The trend of tiny homes has exploded in the last several years, you can now find a variety of different tiny home communities across the US. When it comes to the motivation for many in making the decision to enter the tiny home market, money is a major factor for many people. A number of areas around the world are experiencing a real estate bubble and rental crisis, leaving many to look for alternative housing options and therefore helping to fuel interest in the tiny home movement.
Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a traditional home like many would, then putting themselves in debt for several years, tiny homes offer a more cost effective approach anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 or more. The tiny homes are easy to be customized and because of this it's really easy to create a dream space for a reasonable amount of money; you just need a place to put it.
When tiny homes first started gaining popularity, a number of jurisdictions had issues with them because of the zoning regulations, but it seems that most areas have found a way to make room for them.
Detroit is said to be the poorest big city right now in the US and tiny homes there are offering lower income individuals a chance to get into the housing market where they otherwise wouldn't have had one.
Cass Community Social Services, a nonprofit from the area, has backed an initiative to offer citizens in the area an opportunity to take part in a rent-to-own program for one of their very own tiny houses.
The project is looking to help people living in poverty to acquire an asset for themselves and to become homeowners for the first time. The rent under the program is estimated to be around $250 and after several years the house will be fully paid. For those who might never have been able to dream of owning a home in their lives because of the high cost these days of traditional homes, the tiny home movement is providing them with a creative solution.
The tiny homes for this Detroit project are funded entirely by private and voluntary donations. Because of the tiny size of the homes it tends to promote a simpler lifestyle (less clutter), and the small size also helps to keep the cost of utilities down. And Detroit isn't the only city where there are initiatives like this taking place.
The program is also offering residents financial literacy classes and home maintenance classes at their community headquarters.
Aside from the better deal in cost when it comes to tiny homes, advocates of this shelter lifestyle also mention a few other benefits as well that motivates them to live this way: self sufficiency, less maintenance, reduced carbon footprint, and offers better mobility (for mobile tiny homes).
At the moment, the most dense tiny home populations in the US are said to be in California, Texas, Florida, and Colorado. But you can find tiny home communities in many other areas as well across the US. It's estimated that there are at least 10,000 or more tiny homes in the US right now and many of them have gone to help the homeless, veterans, and others in need and living in poverty.
Pics:
pixabay
SunshineVector via Shutterstock
Sources:
http://crosscut.com/2017/05/seattle-homeless-build-more-tiny-homes/
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/community/clovis-news/article154312004.html
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/02/tiny-houses-grow-in-popularity-yet-drawbacks-abound.html
http://time.com/4039249/detroit-poverty-rate-census/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/05/18/recession-millennials-tiny-home-house/84284316/
https://www.fastcompany.com/40425765/these-tiny-houses-help-minimum-wage-workers-become-homeowners
I'm upvoting right now! I've upvoted. Awesome post from @doitvoluntarily Thanks for sharing!
@doitvoluntarily
True freedom is not being bound by a huge mortgage payment and instead, taking charge of your life and experiencing freedom through home ownership.... Even if it's a small or tiny house!
I just discovered your blog... The number of interesting topics you write about is pretty astounding.
I picked this one to comment only because I love tiny houses. I did a year of research and workshops only to realize that my city is not ready or willing to accept this type of structure without a very uphill battle.
I also appreciated your Pink Slime lawsuit article and of course the one about the aging population in China.
I always thought that it was Japan that owned that title however, thinking about it now, they are probably the leader in oldest to young person ration, not necessarily greatest population of elders.
Keep up the fascinating work, really !
wow thanks for the genuine and thoughtful feedback!
+followed
My pleasure. I'll be looking forward to some of your future blogs!
markwhittam lives and travels in his tiny home and has joined Steemit.
I watch tiny house shows on HGTV. It is always so interesting to see the creativity of people who build tiny homes and see all the ideas that they come up with.
Thanks for your post.
Wow this will be best for Aftica...thanks for sharing
RUDE! We prefer the term Economically Irrelevant. Thank you very much.
