Eighty percent of Americans contacted in a Yahoo! Real Estate poll said they have not given up the dream of owning their own homes, but they want energy-efficient, eco-friendly housing.

"Unlike bullish years gone by, the so-called American dream home isn’t a supersized McMansion," Yahoo! said in its summary. What people want is a new or retrofitted home that keeps down energy costs and is built with sustainable materials.

"The study finds that optimism about homeownership is widespread despite the massive downturn that has so far claimed 6 million homes in foreclosure and threatens to sink even more in the future," Rusty Weston, the Yahoo! author, said.

Yahoo! said the poll involved 1,545 people in its Home Horizons 2012 study, which it conducted on the Web in October. The survey "is mapped to the American population of homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters," Yahoo said.