Scott,
I would love to respond to this. But am one of the middle class that has reaped the havoc. This information makes it even more depressing and I already knew such.

I don't have time to explore the link right now, but I'll respond to your question. In short- No I don't think there will be much of a trend to smaller homes. Maybe a little, but not what it should be. One of the problems is the sheer numbers of larger homes currently on the market. You can buy a nearly new McMansion cheaper than you can buy land and build a small, energy efficient house. It's kind of like when gas prices shot up, and small cars were suddenly the hot item, and you couldn't give an SUV away. The problem is is that houses have a much longer life than a car, so they'll be around a long while.

Building new is getting more and more expensive, due to much tougher building codes, zoning regulations, and even EPA requirements. Did you know that much of the country will soon require residential sprinkler systems in new homes? Or that there will soon be a relative humidity requirement in new construction? Add that to all the recent energy requirements, and new homes will go up quite a bit in cost. Meanwhile, there are plenty of perfectly usable used homes on the market- cheap.

I think most Americans still don't 'get it' when it comes to the global picture. New costruction is now pretty much limited to growth areas. Growth areas happen because there are decent paying jobs. People who have decent paying jobs, and can afford a new house are still going to want the most bang for the buck, so you won't see many small homes being built.

There are a handful of people who 'get it', and they will seek alternate paths, just as free thinkers always have. But the numbers of people like that have always been small, and most people will keep following 'bigger is better' until absolutely forced by cost or dint of law to do otherwise. To be continued......

Jay