Would you want to live in a tiny house? Do you already? Go to brilliant.org/Undecided to sign up for free. And also, the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium membership. If you liked this video, check out: Why 3D Printing Batteries Matters; ruclips.net/video/Jlt8_z86F-o/видео.html
Having lived in small spaces before, the fantasy about there being less cleaning is just that -- a fantasy. There's less space to clean, but because everything is so tightly packed in, you feel it immediately if something gets dirty. As a result, I'd feel like I was ALWAYS cleaning and nothing was ever clean. There's definitely a happy medium between having to clean all the time because the space is too small, and having to clean all the time because the space is too big.
Thanks for the dose of realism. I’d also imagine that since the place is so small cleaning can only take so long. So you might end up cleaning daily for 15 minutes instead of every three days for 45 minutes.
In a small space, it's so hard to organize stuff. For example uf I need to quickly pull out some old clothes, I need to rearrange some stuff, pull it out then again re-arrange everything back
Also those tiny houses seem like a vacation home, for some reason they just feel like a place you'd go for a vacation and love I love second floors where you can see the first floor easily
I currently live in a really small space (10 square meters). This is because I'm saving up money to move to New Zealand. When I moved here I moved from a 85 square meter apartment and I have with a lot of creativity been able to get everything sans furniture into this new space. But you have to be very cogniscent about what you're doing. I clean up about 2-3 minutes per day and manage to keep things real tidy. I think it also forces your hand to put things back in their place. Because as soon as you start putting things out of their designated places it starts getting messy. But yeah, I pay 500 SEK (about 60 USD) a month for this, which allows me to save about 13500 SEK per month. And that's what enticed me in. Obviously.
you can make a building that's basically micro apartments the size of tiny homes stacked up 3-6 stories. That will get you higher density, lower prices, and way more units on the housing market.
A big missconception is, that the size of a house alone makes it "green". But a small bachelor appartment is just as sufficient and even if built traditionally just as "green". An appartment has 4 or 5 sides to a neighbour, where there is no heat loss, no material intensive exterial walls. Location is a key too. 200 people living in a 20 storey building use very little land and infrastructure like roads, sewage lines, power lines, busses, trams etc.. 200 tiny houses spread out use lots of space and lead to all the current traffic and urban sprawl problems. This is never regarded when comparing the quaint tiny house in savage nature to the small appartment in the concrete jungle. While your video is good and inspiring, it leaves out the bigger picture.
I started watching the video hoping for some kind of reasoning along these lines. I was disappointed. The title should be changed to "Why I like tiny homes".
Problem in general with the movement surrounding tiny houses is that they glorify it too literally. It's still a house and comes with all negative environmental and social impacts of being a house. Tiny living is a staple in many cities already, but only now it's being glorified as a lifestyle rather than being out of neccessity like it used to be. This adversely will affect housing costs.
Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination. I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples. Tiny homes on wheels give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage.
Sensical zoning, building, and residential design practices are obviously the best direction. Unfortunately, the US is designed from the ground up to turn its citizens into wage slaves via recurring debt and expenses. Citizens do not really see the _economic_ benefits of being packed in like sardines in apartment blocks. Rather, that benefit is being pocketted by big banks betting on your apartment complex's value, encouraging the builder to sell for top dollar, the government to tax the land for top dollar, and the landlord to in turn charge you top dollar for rent. Small homes are more of an economic response to me. They dodge zoning b@llshit, they dodge certification, and they actually exist on a small enough scale that, FOR ONCE, buying and owning a home is affordable for the youngest generations... God forbid we dont pay rent the rest of our lives.
@@hatman4818 Well said. We might escape this fate, but the generation just onfront of us, that are currently in schools, they may never be able to say they own a house, until they're gifted one by a relative dying.
I think the difference is that you own the tiny house, vs perpetually renting an apartment from someone else that actually owns it. You'll never pay off an apartment, whereas one of the major benefits of the tiny home is affordability. You pay it off, then it costs you nothing other than what you need to run/maintain it, and any applicable taxes.
