Death Knell Tolling for McMansions


Various media outlets and real estate pundits are ringing the death knell for the McMansion, opulent, large-scale homes that were mostly built in the suburbs over the past 20 years. They range in size from 3,000 to 5,000 square feet and the exteriors usually mix multiple architectural stylesSales of these homes are stagnant all over the country.

“The market is recovering but it’s not back to where it was,” says Chicago Tribune personal finance columnist Gail MarksJarvis. “Chicago home values were down 30 percent from the peak. Now values are only down 19 percent–but Lincoln Park has more than recovered. So people are holding on to their lower priced homes until prices recover.”

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Million dollar homes are selling but not as briskly as lower priced homes. According to Crain’s Chicago Business real estate reporter Dennis Rodkin, “there’s a glut of McMansions in certain Chicago suburbs like Barrington and Burr Ridge which are slow to sell.”

But McMansions aren’t dead yet, he says.

MarksJarvis and Rodkin join host Phil Ponce to discuss the future of the McMansion.


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