Some readers are interested in the 'McMansion trend.' "Another thing I’ve been pondering….Will the smaller home soon become king? Where will the McMansion-ites be going? (Home style) McMansion-ettes? I.E. 1500 ft Empty nester homes are still being stocked with marble and high end cabinetry."

"Will granite still reign but in a smaller kitchen? With oil prices rising, will older homes w/7.5-8′ ceilings become more desirable? I seem very stuck on where people will be going to in this panic. Anyone care to prognosticate?"

A reply, "I think you are right on. I know that I am thinking that in a few years I would like to have a custom home that isn’t too large, we could afford it now, but we will wait for the bubble to blow over. Less square footage means lower heating bills and taxes. Lower ceilings not only have lower heating, but are easier to maintain, I don’t like painting or dusting 15 feet up on a ladder, which is what happened at our last home. 9 foot ceilings are the max as far as I am concerned for our next home."

Another added, "What will happen to many of the McMansions recently built in flood plains up and down the San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento area?"

MSN Real Estate has an article titled, 'The swelling McMansion backlash.' "Release the zoning hounds: The McMansion backlash has begun. From Atlanta to Austin, Texas, and beyond, more governments have started imposing stricter building limits and even temporarily halted new construction while they try to get a handle on the explosion of these 4,000- to-10,000-square-foot homes, sometimes sneeringly called 'garage mahals,' 'Hummer houses' or 'starter castles.'"

"Austin typifies the McMansion craze, and the backlash that's followed. Several of the city's neighborhoods like Tarrytown and Travis Heights have seen an influx of large homes, said Kathie Tovo, president of the Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Association, who lives in a 'funky, fun' area just south of downtown that also has seen some change."

"Just down the street from their modest home, Tovo and her architect husband bought a house as an investment. After they finished remodeling it, the home next door got knocked down and replaced by a 4,000-square-foot building housing two condominiums. 'What had been not a tiny, but a modest-size and -scale cottage, has been replaced by something hugely bigger than what's the scale along that street,' Tovo said. 'The entire yard is now lined by this massive house,' she says of her house."

"Tovo and others worry that the homes are not only out of character with many neighborhoods, but that they put stress on older infrastructure and too quickly raise property values and thus tax rates. This forces out longtime residents. 'Some people have made the argument that this is infill,' Tovo said. 'But it really isn't; you don't end up with more people, you just end up with the same number of people in bigger houses.'"

A related story in the Baltimore Sun. "'A million-dollar house is not a big deal anymore,' said (realtor) Tim Rodgers. 'It will be a nice house, but it's not 'Wow.'"

"But sometimes, real estate agents say, the million-dollar prices are applied by sellers whose houses are really worth $850,000 or $900,000 but who can't resist tacking on an extra digit, just because they think they can."

"Often, they can because buyers are as willing to get into the $1 million range as sellers are. They have mountains of equity in their current homes, and the proliferation of interest-only and other exotic loans makes a stretch into seven figures seem attainable for many more people than was the case a few years ago."

"'If they have to pay $500,000 for a lot, they're going to want to build a house three times that,' said (broker) Pat Hiban."