Good one
I have always loved tree houses myself..but tiny homes can be made so beautifully...while it a solution for a living space.....where to put them and the zoning laws are still a hurdle...while the house may be on the low end and promote a simple living concept. the money for the space to put it still ends up being on the high end. I have seen in my community..that people are putting up their vacant land up to rent for rv or tiny homes..but with the cost of the rent it still puts it up in the high end in my area...bless up to the idea though and that the concept spreads...
This is a great article. As the average home size has increased, so has the cost. You mention regulations, which have also increased costs while driving smaller home builders out and slowed down home construction. This is a step in the right direction for many people. If don't right, it can also stop people from being stuck in one place due to a large home with a large mortgage. Just take your home with you to your next opportunity!
A great concept. We should do more of these kinds of things as humanity
This is the way it was done right after WWII.I grew up in an 800 square foot house and there were six of us.
Everything old is new again...
Wait until they start 3D Printing the homes.. saw the articles on the shipping containers as well. It's a start I guess. 3D printing is the most efficient way.. but it may hamper the actual construction industry as it's faster and more efficient.
This is a great step to eradicate the poverty from the world. In India , we have a large % of slum areas, this will really be a great step.
A better way..without the 30 year indentured servitude.
Hope this can blow over to South Africa with so many people living in shacks. Thank you for sharing.
It's also allowing blue collar workers in seatle to have a tiny home to live in.
very nice post and I can totally relate to this post. In Los Angeles housing is insanely expensive and people are constantly getting priced out of owning or renting a home due to inflating rent. Cost of living is increasing but paycheck stays the same if you are lucky! One has to wonder what the future holds if things keeps going the way it's been. I am guessing the fact that there's more people seeking tiny home as an option is a direct correlation to the shrinking middle class?
Nice Posting! Just upvoted and followed you, can you please do the same for me?
Thanks a million!
I also like the related posts meaning that your content. If only 5% of the world was this helpful. followed.
it is good for us.
Tiny houses are a great route to housing self-sufficiency! Great post
Or, you could just by a house in Bradford, England :) I jest, informative as always.
Well here in Greece big or small doesnt really matter you have to pay tons of taxes, so right now the best way to go is if you dont own a house , dont think about buying one..!
New here. I like your interests and writing. Followed. Solid work
Tiny homes are cool, of course, but if you are making/buying one, be concerned with weight limit and generally how difficult it will be to move. Consider an RV if mobility is a priority like it is for us. Older Airstreams can be restored and made very tiny-home-esq while still maintaining that classic nostalgic feel. The contrast of between Aluminum and unfinished wood makes me purrrrrrr.
A tiny house is something I might retire into.
I have been following the development of the Tiny House Movement for some time.
In the United States it is very difficult to find a place to easily and legally build a small home, as the building codes and authorities equate small houses with poor shanty towns.
This is why most tiny homes are constructed on trailers, to get around the oppressive laws keep people homeless or force them into 30 years of mortgage slavery.
Here's one my girlfriend and I have been building for a couple of years now (mostly in the winter, you know the best time for construction in Montana)
We're almost done with it, and this week is the first week we've been living in it! We're about $17k in for materials, but it's pretty ritzy, the whole thing is insulated with sheeps wool.
Including our handmade wool mattress Sydney made because we realized post de facto that we couldn't fit a queen sized bed through our custom 30" high door.
We have a nice little wood stove for heat, and a propane cookstove, and a small electric fridge.
beautiful.
Living smaller is a great idea even if you are not poor, the smaller carbon footprint you have the better off we all are.
Upvote me doesn't cost nothing Steemit it's free
good...
Nice post I like
I never saw the allure of living in a tiny homes. They are so cramped and you still have to worry where to put it. My husband and I watched the foreclosure market and bought a 3 bedroom house on 2 acres of land for $21,000. I think a big issue is that people believe they need to spend way more money to buy the house of their dreams instead of being practical and buying a house that they can pay off quick and put work into over time.
