A story in the New York Times, which you can find here, gives me hope that McMansion mania is finally petering out. According to the Times, the demand for ultra-large homes in New Jersey — where such homes have long ruled the market — seems to be waning. The Times isn’t sure if this is a longterm or a shortterm thing. But it does give me hope.

BusinessWeek recently ran an interesting story about homeowners who are paying a whopping 50 percent — or more — of their monthly incomes on mortgage and other housing payments. You can read the story here.

According to a Sept. 29 story by Bloomberg News, which you can read here, officials with the National Association of Home Builders are asking members of Congress to pass a $15,000 tax credit for all homebuyers. This, officials with the trade association hope, will entice consumers to purchase homes.

The National Association of Home Builders recently reported — citing statistics from the Commerce Department — that the sales of newly built single-family homes fell 11.5 percent in August.

The latest bit of creative genius that I’ve discovered comes by way of The New York Times, which details the story of a couple who, unable to sell a home that was nearing foreclosure, held a raffle to get the home off their hands. Yes, a raffle.

The big reason behind WaMu’s failure is no surprise: Its home-loan business sunk the bank. WaMu had way too much in mortgage-related losses.

I cringe whenever I hear someone boast about how “green” their 5,000-plus-square-foot home is. I say your home can’t be environmentally friendly when it gobbles up that so much space, and when it requires so much raw material to build.

Homeowners in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach area spent a whopping 58 percent of their income on mortgage payments. That’s an amazing figure. Ideally, a home should not suck up more than 30 percent of its owner’s income. I can’t imagine spending more than half of my income on mortgage payments.

I’ve always wondered if agents consider the shows allies — educating potential buyers and sellers about the housing market — or enemies, filling the heads of buyers and sellers with housing myths.

Crain’s Chicago Business , one of the top business publications around, recently wrote a small story about the high number of new-construction homes that have yet to be finished. Crain’s refers to them as white elephants.