3 bed ranches are great, unless you have kids, need a home office, have pets, a hobby, need a playroom,etc. We live much differently than families did 50 years ago - and those ranches were called starter ranches for a reason.

Another example-my basement in my 1780 colonial would scare most people to death. Do they want something resembling a medieval dungeon underneath them? (I think it’s cool…)

Right now there’s a paradigm shift about to occur (I think…). American’s have embraced the idea of energy efficiency (and hence saving $). Smaller house= less heating/cooling bills, less property tax, and less homeowner’s insurance. And- they might actually be able to afford it this time!

Now home builders have to start thinking smaller and building smaller. If efficiency, as you’ve noted, is REALLY going to stick and not be a fad, the best way to achieve that is by reducing sq footage in conjunction with insulation/efficient machinery/etc. Bring back the ranch!

Home buyers have got to get over themselves and focus on reality. If they truly think having a smaller footprint on the world in general is a good thing, they should ASK for a smaller home.

The vinyl-clad, mega-MC-mansions of the last decade are (I think…) going to go out of style and may be more attractive to families whose generations live together. In most parts of the world, one of those huge houses can house a dozen people- not just the 3-4 people. There’s a tremendous amount of depreciation that has to happen to that class of homes first- but hey, I see some solid signs of that happening already…

And I think it greatly depends on what county your talking about in New England, as far as what a potential buyer values in a home.