Big Houses

While I generally agree with the point this writer is making here, she uses a monstrously bad example. Beach front houses like those in Hilton Head, and the Outer Banks, and a fair amount of the Jersey/Deleware/Maryland shore are designed around vacation visits. People group together, rent a massive house on the beach for a week and share the cost. Bigger houses make sense if you want to rent them out. Many of the people living in these communities actually live in much smaller houses that are usually not located on the beach but a few miles--or blocks (OBX)--away.

That said, I am a firm believer in smaller, more efficient houses. Heck, I own one, and though I would like to make quite a few changes (add a half bath, finish at least half the basement, relocate my garage, maybe expand the very small kitchen), increasing the size is extremely low on the list.

Big houses are not necessarily unsustainable, but they require enough people living in them for them to make sense. Thanks to the bad economy we are already seeing more people with roommates, and more college grads moving back in with the folks, and more people renting out rooms/apartments in their houses. If energy and, particularly, transportation costs increase this will happen more and more, and people will start moving closer and closer together, living in less square footage (per person). Big houses aren't necessarily doomed, but they could become homes for extended families or even communal living situations.