I could if I had to move into a tiny house, no way would I move into an apartment block "flats" in the UK. Noise from above, below and on each side (shudder)
I think this video overlooks the environmental/climate implications of having large amounts of the population living in disparate lots of land vs densely grouped neighbourhoods (i.e. walkable cities). The cost of sewage, electricity infrastructure, roads and transportation, but also fire, healthcare, childcare, education… all those costs and climate impacts climb when housing is designed in isolation with the individual in mind. To speak nothing of whether you can have a job nearby your tiny home. Tiny homes are legit, though- and seem like a lot of fun (we researched building one!), but it’s important not to overlook the system of housing and it’s impact collectively.
Excellent reply. My wife and I have live in an off-grid (i.e. no hardwired utilities: Solar, 1040 Ah of batteries, 550 gallon cistern filled with rainwater, graywater filtration garden, separating toilet, backup gasoline generator, propane for heating) tiny home for 3.5 years now. The ability to tuck such a house into a secluded nook and avoid the upfront cost + ongoing maintenance of utilities is pretty huge on the front end. It makes a solid amount of sense, to us, in our situation (169 acres of conservation land + off-grid pioneers, even if we don't really want to be all the time because it's hard, especially in an elevated structure). However, it's pretty poorly targeted for a variety of situations. As with everything, especially much of what Matt covers, it's just another tool in the global resource-management toolkit - applicable to a variety of situations, and poorly suited to others.
I agree. I live in a planned suburb with a mix of apartments/condominiums (from around 52m2 to 88m2), terraced homes (around 90 to 120m2) with yards, and detached houses. Car roads are separated from walking and bicycle paths/greenways, and all schools, train stations, library, and shops are accessible by the paths. While living spaces are smaller than in new suburbs of detached houses, the area is popular for convenience. I'd love to see if tiny houses could be added to the mix, perhaps as terraced housing.
@@marysue4729 It's difficult to find dedicated communities that help you move in and provide grid utilities too. Also, if you have a complaint about your neighbours (E.G: Playing music really loud), either you have to move or they do. So there really isn't somebody to help solve conflicts quickly. It would be nice to see something like a real estate agent help people find good locations to move in. After that, you can contact the landowner's website (or something) if you need help/manage conflicts (the same way you'd do if you have a problem with your apartment neighbours). You'd obviously have to pay a 'rent land' fee. But this should still be much more affordable than traditional fixed homes. Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination. I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples. Tiny homes on wheels also give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage. I'd love to see what types of buildings/stores/shops would be built around tiny home communities. I'd also like to see landowners build a website where tiny homeowners can vote on what type of building they'd like to have built. This all costs a lot of money (millions to billions) to start a business up like this though. So it needs a Government level of intervention IMO.
Tiny homes are great for 1-2 people, but not for families. I believe many of the homeless veterans should get a free tiny home to live in and get off the street.
Well, they are dropping empty shipping containers all over they place near ports on the west coast. They would make good bones for quick homeless housing.
@@MustPassTruck Wooden tinny housing can be crafted from "parts" like in an assembly line schema. It could become really cheap. Shipping containers are costly. Even if companies don't use them, they won't sell cheap.
@@salvatorefarmerson3226 You can get bare, used shipping containers for about $2k. The issue with shipping container homes is that you still have to build the home "around" it. So cost goes up. Make to code? Cost goes way up. Unless you want to spend the money, containers tend to be better suited for storage and small garages.
I agree, tiny homes are not great for families. I don't believe free housing should be a solution for homeless. When you give people free stuff, people then expect free stuff. In order to have a safe place off the streets, you'll be responsible for cleaning and/or maintaining "this" portion of the neighborhood. A group of people living and working together to keep their city clean and safe, and maybe growing a community garden, in return for their own place. It gives them responsibilities and a sense of ownership. But that's just my opinion.
i've looked into a tiny myself, was strongly tempted to buy one, but with me not having a big towing license, or a car capable of towing them, i bought a one bedroom house instead. it's pretty much as small as i could get while still being big enough to do everything i wanted it to.
