-purpose rooms - like a media room for watching television and a game room for playing pool - folks in this country are opting for having rooms intended for more than one use.

The Lemming remembers when that sort of space in a house was called the "living room," and then "family room." I don't know what it's called now.

There's some interesting statistical information in the article, too. Like this:

"...Now, the typical U.S. owner-occupied home has six rooms, with three of them being bedrooms, according to the Census Bureau's annual American Housing Survey. The most common number of baths is two or more...."

For folks who are involved in building oversize houses with megabathrooms, this isn't particularly good news. For the most part, though, it sounds to me like a sensible adjustment of priorities.

Although the Lemming does like to read about those high-end homes.