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JOHN BROWN is the editor of theslowhome.com and the founder of the Slow Home Movement. He is a registered architect, real estate broker and Professor of Architecture at the University of Calgary.
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Scaling Back in Suburbia
Sep 30, 2008
By Antoinette Martin from the New York Times.
FINALLY, the McMansion may have reached the limits of its popularity in New Jersey, where it has seemed to rule the residential market with unshakable authority for many years. Whether that setback is temporary or permanent remains to be seen.
Some signs of the current times:
• A new brick colonial with roughly the same big bones and indulgent amenities as the one that Tony Soprano inhabited on-screen — and in the same North Caldwell locale — has been languishing on the market for 214 days, despite a price reduction of $200,000, to $1.49 million.
• In Livingston, a six-bedroom behemoth built in 2000 and outfitted with a chef’s kitchen, family-room fireplace, whirlpool baths, and so on — and so on — has spent 168 days on the market, and is still there after a price cut of $150,000, to $1.649 million.
• In Llewellyn Park, a gated community in West Orange, a developer’s plan for a sprawling six-bedroom colonial with six peaks and gables across the facade has not garnered a purchaser in 476 days on the market — although the price for the custom-built abode, to be set on five acres, has been reduced to $4.25 million from $4.5 million.
“McMansions?” said Joanne Harkins of the New Jersey Builders Association. “In a nutshell, people aren’t buying them — certainly not the way they did before. And our members are going to have to evaluate whether there is still a market for this type of product.” Read the rest of the article.
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We believe that our homes and neighborhoods should be healthy, vibrant places that uplift the spirit and gracefully fit our needs. We call for an end to poor construction, bad design, misleading marketing, unfair lending practices and environmental neglect in the housing industry. We acknowledge our collective responsibility to create CLOSE, SIMPLE, LIGHT places to live that leave a positive legacy for future generations.
provides design focused information that homeowners can use to improve the quality of how and where they live. It takes its name from the slow food movement which arose as a reaction to the processed food industry. The sprawl of cookie cutter housing that surrounds us is like fast food - standardized, homogenous, and wasteful. It contributes to a too fast life that is bad for us, our cities, and the environment. In the same way that slow food raises awareness of the food we eat and how these choices affect our lives, Slow Home empowers you to take more control of your home and improve the quality of how you live while reducing your environmental impact and futureproofing the long term investment value of your home.
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