Interestingly, a friend recently e-mailed me to ask for my definition of a McMansion. Now, in the blog Bacon's Rebellion, there's a very, very local definition if you live in Fauquier County. (You have to read at least the first comment.)

By the definition here, pretty much every property I've ever sold is a McMansion so I believe I'd argue with that definition!

Here's my very slopping definition: Too big a home on too little space too far from any jobs that would support a mortgage on the property.

What's your definition?

I was fortunate enough to hear Glenn Tecker give a speech about leadership last week. It was a terrific speech, but one piece in particular has stuck with me.

He talked about how we are moving from a Carbon Economy to a Green Economy. The path looks like this:

He views the end state here as about a decade away.

And, of course, I got to thinking about what this means for real estate.

First of all, if you're a buyer, you should be looking for energy efficient/green homes. That's not just for your own short term financial/health well being. It's because when you sell that home down the road it's likely to net you significantly more money.

What that rules out, of course, is a McMansion. I'm not saying no one will ever buy a McMansion again. I'm saying the market for those monstrosities is going to be so small, and the existing supply is so large, that you need to seriously consider the financial implications of such a purchase.

If you recently bought a home and are thinking about doing some upgrading/updating, every item you think about improving, add a green filter to that decision making. Ask yourself if what you're doing will make the house more appealing in that future green economy.

And, if you're contemplating selling any time soon, start thinking about what energy efficient qualities your home has already. Talk to your agent about how those can become part of the marketing plan. And, if you're doing any upgrades before selling, factor this into your plans.

One word of caution here. If you're selling in the short term, do NOT invest a lot of money in "green" or any other kind of upgrades. You will not get a good dollar return.

The pain in the diagram above will be unavoidable for the economy as a whole. But some smart planning may help you avoid it in terms of buying and selling real estate.

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal this last week talking about a new kind of housing development targeted at young singles. They are generally condos in urban environments with small living spaces and a larger than usual amount of common space. The common space features ammenities and activities designed to attract the residents to mingle.

Apparently some of these developments have been discovered by baby boomers and have become quite a draw for that demographic as well. The article's focus is on the clash between the two generations in these buildings. I think that's less interesting than the clearly underserved need for this kind of housing for baby boomers.

Again and again I'm hearing the desire to downsize. I hear it from baby boomers, from Gen Xers. It's amazing the consistency with which I'm hearing this message. But I think a lot of what they would like to downsize to doesn't exist. That's particularly true with the baby boomers with empty nests. They want smaller, one-level living within walking distance of public transportation and basic shopping. They want a community feeling, but not necessarily the pre-planned, gated, far-from-everything communities we typically see.

To bring this down to a local level, where would you find that kind of housing in this area? I'm really not seeing it.

The Gen-Xers often have young famlies and yet would still prefer smaller spaces. But they don't want to sacrifice luxury or convenience to have it. They want a well-built, nicely-appointed small house. Again, community is important to them. And they don't want to spend huge chunks of their lives commuting!

These are of course, generalizations. There are and always will be individuals and families with much different idea of their ideal house. Some will continue to look for the McMansions. Some will want the huge gated communities far out in the suburbs.

But I think there's an underserved need here and the article in the WSJ just reinforced what I'd already come to believe.

Any of you seeing (or feeling) the same things?