WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-Homes are shrinking...and that's a good thing

Homes are shrinking...and that's a good thing

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - The past year has had a profound effect on the economy, but it's also changed the way people view home ownership.

After years of excess, suddenly less is more.

Even when it comes to luxury homebuilders.

Over the fourteen years Brian Hall has worked for Simonini Builders, he watched homes get outrageously big here in Charlotte...he built them. And among the elite, it was like a contest, who could have the biggest, the best, the most expensive.

"A lot of our clientele, the square footage went from 4,000 square feet over the years to six to seven to eight to ten," Hall says. "I mean, I finished six months ago, personally, a 12,000 square foot home."

But then, the foreclosure crisis really hit us, rocking the economy to its core Home values plummeted, and all those big beautiful homes started to feel like prisons.

You know, I've often thought everybody's dream was to live in a large home. And even my dream has changed," says Mark Baldwin, executive officer of the Homebuilder's Association of Charlotte. "People want to downsize. Thirty-six percent of all homeowners want to live in a home smaller than they currently live in, so builders are reacting to that."

"The product we're building today that we have recently designed we call the Right Sized Home," says Hall.  Hall took WBTV's Melissa Hankins on a tour of a new batch of houses smaller than anything Simonini has ever built before...and smarter. There's no wasted space, and none of the monster bills that come with it.

"Our energy star homes on average can save you $100 to $200 dollars a month on utility bills," Hall says.

And the best news - not only for Simonini, but for the local economy - these houses are selling. Seven last month alone.

"We are going to see changes in the way Charlotte looks," Baldwin says.

People that can afford their homes...energy efficient spaces...and an improved housing market? Let's hope so.