I find it interesting that those tiny house ads rarely show the huge ass truck you need to tow them around and most likely use as a daily commute. I wonder how much does that impact the environmental and economic evaluation of those tiny houses. Tiny houses, huge trucks sounds like going in two different directions at the same time.
@@ItchyKneeSon I think that he meant a special license for trailers etc.. In some countries your regular drivers license isn't enough to drive with trailers. The same way that your regular drivers license isn't enough to drive a truck.
Dude...tiny houses are not trailers meant to be towed around like an RV. You move them ONLY when you need to from city to city and its not expensive to pay a pro hauling company to move it for you. I guarantee towing on the rare occasion you need to move is soooo much cheaper than paying fees to smell a house and then haul your belongings. Think about it :/
@@offgrid1356 not all tiny houses, but those that are built on a wheeled chassis are distinguishable from trailers mostly because of the different name. And some extra style. A fancy trailer is a trailer nonetheless
Off grid over 20 years in a 14x14 hand built cabin. No house payment, no utility bills and freedom. I teach people how to build off grid cabins and install solar power on my channel.
I lived in a heritage mansion that got converted into tiny units. Mine was 450sqft and I loved it. I think a tiny home community would work fine with a large central hub of services (school, grocery, rec centre, library, etc.). It wouldn't really be too sprawly since the lots are smaller, most people could get around with bikes, golf carts, or electric autonomous vehicles.
We built and lived in a tiny home in Alberta, Canada. It was still our favourite house so far. The biggest challenge is finding somewhere to park. Every county close to any urban center has zoning regs that severely limit or outright deny TH living. Most up here see them as no different than RVs, which are basically limited to campgrounds. Other TH people we know in the area rent some space on someone's acreage, away from prying eyes who might report them. We planned to live in our TH with our first child, but he was born super premature and required bulky oxygen tanks/equipment; so that ultimately ended our stay in there.
Yeah, it's difficult to find dedicated communities that help you move in and provide grid utilities too. Also, if you have a complaint about your neighbours (E.G: Playing music really loud), either you have to move or they do. So there really isn't somebody to help solve conflicts quickly. It would be nice to see something like a real estate agent help people find good locations to move in. After that, you can contact the landowner's website (or something) if you need help/manage conflicts (the same way you'd do if you have a problem with your apartment neighbours). You'd obviously have to pay a 'rent land' fee. But this should still be much more affordable than traditional fixed homes. Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination. I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples. Tiny homes on wheels also give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage. I'd love to see what types of buildings/stores/shops would be built around tiny home communities. I'd also like to see landowners build a website where tiny homeowners can vote on what type of building they'd like to have built. This all costs a lot of money (millions to billions) to start a business up like this though. So it needs a Government level of intervention IMO.
I love that my house in Poland is made out of cinder blocks. Keeps the heat inside in the winter, and cold in the summer. im 100% down for a tiny home have wanted one forever, what was stopping me was not having a solid internet connection. but once Starlink is up and running im dipping into the mountains to live in a cabin :D
@@Milanesa2010 i dont think so... concrete blocks arent bare on the outside they are sprayed with foam and then siding put on it. and as concrete can hold more heat or lack of heat makes it a better insulator for a home. trust me ive lived in both types of houses and its much easier to heat/cool the cement block house.
You don't want to hold heat, at least not with something that has direct connection to the outside, as that just transfer the heat out. You can build well insulated houses using cinder blocks, but it's a reason that in the cold north houses are usually wooden, since it's easier to avoid these "heat bridges" with it. I live in a concrete apartment, wall and roof is basically two separate layers, sort of like a house within a house. Luckily for you Poland has quite mild climate 😉
In the Lean Manufacturing world we have a saying “people will use up any space that they’re given.” When I’m teaching this to a class I often intentionally seat two people at every table except for one where I seat one person. Without fail, by mid afternoon, that one person has dispersed stuff over their whole table while everyone else takes up only half. We do the same things in our homes. Larger closets, garages, and yards only leads to use buying more junk. You don’t even have to go all out on a tiny home. Just purchasing a condo or townhome instead of a single family home can make a huge impact!
