Home Sweet, Smaller Home

McMansions may soon be a thing of the past, as a growing number of families, especially baby boomers, are choosing smaller digs and simpler lives.

BY MELISSA CHESSHER

Forget the sordid plotlines of Desperate Housewives. If you really want to know the true fantasies of Suburbia USA, look beyond the sexy actors in that bedroom scene to the door there in the corner: the closet. Americans are in lust with simplifying, and the heart of that desire is the closet, the universal repository of everything. Which is why Real Simple, a magazine devoted to luxury Spartanism, earned its bestselling cover with "The Ultimate Closet Organizer: 16 Real-Life Solutions." And also why every week 10 million viewers tune in to shows like TLC's Clean Sweep and the Style Network's Clean House. What all these shows and magazine covers point to is the growing number of homeowners wanting to downsize and simplify. Indeed, if Desperate Housewives were a reality show, about a third of its 40-plus residents would be leaving Wisteria Lane for smaller digs. Housing experts estimate that between 20 to 30 percent of the more than 75 million people in their 40s, 50s, and early 60s have downsized or plan to do so.

Of course, the desire to simplify speaks to a deep-felt notion in our national psyche. "When the Pilgrims left the old country, by necessity they had to simplify because there was only so much you could fit in a trunk," says Robert J. Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University. "The very definition of who we are has these themes of starting over, of starting from scratch, humming loudly in the background."

Today we apply a new-millennium twist to those simple notions. "These new movements are trying to preach an old-fashioned gospel to people who want to live a simplified life but do it with all the comforts of the 21st century," Thompson says.

Boomers represent the leading edge of the movement. "They're getting to the point where the kids have left the house, and they're seeking a simpler, more easily maintained property, but something that's still well-appointed," says Walt Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. "In fact, 42 percent of all condo purchases are by people 45 years or older. That translates into a lot of empty nesters." The other half of condo sales, says Molony, are by the echo-boomers, the offspring of the boomers. "You've got both generations being attracted to downsized living, although the first-time buyers are at the lower end of the units, which are smaller and not as up scale." A change in the tax law also helps fuel the zeitgeist. "This trend coincides with a change in the capital gains law so people can trade down on a home and pocket the profits on the sale without suffering huge consequences," says Molony.

With less to lose, boomers are opting to scale back and seek kitted-out condos that require less of their time, sophisticated urban lofts that put them closer to work and a more vibrant nightlife, or a return to their roots. That's the siren song that enticed 45-year-old Mark Obbie, his wife of 22 years, and their two kids to surrender the glitz of New York City for a log cabin in upstate New York. "I had the big job with the big salary that paid for a big house in Westchester County," says Obbie. But he grew tired of being so far from his extended family and of the commute and stress of his high-profile job. So, when his daughter headed for college, he and his wife decided to move to a log cabin in the Finger Lakes region. "Besides being a more manageable size, it's just a more real house to us," he says, adding that he spent the fall helping his father bring in the apple crop. "I used to be annoyed seeing the Hummers and the jewelry and pretense everywhere I looked. Now I see pickup trucks and trees and hills."

For Obbie, downsizing his life brought the three things he and his wife wanted: a life in the Finger Lakes, a rural existence close to family, and a log cabin. "The move positioned us to be in the place we want to be when our son Dale goes off to college in three years," he says. "I'm finally where I can picture myself growing old and retiring."

A freelance writer, Melissa Chessher is also an Associate Professor at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her work has appeared in Health, Fitness, and Real Simple magazines.