With the popularity of TV shows like HGTV’s Tiny House Hunters, the Tiny House Movement is growing across the United States. People are getting rid of their mansions, downsizing their belongings and moving into these “tiny” houses. The reasons for moving to a “tiny lifestyle” range, but it’s obvious that this trend is growing, and appears to be here to stay.
The typical American home is around 2,600 square feet, and a typical tiny house is between 100 and 400 square feet. Tiny houses are all shapes, sizes, forms and can be found virtually anywhere, but they enable and encourage simpler living in a smaller space.
A few reasons people are turning to tiny homes include environmental concerns, financial concerns, and the desire for more time and freedom. Millennial’s often discuss how they would rather spend money on experiences rather than physical goods and items. They would rather travel the world, go to concerts and festivals, etc., rather than spend a majority of their income to support the roof over their heads.
The tiny house movement has helped people learn that there are other ways to live, and also cut down on costs. The Tiny Life website does a great job highlighting the benefits of living a tiny lifestyle, and reasons why people have made the plunge.
According to Tiny Life, 68% of tiny house owners have no mortgage, compared to 29.3% of all U.S. homeowners. 55% of tiny house people have more savings than the average American, with a median of $10,972 in the bank. That’s a lot of cash! They created this great infographic that discussed tiny houses compared to the average US home.
What do you think about the tiny house movement? It might not be for everyone, we aren’t necessarily seeing this in our area, but we are noticing more people are changing their interior floor plan as their lifestyle changes in lieu of adding square footage or upsizing. We are seeing clients who had previously moved into larger homes now move to smaller homes to fit their lifestyle. Would you be willing to trade in your square footage for a more simplistic lifestyle in a smaller home? We want to hear from you!
