Patch Poll: Have We Seen the End of the McMansion?

Contractor friends have told stories of monied couples pressing for higher, bigger, better amenities in East Bay homes from Lamorinda to Livermore during the boom years before Bay Area homebuilding tailed off.

Twenty-five foot tall domes atop the off-garage bathroom, vast expanses of -- empty -- walls, and foyers big enough to accommodate an orchestra. "The bigger it is the better I like it," one local homeowner told his contractor, though apparently he couldn't say why.

But after years of building homes on steroids here and across America, the trend appears to be losing steam, with real estate research firms finding that Americans are returning to smaller, more manageable structures -- with one third of survey respondents reporting their true preference was for a home with less than 2,000 square feet.

What do you think? Have we seen the end of the McMansion or just a return to practicality given the recent economic downturn?