What size home is ideal?

Check out this article from the Houston Chronicle's Nancy Sarnoff.  Per the article, Relocation.com recently conducted a survey and asked home buyers and owners, "what size home is ideal for you".  Here are the results:

• 48 percent said their ideal home size would be from 1,000 to 1,999 square feet.
• 29 percent would prefer homes that are 2,000 to 2,999 square feet.
• The survey also found many Americans still find the suburban lifestyle attractive, with 54 percent of Americans indicating a preference for living in a suburban neighborhood.
• Urban and rural neighborhood settings were only preferred by 24 percent and 22 percent, respectively, of survey participants.

If we take the survey at face value, then this a big shift in American values.  Five years ago the National Association of Realtors reported that the average home size in the US was 2400 square feet.  Urban planners would like to think that this is proof that people want smaller, urban homes.  However, the preference for suburban living by survey respondents would challenge that theory.  I would theorize that Americans are becoming more conservative in their living and spending since our recent economic troubles.  Or maybe Relocation.com simply interviewed a lot of New Yorkers that really want to get out of the city and zero Texans.  I'm sure the Texan respondants boosted the square footage number by at least 200 sqft.