Alexandra Gorbokon, a 26-year old public relations executive, has made an offer on her first home, a condo in downtown Chicago. She’s looking forward to eliminating her one-hour commute to and from the suburbs and filling her newfound free time with a better gym habit, enjoying her new neighborhood, and serving on a board in her building. She’s a little less excited about squeezing her stuff into her new home’s tiny 600 square foot space. But she acknowledges that, at her age and with her modest $150,000 home price limit, living in a small space is a minor tradeoff for access to an urban lifestyle. “I’m a little concerned about the size. I think it’s easy to grow out of this sort of space,” she says. “But I wanted to live in the city while I was still young.” Gorbokon’s attitude about real estate is typical of her generation’s, says John McIlwain, a senior fellow for housing at The Urban Land Institute in Washington D.C. McIlwain says many new in-city condo and apartment buildings are offering smaller footprints to satisfy not only downsizing Baby Boomers but, especially, members of Generation Y who are moving out of dorms and parents’ places and setting up their own households. Generation Y, he says, views a home’s location as more important than its size. They may also see living small and in-city as an environmentally responsible lifestyle. “For Gen Y, the home is a place to live out of, not to live in,” he says. “They don’t think of this as a sacrifice. It’s just their lifestyle.” The ‘new small’ So with this renter and buyer in mind, numerous condo and apartment developers around the country are designing new homes with square footages resembling — and even far less than — Gorbokon’s new home. “Based on our experience, while anything under 1000 square feet is considered small nationally, the ‘new small’ might really average out at somewhere around 500 square feet,” says Janel Laban, executive editor for the interiors blog Apartment Therapy, which runs an annual “Small Cool” decorating contest. “Quality of life, which is often strongly affected by location, trumps size every time.”
A brief survey of completed and forthcoming buildings shows that with small-space projects, the more expensive a city, the smaller its definition of “small.” While mellow Portland, Ore., boasts 520-square foot homes, San Francisco’s “small” ranges from 250 to 350 square feet. Vancouver, British Columbia is smallest of all: There, a building called Burns Block will next year start leasing 30 “micro-lofts” with 270-square feet of space and prices starting around $700 per month. The tiny lofts might offer more room than a basement or converted spare room. Vancouver recently passed rules allowing homeowners to rent out accessory units as small as 195 square feet, according to The National Post.
Cubicle living
The 98-unit Cubix condominium building in San Francisco’s trendy SOMA (South of Market) district has sold about 66 of its tiny loft units, which start at 250 square feet and top out at 350, to a mix of young adults as well as to a surprising number of buyers in their 30s and 40s, says Jim Hurley, a broker with Vanguard Properties who is the project’s sales manager.
Origional text at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38097923/ns/business-real_estate/

Small Modular white leather sofa