Increasing Popularity of Tiny Homes

[Murrmurr]

As someone that has never owned a home and doesn't have enough in the bank for expensive California homes, I've been watching the tiny home debate for a few years. Whenever these news articles appear, they are flooded with negative biased comments by large home builders and those workers that build them since such is an immense industry, highly involved with Wall Street and banking.

An industry that has for years been the worst facet of crushing USA inflation, especially here in California. And an industry with their puppet local urban politicians that tends to monkeywrench any attempt at lowering costs. A common manipulative biased criticism is they are too small. But then many young adults, low income people, and poor live in small studio apartments, mobile homes, or over crowd with many occupants in single residences.

What’s The Tiny House Movement? Why The Fuss Over Tiny Homes? | Tiny Living Life

According to the US Census Bureau, the average size of a home in 1973 was 1,660 square feet. By 2015 average home size had increased to 2,687. Yet during the same time frame, average family size went from 3.0 persons down to 2.5 persons. What does that tell us?

Today’s society is busy accumulating stuff. Consequently, marketing experts have capitalized on “bigger is better.” Go into any fast food restaurant and you can see the results. Everywhere we go we are encouraged to buy, buy, buy. So how do we combat that commercial mentality? Thankfully, one movement is doing just that…

Tiny home statistics:

Top 35 Tiny Home Statistics and Facts of 2024 - Today's Homeowner

Tiny House Statistics: Market & Trends (2023)

3-D printed tiny home:

Startup CEO says ‘the house of the future costs as much as a car’ — here’s how the company plans to make it happen

Young adults in America are not chasing the "American Dream" of buying a large home and all the bells and whistles associated with them. The majority of them prefer small, convenient spaces and optimal functionality.

The companies that are currently cashing in on the smaller, more convenient homes with an emphasis on functionality that young Americans want are mobile and pre-fab home manufacturers in the US and Canada.

Meanwhile, America's major real estate and construction companies are buying up as many properties as they can, including mobile home parks and foreclosed homes, hoping to make consistent annual profits over the decades to come. But it's a gamble right now because most young Americans just aren't interested in McMansions and ranchettes and "must-have" swimming pools.

 

[mrstime]

I enjoy looking at tiny homes but I like stuff so I need more space. I must confess though our living area got smaller when our son moved in with us. Our son's space also got smaller as he is putting his place up for sale. So far it has been OK, kinda miss the 2 bathrooms but we are managing. He is also very helpful, but that is why he moved in with us.

 

[Teacher Terry]

When I was married we bought a motorhome that had 167 sq ft. It had a separate bedroom. The people we bought it from traveled for a year in it. Initially I thought we would do the same but a month was all I could stand of 2 people, one big dog and 3 small ones in that small of space. So once a year we would travel for a month.

 

[jujube]

We lived for up to five months at a time in a less-than-300-feet fifth wheel trailer for 10 years. I loved it! A place for everything and everything in its place. Everything was made for getting from point A to point B.

I always got a big kick out of those tiny-home TV shows. The buyers would always insist that they were going to take the tiny home "traveling". Uh, no. The vast majority of those tiny homes shouldn't go "traveling" per se. They're not made for traveling. They're made to be towed down the road for a while and then set up.

All that open shelving would have to be emptied every time you moved. That beautiful tile on the backsplash over the sink.? It would start popping off the third time you moved the home. You'd have to find a way to anchor the residential-style refrigerator and the stove or it'd be laying down on the floor. And so on and so on.

Wanna move a lot? Get an RV. They're made for twisting and bouncing.