If you were a little girl during the 90s (and possibly the 80s and 70s), then you’ve probably played M-A-S-H. This was a popular, fortune-telling game that kids played to predict their future home size (among other things) – Mansion, Apartment, Shack or House. As anyone who’s ever played this game will tell you, you always want to get the mansion and will probably feel a little sick inside when you get the shack. Well, that sentiment is still alive, even if most people don’t want to say such things out loud…especially in this economy. That’s ’cause it’s a bit of a recessionista faux pas.

Now let’s cut to the chase. In an online survey that we did last year*, we asked people across America to tell us what their ideal home size was. Most people said they wanted to live in a modest, but respectable home that was between 1,400-2,000 square feet. Only 9 percent said they wanted a super-sized home that was more than 3,200 square feet. When we asked this same question again in 2011**, only 6 percent said that they wanted such a big home.

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