I question the need to build new residences at all. There are two ways that I am looking at this idea.

The first is the idea of the disposable home, that has gained prominence in the American homes market since the 1960s. More and more, people are staying in their homes for shorter and shorter periods of time, and today, the average residency in a new home is only 5-6 years. I remember that my parents lived in their first home for 30+ years and you just don't see that anymore. The more people stay in their homes, the less need for new construction and the smaller the housing bubbles produced.

The other idea is that even when you do leave a home, don't look for new construction. There is a surplus of houses on the market and I feel that those houses should be filled first, before people look to build new. There are steps to be taken in order the green the older homes, but just not building new and using virgin resources would be green right off the bat.

There seems to be a trend in this going green movement to think that you have to start from scratch, but in fact this mentality is already less green than the optimal path of using the resources we already have at hand.

While in principle I do stand with you on the need to use the resources at hand before using new/virgin resources, I do think that the idealism of this concept ignores the nature of the market and the need to continue building to maintain both the economic stability of this country as well as the health and safety of residential structures. This idea also ignores the socio-economic factors which drive people to new locations and new homes.

The disposable home is a terrible trend in American home ownership, but the 30+ years you speak of is not going to occur all that often. People move to suit lifestyles, number of children and situation in life. That is just a fact. I don't think many people can justify staying in the same home for 30 years.

Accepting the status quo isn't going to help us here. We have to take steps to stem the tide, to readjust the consumer perspective. Why should the new disposable home be the trend? How can the market work the adjust the consumer attitudes? It sounds counter intuitive, but at some point we have to start using what we have instead of constantly creating new.