I have a really big house, and outhouses.... and its more or less all filled up... The more space you have, the more you use, that is certainly very true!
An even bigger challenge than financing is siting. While tiny houses make so much sense, most municipalities have yet to even begin modifying their building codes to accommodate tiny houses in any meaningful way. So, if you're a single tiny house, it's difficult to find a legal place to set up. And, if you're a land owner who'd like to develop a tiny house community, it's next to impossible as most zoning ordinances view tiny living more like a mobile home or RV park. And, while many municipalities are adopting Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) codes, these aren't your typical Tiny House On Wheels (THOW). This kind of thinking defeats the purpose of tiny house living as we've come to understand it, by requiring larger minimum footprints, permanent foundations and utility connections for electrical, water and sewer. So, those are some of the downsides not mentioned in this piece. One desirable aspect of tiny living that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the video is mobility. For someone who doesn't want to be tied down to a single location, wants to "chase 70" or simply wants to see and experience more of the country, tiny living, be it a THOW, an RV or a van, is very attractive. As a divorced empty nester, I decided to right-size out of a beautiful 2,400 ft² home in an HOA community with amenities in 2017. Since then, I've recast my career while completely changing the way that I live in just under 100 ft². I couldn't be happier. I generate, store and distribute my own electricity, and even heat water with excess solar production. I can place a hose in a muddy puddle and make pure water. I designed, built and thoroughly enjoy a recirculating shower that uses a single gallon of water, as well as a composting toilet that produces no sewage. Best of all, I'm free to go wherever I want, whenever I want by virtue of my ability to work from anywhere. I started adult life as a nuclear engineer and chemist aboard nuclear submarines where I had a rack (a.k.a. bed) and 3 ft³ to call my own. So, I joke that 100 ft² is quite an upgrade :) Tiny living definitely isn't for everyone. But for those who chose it, it should be a much easier alternative to pursue.
at 45,000 the price per square is about $250. most tiny home prices always seem to assume the land is free. a tiny home may be fine for 1, but beyond that you will get in each others way.
10:19 - I absolutely love that they're towing the home with the hanging baskets swinging around. 😂 As a tiny trailer owner, I know the importance of having EVERYTHING stowed away and locked down, even when moving a short distance - but that's just hilarious.
These things arent proper camping trailers, theyre more like mobile homes. They sit on wheels to move once in a while, and to dodge the certification process, but otherwise, theyre meant to mostly sit in one place for years.
I've been curious about this myself recently. One small problem I keep running into is that everywhere I search, the towed mobile trailer tiny home or rural off grid homes are what's shown, when I myself am looking for a stationary urban tiny home. I feel like there's just a little too much emphasis/focus on mobility when it comes to this area.
In urban environment in order to live small, you need to live in an apartment, condo, townhouse. Land is too valuable in an urban environment for a tiny house to be affordable.
Tiny home Pros 1. Sometimes, but not usually can be cheaper. 2. Lower carbon footprint 3. Lower utilities. 4. Faster cleaning. Tiny home Cons 1. Most places ban them. (Don't want a mobile home park mentality) 2. Most are quite expensive. 3. Insurance is high. 4. Many mobile units cannot be parked in most cities 5. Kids.
Another thing to consider is a mobile tiny home will need a pretty sizeable truck to haul it around. That not only adds to the cost but also the carbon footprint.
I've lived in small apartments and a small house that was about 700sq.ft. I live in a small apartment now. This one is about 700sq ft. But it's comfortable and costs about $500USD total with utilities and groceries. And it's about 10 minutes from the beach. It's in Mexico. All things considered, I'm good. 👍
Personally I'd like to see shift to ~1000 sq ft townhouses and rowhouses. It would give more space to people with families, while also being a regular building that can fit in a normal city without having to park awkwardly in a rural area. Small footprint would mean high-density, walkable communities, but would still provide all the amenities people expect nowadays. Plus, you mentioned your house built in the '50s is about that size, and that seems a really good compromise size for a lot of people.
