Downsizing can be a process of finding gain, not pain

You wont generally find human-scale communities in sprawling urban areas dominated by highways ( what I call "spurbs".) Investing in human-scale development is a relatively new and enlightened way of buying real estate. You may be able to profit in real estate investment trusts, or REITs, or find communities that feature this kind of building.

Christopher Leinberger, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and real estate developer, said human-scale or "walkable communities command a 40 percent to 200-percent premium in cost per square foot over properties in car-centric neighborhoods.