Mitchell, R. (2015). Tiny Houses, Big Ideas. Solutions 6(3): 34-35. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/tiny-houses-big-ideas/
Perspectives Tiny Houses, Big Ideas by Ryan Mitchell
I
n a time when the “American Dream” tells us that bigger is better, people are downsizing their space to make more room in their lives. Tiny houses are small homes, often built by their owners, between 150 and 300 square feet with a focus on simplicity and minimalist living. This trend in housing is a stark contrast to current housing in America and has been gaining support over the past few years. American homes have largely stayed the same for the past 60 years with two main exceptions: size and cost. In 1950, the average home was just shy of 1,000 square feet and cost an average US$7,354.1 Compare this to today’s homes of 2,385 square feet at an average cost of US$343,300.2,3 The real noteworthy concept here is the income to home cost ratio:4,5 • 1950: 1.7 (median household income: US$4,237, average house cost: US$7,354) • 2015: 6.6 (median household income: US$51,939, average house cost: US$343,300) During this time, while the size of homes has more than doubled, family size has decreased from an average of 3.67 to 3.13 people.6 Houses have gotten a lot bigger but also much more expensive. In 1950, only those with very good credit could qualify for a 15-year mortgage, while today most loan applicants are securing 30 and even 40-year mortgages just to make owning a home possible. All this is to say that housing has become unaffordable to more and more people due to a shrinking middle class, higher costs of living, and decreased buying power of our
Nicolás Boullosa
A tiny house in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain.
incomes. It’s clear to many that something needs to change. The average American now spends 33 to 50 percent of their income on housing. In 2008, I found myself in this position after my employer decided to close the company I had been working for. After my employer decided to close the company I had been working for, I knew something had to change. I started looking critically at my life, my relationship with money, and my budget and realized that about half of my income was going toward housing. It was then that I discovered tiny houses and realized that their many benefits could be the solution to this challenge. My story is similar to most people who find themselves in the tiny house lifestyle. We one day realized that the “American Dream” turned out to be more of a nightmare. A life saddled with debt meant spending long hours in jobs that most people don’t like and spending huge portions of our lives away from the ones we love. The average American will spend 15 years of their life to pay for their
34 | Solutions | May-June 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org
home, whereas most tiny house owners can build and pay for their living spaces in under a year while working an average income job. People switch to tiny houses for a range of reasons. They are financially more viable, environmentally more sustainable, offer a simpler way to live in the chaos of modern life, and provide flexibility and options that are simply not available to most other home owners. Tiny houses go far beyond issues of money, however. They come with an entire outlook on life. Tiny living means living a life where you can not only live debt free, but also pursue your passions, goals, and free time on your own terms. With reduced costs of living, we can pursue that hobby or the rewarding career that might not have paid enough before but now could mean a comfortable lifestyle. It means we can pursue big goals or bucket list items that can bring meaning to our lives. It can give us the time and flexibility to focus on relationships and spend time with loved ones. Simply put, while tiny houses