Homestead cabins become cottage industry in the desert

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif.—Anne Krieghoff thought her husband, Darryl, was out of his mind in 1991 when he suggested they buy a tiny, ramshackle homestead cabin in the Yucca Valley.

Like hundreds of other tiny desert shacks, the 660-square-foot house was the product of a 1930s-era government program to sell excess federal land at dirt-cheap prices. By the 1990s, many of the homestead properties were so dilapidated that local government agencies targeted them for razing.

“I thought it was a crazy idea,” Anne Krieghoff said. “It was a shell of a cabin. All of the windows were shot out. … He said, ‘I’ll have this fixed up in no time at all.’”

What Anne Krieghoff didn’t expect was that the sharing economy would turn these humble cabins into a cottage industry.

The two-bedroom home that the couple bought for $28,000 generated $14,000 in rent last year on Airbnb, the online short-term rental site. They rent it for $125 a night.

Airbnb lists more than 100 properties described as cabins in the Yucca Valley alone. Dozens more are listed in Twentynine Palms and other nearby communities. They range in size from a shanty no bigger than a onecar garage to two-bedroom homes with outdoor hot tubs, fire pits and covered patios.

The cabins rent for $69 to $150 a night, depending on the size of the building and the time of year. The