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The Future Homes of Post-Crash America

Posted by: Nate Berg

16 November 2008 - 5:00am

Just as good economic times pushed housing sizes to mansion-like proportions, the downturn in the economy will force builders and consumers to size down and get energy efficient, according to this commentary from James S. Russell.

"Economists applauded the American 'consumer economy' without noticing just how much it depended on housing expenditures. Now that savings are sacred and borrowing is again sinful, houses must shrink."

"Other forces are driving houses to be both smaller and more efficient. Leaping prices for building commodities -- steel, concrete, copper -- help reduce demand. Those prices are all collapsing at the moment, yet the world's appetite for these finite resources has become too large to keep them down."

Full Story: Post-Crash U.S. Home Deflates, Adds Vines, Cisterns: Commentary
Source: Bloomberg, November 11, 2008
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Short of erasing existing political and jurisdictional boundaries, citizens and officials need to develop the capacity to work across boundaries according to the "problem-sheds" of the land and water issues we face in the 21st century.
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