Creative builders scale down

A version of the California Room in a home in Issaquah, Wash., where protection from rain is critical to using the contiguous space. NanaWall

Bad times teach us valuable lessons. Yet, the American housing industry prefers to create larger tract homes as soon as times improve, forgetting the difficulty of unloading massive houses.

It all circles back to a peculiar American greed, a deep devotion to the belief that more is always desirable. Instead of a focus on quality, we tend to revere bigness. Nevertheless, some Americans will be forced by economics to evaluate their homes from a different perspective.

During the building bust, some national companies quickly got on board with the discipline of building better small homes. General reluctance to innovate otherwise can be accredited to industry characteristics. Stubborn regional presidents in the largest national builder companies often operate autonomously. Many of the brightest innovations produced by small builders arent effectively transmitted coast to coast. When pioneering concepts are used in custom homes, rarely are they shared broadly due to privacy concerns and pride.

In The New New Home by Boyce Thompson (The Taunton Press, 2013), we learn about one of the early success stories of the housing recession. The Irvine Ranch of Southern California has 798 acres in holdings, and the Irvine Company has historically been a breeding ground for originality in tract homes. Donald Bren, the billionaire owner of the Ranch, hired market researchers to ask people what might induce them to buy during the period when new developments had nearly halted.

Thompson reports the findings: Decent pricing, more storage space, great rooms as opposed to formal living spaces, and functional porches that work with indoor spaces. Bren developed new plans that came with increased storage space, a mudroom, a great room that flowed sensibly into a functional kitchen and the celebrated California room that offered undercover patio living.

Combined with other revolutionary ideas, and marketing the homes at 35 percent to 40 percent below boom market peak prices, Bren sold 20 per month right through the recession blues.

U.S. builders have experimented by eliminating anywhere from 160 to 500 square feet from plans, and successful builders dont just shrink layouts. Instead, they analyze what kind of space is desired in their markets and eliminate spaces that were included because of habitual gluttony.

A 2011 National American Home Builders (NAHB) survey found that the American living room is likely to vanish within just a couple of years! One discovery of the past decade is that each generation looks for different function: Generation B baby boomers are downsizing and interested in less maintenance. Yet, they are still attracted to special amenities.

Generation X, busy raising children, is immersed in expanding space. Generation Y is challenged to buy starter homes and may live in nontraditional situations for years, sharing with parents, grandparents, siblings or another relative under one roof.

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Creative builders scale down