Photo Credit Tumbleweed Houses
“The housing market is 67% back to “normal” according to Trulia’s Housing Barometer and the post-crisis recovery is on-track, according to the latest home price figures from Case-Shiller. But these gauges may be missing a “tiny” but growing slice of today’s housing market.” (source)
People are cashing out of their homes now that the market has somewhat recovered and it is a sellers market and they are downsizing or choosing RV or homes on wheels because they want to travel and enjoy their retirement. Having that big mortgage is no longer a sign of wealth and is a form of slavery and threat to your security as people learned after the housing market crashed.
“The market is 67% back to normal”. That is the problem.
I’m afraid for the success of the community as the market corrects. People will do what they must when they have to. When they are forced to. As larger homes, traditional homes, become more available, lending relaxes, oh add to this that governments favor the traditional home, we will see people slip back in their old easy habits of the status quo. After all, it was easy for every one to drink the kool aid before. People buying more house than they need with money they didn’t, have.
I do question the price of some of the manufactured tiny homes as well. Not that the builder shouldn’t get what they deserve to be paid. Rather I question the buyer’s ability to afford what they are buying. Priced from the mid 20s to the 60s these tiny Homes are priced like many traditional homes in our area right now. If they can afford them folks will lean that way, ’cause it’s easier on most fronts, lending, zoning, neighbors, etc. Without more people being forced to make this change governments will not flex with us. They will put up more resistance to perpetuate the large house burden.
I will still build. But I’m not the traditional tiny homeowner. I won’t be living full time. (Perhaps summers) i don’t have to move, yet! I have a campground membership that’s paid for life so i will have a place to park it. I want, she needs, more than 100 sq ft! Want it on wheels. Need it paid for when it’s done. Will still have the home office to deal with and that’s location specific so we are not really mobile.
I am really happy when I see this on any media outlet not related to this community specifically. Just not sure the momentum is sustainable for more than the part of us that are offgridders.
Sounds negative, wasn’t the intent. Just bein’ real.
I’ll keep pushing the concept. I get to talk to at least one person/couple each week about going tiny. They get excited about the money, the concept. No one has built one yet though. 🙂
Keep up the good work Alex!
Hi, Doc. I think you gave sound advice and read nothing within your post as negative. The concern that I have about these bucolic-pastoral photos is that there’s only SO many of these settings and not everyone can afford them, get to them, or have their very rural nature support an aging population. Yes, I know they shoot these tiny homes in settings to entice folks but if you’re living up North where it snows and living on anything but a county road…good luck getting OUT to the grocery store, pharmacy, mail or an EMT even getting to your place if you slip and hurt yourself. Even very fit tiny house bloggers leave their Walden Woods setting and high tail it back to civilization when they are injured. So, it just worries me that photos like this show an idealized life that exceedingly few people are prepared for.
oh my…such stress over tiny homes…..
A> the market is still in the dumps in the south!!!
B>I bought and sold (with-in 5 mos) my small 2bdrm 2 bath home in Dixfield Maine. I will not live or leave money in a blue state!!!
I love tiny houses they make sense and mine will be top drawer as far as land (view) and interior fixings……
Oh course photos show these homes at their best…duh…would you show them in a town dump?!?!
I live with-in a 7hr drive of MDAnderson for my husband…that’s much better than Houston withal their gang problems. Accidents happen ..that’s life…I also live in a small coastal Mississippi town and I’am 15 mins. from a hospital..Good enough.
Down here in Australia, we surpassed North America as the producr of the biggest houses in the world way back in 2011. We have crowded out our backyards full of dangerous things like sheds and treehouses and excluded childhood activities such as bike riding in favour of houses with rooms specifically for technology based actvities, more bedrooms than we need and surrounded them with extremely inefficient city planning. Its better this way – we can see what our children are doing 24/7 as they rarely need to leave the house, except for highly supervised activities such as school or weekend sport. We can see what the weather is doing on the internet in case we go out side and get skin cancer or bitten by a dog or see a neighbour, heaven forbid. A skinned knee now is a national disaster. Our trades are suffering as kids are leaving school without being able to swing a hammer or work through basic manual tasks without intense supervision. Bazaar really.!!! Australians live in their superannuation as the family home is also the biggest asset and they’re so expensive, The average hosue in Sydney now is well over $650,000 and there are houses on Sydney Harbour worth well over $30 million. Australia has five of the top ten most expensive cities in the world and we have a mere 22 million people living on a land mass the same size as North America. There are many many cities in the world with populations greater than our entire country. Absurd situation. The real cost is our freedom as we set about paying for it all….and we give it up far too easily….