The days of the McMansions over?

I’m not a big fan of oversized homes. How much space does one person need? Big homes are wasteful — they consume too much energy and too many raw materials. On top of that, they encourage family members to hide from each other. (And, yes, I know there are days when you do want to hide from the rest of your family, but that’s what yard work is for.)

A story in the New York Times, which you can find here,  gives me hope that McMansion mania is finally petering out. According to the Times, the demand for ultra-large homes in New Jersey — where such homes have long ruled the market — seems to be waning. The Times isn’t sure if this is a longterm or a shortterm thing. But it does give me hope.

The Times cites a brick colonial house with show-offy columns that has been sitting on the market for more than 200 days. The house’s price has been reduced $200,000 to $1.49 million. (The amount of that price reduction is more than many people pay for their entire houses!)

In the New Jersey town of Livingston, a six-bedroom monster built in 2000 with a chef’s kitchen, whirlpool tubs and more has spent more than 150 days on the market. That home has seen its own price reduction, of $150,000, to get to its present price tag of $1.6 million.

So all you fans of small homes, rejoice. Maybe the housing slump will convince homebuilders to scale things back a bit. That’d be good news to me.