A Wall Street Journal story examines some Puget Sound subdivisions populated by cottages centered around common courtyards. And when they say cottages, they mean small, particularly by traditional subdivision standards: 800 to 1,500 square feet.

Even some of the condos being sold as ideal for downsizing in downtown Tacoma are bigger.

From what I read – built-in bookcases, corner windows, skylights – there’s a lot to like in these houses, which also tap into today’s bent toward conservation. Less home takes up more space and uses less energy. But they tend to cost more for their attention to detail.

What do you think? Worthwhile or trendy or fine for the Prius set but few others? The big question: Could you be enticed to buy one?

Here’s an excerpt of the story:

While falling home prices and sluggish sales have slashed new housing starts by a quarter in the past year, Messrs. Chapin and Soules say they field a dozen calls a week asking, “When’s your next project?” They have one house left for sale, a two-bedroom, two-bath cottage of 1,000 square feet in Redmond.

At $599,950, it isn’t cheap. The median price last month for a single-family home in the neighborhood was $542,500. Residents of the tiny tracts say they don’t mind paying a premium for such touches are hardwood floors and custom cabinets because the two men develop more than just housing.

“We walk into each others houses and borrow sugar and do all the kinds of things you did in the 1950s,” says Pat Hundhausen, a retired special education teacher. Her Umatilla Hill development, like the others, is a throwback to the bungalow courtyard, a design that appeared in the 1920s, before traditional, single-family tract housing gave form to postwar suburbia. Mrs. Hundhausen and her husband left Waukesha, Wis., their hometown of 40 years, after visiting friends a couple of years ago in Umatilla Hill. It took the couple less than a week to buy a nearby lot.

The small-home buyers are a mix of single professionals, young families and retired empty-nesters. While aspirants to the traditional American Dream seek ever bigger, more secluded homes, residents here say they prefer making do with less. Getting to know the neighbors is a bonus. Todd Staheli and his wife are raising two daughters in a 998-square-foot house surrounded by people they greet by name. “There are a lot of eyes on them as they ride their scooters and bikes,” says Mr. Staheli.

The houses are painted in Easter-egg pastels of salmon, yellow and avocado green, adding to the tract’s storybook feel. Residents tend thickets of poppies, lavender, catmint, roses and lilies. Their front-yard gardens are surrounded by a knee-high fence, leading out to a sidewalk and the grass commons. Single-car garages are built along an edge of the tracts, which are usually set back from a main street or connected by private road.

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