Skip to main content

The Tiny Home Market Isn’t Booming Despite What TV Tells You

By

It’s a novel idea: spend less on a smaller, often portable, home and and have extra money to travel, pay off student loans, or simply move from one place to another. But despite popular TV shows hyping this “tiny home” movement, the folks who build these diminutive dwellings downplay talk of a miniature housing boom.

The Los Angeles Times reports that while shows like Tiny House Hunters or Tiny House, Big Living depict a thriving tiny home market, with customers forgoing large homes with several thousand square feet and opting for small, usually one-room abodes. Yet the companies that make these small homes say they aren’t exactly flying off the shelves.

“There are so many ­roadblocks out there to selling them,” Lee Saenz of Adventure Cabins explains to the Times. “If they want to buy it, they don’t have the land. If they have the land, it’s not zoned for a tiny home. Or they don’t have enough cash.”

Saenz started his company in 2011, and specializes in rustic, but state-of-the-art homes for less than $50,000. Yet in the last five years, he says he’s only sold five homes.

Oregon-based Tiny Smart Home has the ability to deliver one tiny home a month to customers, but that’s not happening. Instead, in five years, the company has sold just a dozen houses.

Pew Charitable Trusts, which analyzed the tiny home craze in 2015, found that while the homes offer a “cheap and energy-efficient” option for consumers, they are hard to live in legally.

Although the smaller homes could be a great fit for dense, urban areas, many city laws and zoning ordinances don’t allow for the smaller homes.

For example, some cities adhere to laws that require new single, family homes to be at least 1,000 square feet, significantly larger than the typical 100 to 400 square feet tiny home.

Additionally, because many of the small houses are made on trailers — affording owners the ability to move from one place to another — some cities consider the homes to be mobile, and restrict “camping” on land for extended periods of time.

While tiny houses make for great TV, Steven Marshall, owner of Little House on the Trailer, is realistic about his industry.

“There are quite a few urban legends out there about what you can build and where,” he tells the Times. “It’s a revolution that probably won’t happen.”

Tiny-home market more bust than boom [The Los Angeles Times]


by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chrysler Deletes Its Dating Apps, Decides To Remain Single For Now

By
They say you can’t have a healthy relationship until you’re happy with yourself. That appears to be the new mantra for Fiat Chrysler: After several attempts to woo General Motors and more recently Volkswagen , the carmaker’s top executive says he plans to ditch his lovelorn ways to concentrate on his company’s bottom line.  Bloomberg reports that CEO Sergio Marchionne has turned his focus to eliminating FCA’s debt rather than eliminating its single status. Marchionne has set a goal of erasing FCA’s debt by 2019, the same year he’s set to retire. To do that, he says the company needs to do a little work on itself. “We need to be very careful that we don’t start unrealistic dreams about consolidation as we are on our way to achieve historically important results and a debt-free position,” Marchionne told investors at the carmaker’s annual meeting in Amsterdam, as reported by Bloomberg. “We are not at a point of time to discuss any alliance.” Yes, you heard that right: The man w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Study Claims 43% Of “Wild” Salmon In Stores & Restaurants Isn’t Wild At All

By
That wild salmon entrée calling to you from the menu at dinner might not be all it’s advertised. In fact a new study released Wednesday found evidence of mislabeling in nearly half of all salmon sold in restaurants and grocery stores.  The study [ PDF ] from international environmental advocacy group, Oceana, analyzed 82 salmon samples from restaurants and grocery stores, finding that 43% of the products were mislabeled. DNA testing confirmed that 69% of the mislabeled product consisted of farmed Atlantic salmon being sold as wild-caught product. According to the report, consumers satisfying their salmon craving in restaurants are misled about 67% of the time, while those who buy their seafood in a grocery store are misled 20% of the time. “Americans might love salmon, but as our study reveals, they may be falling victim to a bait and switch,” Beth Lowell, senior campaign director at Oceana, said . “When consumers opt for wild-caught U.S. salmon, they don’t expect to get a far...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to Biology (IX Biology Notes Chapter 01)

By
Science: Our universe operates under certain principles. For understanding of these principles, the experiments are done and observations are made; on the basis of which logical conclusions are drawn. Such a study is called "Science". In brief science is the knowledge based on experiments and observations. Biology: The Scientific study of living organisms is called Biology. The word biology is derived from two Greek words "bios" meaning life and "logos" meaning thought, discourse, reasoning or study. It means that all aspects of life and every type of living organism are discussed in biology. Branches of Biology: Biology is divided into following branches: Morphology The study of form and structure of living organisms is called morphology. It can be further divided into following two parts: 1. The study of external parts of living organism is called external morphology. 2. The study of internal parts of living organism is calle...
Post a Comment
Read more