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| Jenell Fontes |
Are the days of the” McMansions” and the prestige of owning the
biggest house on the block over? What
about overextended family finances and conspicuous consumption… are they too
becoming a thing of the past? Enter the
Tiny House movement… With international
attention on CNN, Guardian, Huffington Post, NBC, Oprah and PBS, the Tiny Home
movement may be more than just a trend.
What is a Tiny House?
Ranging in size from an efficient 160 square feet to a spacious 500 squarefeet, Tiny Houses, or Small Houses, are really more of a social movement, where people are downsizing the space that they live in. The goal of living in one, advocates claim, is a simpler life. To be out of debt, living within your means, and enjoying your job.
What is a Tiny House?
Ranging in size from an efficient 160 square feet to a spacious 500 squarefeet, Tiny Houses, or Small Houses, are really more of a social movement, where people are downsizing the space that they live in. The goal of living in one, advocates claim, is a simpler life. To be out of debt, living within your means, and enjoying your job.
Most Americans, with an average home of 2600 square feet, need to
dedicate 1/3 to 1/2 of their income just to keep a roof over their heads; This
translates to 15 years of working over your life time just to pay for it and
because of it 76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
Is there an alternative? One might be to live smaller. While tiny
houses may not be for everyone, there are lessons to be learned and applied to
escape the cycle of debt that almost 70% of Americans are trapped in.
29.9% of home owners in the US own their homes compared to 68% of Tiny Home owners who own their home outright! 2 out of 5 Tiny Homers are 50 and older, they spend more time with their families, take more vacations and are more educated than the average American homebuyer. Tiny Home owners have chosen to live a life that does not include being a slave to house maintenance or a house payment.
Could a Tiny Home work for you?
Tiny homes are created with environmental care and attention to
space and the use of space. Bigger
homes have bigger payments, larger tax bills, more maintenance and more of your
hard earned time and money sunk into four walls, a kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms…
Tiny Houses come in all shapes, sizes and forms but they all have
one focus in common, smaller spaces and simplified living. Some are sparse and efficient, created from
re-purposed cargo containers with multi-purposed amenities that keep costs and
space requirements small… while others boast chandeliers and gilded ceilings,
gold plated faucets and the latest in high tech gadgets.
Thousands of tiny houses are popping up all across the country,
located in back yards, recreational vehicle parks and illegally on privately
owned land. Now that the tiny house
movement has gained popularity and the trend shows no sign of fading soon,
advocates have turned to developing tiny house communities. They're trying to
change zoning laws to make it easier for tiny home owners to live legally.
Tiny house enthusiasts have been working around zoning laws and
insurance struggles for nearly two decades. To circumvent the laws, the homes
are built on trailers usually about 8 feet by 20 feet, which allows cities and
insurance companies to consider the homes as RVs. But that's not a perfect solution
because many urban areas and cities don't allow camping on city lots, even in a
backyard, and RV parks limit how long a person can stay.
Some metropolitan areas are more welcoming to tiny homes than
other’s. Portland, Ore., and
Seattle, WA are known as "tiny house friendly" urban areas, though
zoning laws still prevent tiny homes on permanent foundations from being the
primary unit on a lot. Many tiny homes are placed illegally, but they are left
alone until someone objects. In most towns, tiny homes are in a legal gray
area, and unless someone complains, they're usually left alone. The trouble for
many is simply the idea of living illegally.
Because of their size and low costs, tiny homes are also being
constructed in urban areas as a solution for the chronically homeless and in
urban areas due to their space and cost savings. The movement has increasingly
become the interest of affordable-housing advocates. Many advocates hope that
tiny homes will help solve the affordable housing crisis and provide an
alternative to stigmatized trailer parks and low-income housing.
Many believe that Americans' desires to downsize and leave cities
for more affordable living won't go away. That's why, many say tiny homes are
here to stay, and it could be one way that some small towns and cities can put
life and commerce back into their community. Owners of tiny homes aren't
spending money on their mortgages, so they have more discretionary cash.
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| Graph provided by Tiny House Listings |
Bigger may still be Better
There has been talk of millennials becoming the "first
tiny-house generation,” but according to the California Association of
Realtors, the California housing market appears once again to favor larger,
more expensive homes as part of a long-term trend.
According to the National Home Builders Association (NAHB), the
average size of an American single-family home ballooned 140 percent in the
past 60 years, from 983 square feet in 1950 to a monstrous 2,679 square feet,
the largest ever, in 2013.
The graph below, from the American Enterprise Institute and based
on data from the U.S. Census, plots the size of American homes against the size
of its households from 1973 to 2013. The size of the average American house has
grown consistently, even as the average U.S. household size has decreased.
Movement or Trend?
Although the Tiny Home Movement has picked up some impressive
momentum over these past few years, statistics still support that we American
homeowners still want our space. We want
our homes to reflect our lives, to entertain and to be the social hub of our
lives. But there is still a lot we can learn from this Tiny Home Movement… lessons
of efficient planning and use of space, integrating technology and living
within our means. And maybe… just maybe, being more content, with less.
It’s still ok to want our dream home, but perhaps we need to think more about our real dreams… of worrying less about making that house payment and spending more time with our families and friends. Being less tied down so we can have more freedom to pursue those dreams and explore more of our world.
Maybe Tiny Homes are both a movement and a trend.
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