Tiny homes the right fit for many looking to cut costs, stress
Living in less than 400 square feet, owners say, offers freedom — and it’s gaining popularity
TERRELL — When the weather is nice, Lynn Roberts cannot wait to get outdoors. He wakes up early and is out on the porch by 7 a.m. with his wife, Janet.
Which is perfect, because the outside of their home is bigger than the inside.
The Robertses live in a circle of tiny houses in the Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park about 40 miles east of Dallas, joining a growing number of people finding that life is not only simpler but also quite comfortable in less than 400 square feet. Supplementing the tight interior with a 198-square foot porch, 144-square-foot gazebo and 80-square-foot outdoor kitchen, Lynn, 73, and Janet, 70, say their tiny home has helped them achieve an affordable, lowstress retirement, with fewer demands on their finances and more time for family and friends.
“We were looking for something more — less,” Janet Roberts said.
The tiny homes of the Robertses and their neighbors are each 399 square feet, allowing them to be classified as recreational vehicles — which max out at 400 square feet — and providing a new market for an RV industry that has struggled with slumping sales in recent years. As demand from
RVs and mobile homes have declined, sales of diminutive singlefamily homes built to RV codes have grown 16 percent year-overyear, according to the RV Industry Association.
When Lynn Roberts, an electrician and air-conditioning contractor, and Janet, who worked at the Kaufman Independent School District, retired a few years ago, they expected more time to relax and spend with their granddaughters. But they found their 1,400-square-foot home on a halfacre was taking up too much of that time. There was a yard to water, leaves to rake, pecans to gather, flowerbeds to tend — the list went on.
It wasn’t long before they were ready to downsize drastically. Not only does a tiny home mean less
to maintain and clean, but RV parks also take care of lawns and communal living spaces. They made the move in 2016, joining a community where neighbors wave to each other and front porches act as outdoor salons for people to sit and chat.
Lynn and Janet expected tiny living to be simpler, with fewer demands on their time and finances.
“What I didn’t expect was this close-knit of a family out here — that it would be so sociable,” Lynn said.
A growing trend
The tiny homes are known in the industry as park model RVs. Manufacturers are on track to sell a record number of them in 2019, according to the RV Industry Association — more than 4,000, up from 3,500 the year before.
Roughly half of those are destined for the hospitality industry, including a new park in Myrtle Beach, S.C., that has ordered 100 tiny cottages to accommodate vacationers, according to park model homebuilder Skyline Champions.
The rest go to people such as Lynn and Janet Roberts.
Texas developers have been busily building RV parks especially for park models. One, Majestic Hills, plans to open in February in Willis, 50 miles north of Houston. A community of tiny homes has popped up on Lake Conroe and another is in the works near Sam Houston State University. Students will soon have the option of owning a tiny home, which start at $40,000 and can be sold or moved elsewhere upon graduation.
Spots in a tiny home park can start around $600 a month and often include amenities such as tennis courts and fishing ponds. Life in a single-family home that’s legally an RV also comes with another attractive perk.
“No property tax” are the first words on the brochure advertising Majestic Hills Tiny Home Community.
Squeezed to go small
Outdoor amenities, such as porches, don’t count toward the square footage that determines whether a tiny home is technically an RV and exempt from property taxes.
On the Robertses’ porch, roller shades can be lowered to block the sun as needed. A water fountain for their cats, Spooker and Boo, bubbles beneath the table. Lynn is in the middle of constructing an outdoor kitchen with space for a flat-top grill and two smokers.
“We live on the front porch,” Janet remarked, waving a neighbor over to chat.
Tiny homes recall times when homes were more affordable. A brand-new park model with 10foot ceilings, transom windows and a loft can cost around $65,000 compared to a median home price in Houston of $240,000.
While tiny homes have been around for decades, they surged in popularity as home values began accelerating out of the home mortgage crisis. In 2014, “Tiny House Nation,” “Tiny House, Big Living” and “Tiny House Hunting” — three separate homebuying television shows dedicated to living small — launched over the span of six months. Amazon.com now sells tiny home kits.
Betting big on tiny living
Fifteen years ago, Chad Glass, an artist who bought a tiny home with his wife from a Conroe dealership, Little Homes of Texas, was living in Los Angeles drawing storyboards for Hollywood. He was good at it — so good, he was able to buy a house and multiple rental properties.
“But it was a house of cards,” he said.
After the housing bubble burst and the economy spiraled into recession in late 2007, his renters began missing payments, and he sold his homes for less than the debt he owed on them. He moved into a rental outside of the city and eventually to Texas, where his wife has family. Now, they share a home even tinier than a park model RV.
It’s 28 feet long and 8½ feet wide, narrow enough to tow without hassle. Gone is the rent. Gone is debt. They lease land for the home for a few hundred dollars a month and pay minimal utilities.
When the subject of tiny homes comes up, people tend to pause and take stock of their lives and needs. Some quickly conclude it’s not for them. But others take on a kind of wistfulness.
When Glass left Los Angeles, he also had to leave his Hollywood job. But he says his costs are so greatly reduced that he’s able to save money while earning less. He feels secure enough to take risks, branching out into new interests such as audio engineering — something he would not have done while juggling debt and a demanding career.
When he goes into Austin and hears people worry about rising costs of living, once-familiar concerns feel far away.
“You don’t even realize the stress you had until it’s gone.”
Where tiny home owners see freedom, investors see security.
In many ways, park model homes are like mobile homes. Because many cities have regulations against placing either on a single-family lot, they both need to rent space in an approved park. In the region encompassing Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and Louisiana, vacancy rates for mobile home parks have fallen to 4 percent from 24 percent in 2007, according to commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
Rents at mobile home parks in the Southwest have soared 44 percent over 10 years, more than double the increase in rents for traditional homes in Texas. And that, said Marcus & Millichap, makes them a good investment.
Park model RV communities may hold similar appeal — plus they often command higher rents. At Majestic Hills, which boasts amenities such as free lawn care, a heated pool and a movie theater, spots go for around $650 a month, twice the rent of the average mobile home park. Korey Freels, who owns Majestic Hills with his wife, Georgette, said he hopes to sell the park to investors after it fully leases.
Bill Huthmacher decided to buy Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park in 2000 because an RV park, he calculated, would make a better return than stocks, bonds or apartment rentals.
“If the economy tanks, my theory is that more people will be living in RVs,” he said. “If the economy keeps growing, more people are buying RVs.”
After buying the park, he also realized generational trends were driving demand for living small. “The part that I missed — and this is an interesting part — is that our generation hasn’t saved anything,” he said of baby boomers. “So what they’re finding is when it’s time to retire, they can’t afford the house.”
Simpler times
Some tiny home dwellers, after configuring their lives and finances to fit in 399 square feet, find that living in a vehicle disguised as a house can come with complications. For the past two years, the residents of Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park have organized to fight an unexpected cost — appraisals from their county tax assessors. Both times, the Roberts and others have filed protests.
The Kaufman County appraisal review board agreed with the residents, ruling they did not have to pay property taxes, but the issue is far from settled. A similar tax dispute is unfolding in Hopkins County, about 80 miles to the northeast.
Park model homes have thrived on a complicated technicality, but to Janet Roberts, they represent simplicity. As she chatted with a neighbor, Kaye Patton, on the front porch, the conversation shifted to how the world had changed — how they’d grown up playing outdoors until it was time for dinner, how neighbors had taken care of neighbors.
“This is like living in one of those neighborhoods,” said Patton.
Janet nodded. “It’s like going back in time in that respect, and I find that very comforting.”