Tiny homes allow room to breathe
Growing trend in the US praised for freedom from bond worries
DOUG Immel recently completed his custom-built dream home, sparing no expense on details such as cherrywood floors, cathedral ceilings and stained-glass windows — in just 50m² of living space, including a loft.
The 57-year-old schoolteacher’s tiny house near Providence, Rhode Island, cost $28 000 (R300 000) — a seventh of the average price of single-family homes in his state.
“I wanted to have an edge against career vagaries,” said Immel, a property valuer. He invests the money he would have spent on his home loan and related costs in a mutual fund, halving his retirement horizon to 10 years and maybe even as soon as three. “I am infinitely happier.”
Dramatic downsizing is gaining interest among Americans, gauged by the increased sales of plans and ready-made homes and growing audiences for websites related to the niche. The pared-down lifestyle allows people to minimise expenses and gain economic freedom, said architect Jay Shafer in Cotati, California, who founded two microbuilding and design companies.
“It shows people how little some need to be happy and how simply they can live if they choose,” said Shafer, 49, who shares a 150m² home with his wife and two young children.
Despite gains in the labour and housing markets, Americans choosing mini houses remain wary of tethering themselves to a mortgage.
People wanted “a more modest lifestyle now”, said Derek Diedricksen, who travels nationally to lead building workshops.
Those who opt for super-small structures do not want to “waste their time or be a slave to a house they don’t fully use”.
Defined as 150 or fewer square metres, tiny houses range from primitive 30m² huts to award-winning displays of sustainable architecture with elegant design. Many are built on wheels to avoid regulations, but mobility is not the main draw.
Aldo Lavaggi, 36, can support him- self as a folk musician in New York’s Hudson Valley thanks to the 32m² home he built on a friend’s farmland and has lived in since 2012.
His residence runs on a car battery and energy from two solar panels. He pockets enough cash to splurge on artisanal bread and gourmet cheeses from the local market. “I’m earning more than I spend,” he said.
Even with the micro-trend, the number of tiny houses in the US is, well, tiny — just in the thousands, according to unofficial industry surveys. Their popularity is growing, however, as the US homeownership rate has fallen to 64.8%, the lowest in almost 20 years, and the average size
It shows people how little some need to be happy and how simply they can live if they choose
of new single-family houses is the biggest ever — 727m² in 2013, a 3.4% increase from 2012.
In 1950, houses averaged 300m², according to data from the National Association of Home Builders.
Laura LaVoie quit her Atlantabased job as a recruiter at a staffing company, sold her 822m² house and pursued a career as a freelance writer by building a place with her husband in Asheville, North Carolina.
“I felt really trapped,” she said. Moving to a 36m² space enabled them “to live in a different way, take control of our lives”.
Some advocates are refugees from the recent real estate bust. Macy Miller’s 763m² Idaho home was foreclosed on in 2007, following her divorce. “I have absolutely zero interest in tying myself up with that kind of loan ever again,” she wrote in an e-mail.
In 2011, Miller literally took matters into her own hands, building a 60m² timber home on a trailer in Boise, Idaho. She completed it in 18 months for $11 000 with zero debt, pays $200 a month to rent the land and shares the space with her partner, their baby and a Great Dane.
Aspirants to the lifestyle tend to “skew female”, according to web research. The largest share of inhabitants, 23%, are between the ages of 31 and 40, according to The Tiny Life blog. Almost 90% said they had at least some college education and 61% had zero credit card debt.
In Washington, DC, Boneyard Studios advocates mini homes as a solution to underused spaces. The site showcases three places in a triangular alley lot, once filled by illegally parked cars. There is a communal fire pit, hot tub, outdoor oven and garden. Boneyard has a legal address, electricity and uses incinerator toilets and a rainwater-collection system.
Ellen McCarthy, director of the city’s office of planning, praised Boneyard’s “high-quality” and “environmental stewardship”.
“We need some level of controls so people aren’t setting up squatter camps in alleys,” she said.
On a personal level, the psycho- logical hurdle of parting with one’s possessions restrains a large number of people from going tiny. Although liberating for some, dramatic downsizing can prove too taxing on the psyche for others. Shafer, the movement’s champion, said it took him “years” to figure out how to thrive with less.
Immel, the schoolteacher who finished his home late in 2013, said his $40 000-plus salary easily sustained him — and his savings account. The best thing about his little house, he said, was that it gave him “complete peace of mind”.— Bloomberg