Can we please call this what it is: "tiny homes" are custom made wooden trailers. I've known a lot of people that lived in aluminum manufactured versions, you know, trailers. Hell, I've lived in trailers parked in trailer parks and camp grounds. When I was 9 years old, we lived in a tent in a campground. The neatest man I've ever known lived in a "tiny home" aluminum trailer at that campground. He was a Vietnam Veteran. And, now that I'm old enough to understand, I recognize that he was likely suffering from PTSD.
That this is a now classified as a "movement" is disturbing. Poverty isn't a movement it's a problem directly related to shitty economic policies that give subsidies to the rich and penalizes the poor; failures at the educational level to teach fiscal management; mental health issues; and a political system that undervalues human beings. Yes, making these homes available to the homeless is a good idea, but a homeless person doesn't have $10k - $25k to spend on a house. Quite frankly, a homeless person most likely doesn't have $250/mo to spend until it's paid off. It seems like $250/mo is a great price, but it's still cost prohibitive to the very people who have relied on this type of housing for over 50 years.
Please don't get me wrong, this is by no means an attack on your post @doitvoluntarily, I think you've done wonderful work on this post. I just get really pissed off when I think about the reality of poverty and the absolute fact that "popular movements" frequently make things unaffordable to those people who relied on them before they became popular.
What's even more disgusting, is that while a poor person can buy a VERY nice mobile home, starting at $18,000 or so, for a one or two bedroom, and still only $60,000 for an amazing 4-5 bedroom... the cost of LAND RENT is so absurd, that it basically eliminates the savings of the super cheap housing, or renders it unaffordable to those who are extremely poor.
So there are houses poorer people can afford! They just cannot afford the land to put them on!
Your comment makes me think of the Tent Cities that have been razed by police rather than patrolled by them.
Yeah. I get that there are safety issues, but something is wrong when people don't have anywhere to go. As for homeless shelters, there are horror stories about those places, so no, that's not always the answer.
You can build some pretty neat (almost hobbit style) houses out of DIRT if you possess the knowledge to do it safely, and you can give them as many rooms as you want! How much does dirt and knowledge cost? And yet somehow there are still homeless people.
It's really tragic, because it doesn't have to be this way.
Had a homeless friend explain that he felt safer under a bridge than in a homeless shelter, which said a lot to me about the conditions of shelters. He also explained that some nights he couldn't get in...if he was late or if they were full up, so most nights he stayed away from them.
Saw a YouTube video about earthships in New Mexico, they seem awesome. The architect had to fight with the New Mexico congress to get them classified as experimental housing because the first neighborhood he build got shut down for not meeting the housing guidelines (meant for traditional structures).
So many options available, but government ties our hands or forcibly removes us. You're right. It doesn't have to be this way.
Based on the things I read, it sounds like your friend is probably very right in thinking so.
Great research on Tiny homes. My wish is a tiny home on wheels. This clearly a vable approach for millennial s getting started into home ownership. Keep up the great content. Upvoting and following..
Such cool programs to try and provide a roof for those with tiny to no budgets! In the Netherlands, housing can be quite inexpensive when it are mobile homes; ie when for instance having a little house on a camp place. However, usually one is not allowed to live 365 days a year in such home. I suppose we so not have that much issues with people being homeless due to good state organised support to those with tiny to no budgets.
Less space means less stuff, by necessity, and to what end are people proliferating a ton of physical possessions anyways?
I think many people that are on this platform looking for money-making tips would be surprised by how much they could effectively "make" by saving on things they find that they don't actually need.
Not everyone's suited to live in less than 200 square feet, or would volunteer to do so even if they could, but I admire the commitment to an uncluttered lifestyle that this type of housing promotes.
that is such a good idea and i think so important to help those in need, these kinda things make me feel sad and upset! but at least its all getting sorted out a bit!
Love these tiny homes! We are maybe thinking of buying a tiny home shipping container that is still movable... since we move so much! No more packing lol! Still, need to figure out transport costs and whether it is worth it! But it would be cool. Thanks for another great read!
Tiny houses could be the new starter houses. Also, the existence of tiny houses provides more choice to prospective buyers.