Background
While in developed countries family size has been generally shrinking, in some countries family homes have grown in size, notably in the United States where the average size of new single family homes grew from 1,780 square feet (165 m2) in 1978 to 2,479 square feet (230.3 m2) in 2007. Reasons for this include increased material wealth and prestige.
Sarah Susanka has been credited with starting the countermovement toward smaller houses when she published The Not So Big House in 1997.
Read more about this topic: Small House Movement
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