Green Daily

Is McMansion culture finally coming to an end? Current data about new homes in the US seems to indicate that the economy -- and possibly an increase in energy and environmental awareness -- is affecting the tendency to fixate on a home's square-footage above all else. From the second to fourth quarter in 2008, average new home square footage in the US plummeted from 2,629 to 2343.

While it took a major mortgage and economic meltdown to reverse the bigger is better trend, there's some real hope out there that the change will leave a lasting impression. According to VP of the National Association of Home Builders Gopal Ahluwalia: "this will remain a trend. I don't expect this (home size) to come back up ... family size has been declining for the past 35 years." Is the economy forcing us to realize what we've already knew about energy-efficiency, maintenance, and sustainability? KB Homes, one of the nation's largest builders, has watched its average home size shrink from 2,400 sq-ft to just 1,600 over the last two years. In Houston, they've started selling an 880 sq-ft house for $63,995.

[via TreeHugger]