Getting walkability and higher density of people single family zoning has to give way. Also, set back laws and minimum lot size restrictions have to be changed. But smaller homes will help.
@@antonisautos8704 Absolutely. Onerous zoning restrictions need to be abolished. I'd much rather have cozy narrow streets full of trees, lined with townhouses, and everyone able to have a decent backyard than wide streets and huge setbacks. No one even uses their front yards anyways! At least people regularly use their backyards for gardening, recreation, socializing, etc. North American cities especially need drastically better design and development.
Hi Matt. This is really a good one. I like it. But it's pretty unspectacular, if you live on a sailing boat, like me. Tiny, low energy consumption, solar power, wind generator, water desalination,... check out how people live aboard. They already use a lot of modern technologies and almost no energy, even on very old boats.
We have lived on a tugboat build in 1887. It was not very comfortable to say the least. I still remember the feeling of luxury when we could just push a button to flush the toilet when we moved into a apartment. But nowadays we are once again looking for a boat to live on. The boat itself is easy to find but a place to be able to live in it legally is very hard. The feeling of living on the water, having the outside almost inside your house is wonderful.
@@autobootpiloot that sounds great. Nothing compares to living on a boat ;-) l will try to do it until I physically cannot do it anymore. And yes all burocratic things get more complicated. That's a pain in the neck. But there are always ways. Definitely find another boat and enjoy as long as possible. :-)
Many folks live on narrowboats in the UK for similar reasons. I always liked looking at the folding furniture and tiny appliances. Plus nowadays I can see the appeal of parking up by a riverside pub and getting a meal there… the pub garden is your garden, etc.
I lived in a tiny home - a houseboat, for six years in the '80's. The first three years, it was my wife and I. The last three years, we had our first child. Living on the water was WAY much nicer a place to live - three seasons of the year. Sadly, the last season made up for it. There were no appropriately sized anything: from furnaces and furniture. I expect that this has changed since then.
I got so deep into the tiny house movement that I'm about to start going to school for interior design so I can make a career out of designing them. Would love to live in one to. In my home town in Canada, we just passed some new laws that not only allow tiny homes, but the city encourages them! It's great!
@@ungoyone I do like including a back door that can be used to build on an extension if the occupants need more space, like if a family grows or they need a home office. Works better on foundation though unless you like driving a road train lol
Yep. Since Canada is importing half a million people each year, you get to enjoy living like a serf on 200 sq feet. Enjoy that. Your city definitely does! :)
@@ungoyone Well he is talking about interior design and in this case small structures can be more challenging as big ones as you need to be more space efficient. Like with the stairs we have seen in the vid, that also have storage, furniture you can fold up and hide when not needed, or using ladders, that can be folded up, when not needed. I think you can be very creative in small spaces.
That's awesome! Glad to hear there's some progressive cities up here. We lived in a TH just outside Calgary but had to do it under the radar on an acreage to avoid the zoning regs.
I’ve been doing some research into tiny monolithic domes. I really like the idea combined with geothermal heating/cooling. I have come to realize that a $250 electric bill is robbing me of my ability to squirrel away significant savings.
Mine (I call it The Gypsy Wagon) is 14x8, 112 sq ft. I’ve been in it for 4 years and love love love it! It was $5K, used. It’s allowing me to continue to exist while I pursue my artistic endeavors. It’s important to setup with access to a real bathroom though. It would be a problem not to have that access.
The thing is that the size of houses, particularly in NA, is not so much because people love big houses, but instead it's because of zoning laws, which often impose minimum size lots as well as minimum dwelling surface, and setbacks. Having a minimum size lot with significant setbacks and no subdivision possible often means that the way for a developer to make the most money out of a lot is to build the biggest house possible, because a bigger house will sell for more, even though that's not necessarily what people are looking for. If we want to talk about reducing the footprint of homes in North America, we need to start by changing zoning codes to allow for smaller units, smaller lots, multiple units on the same lot, remove setback requirements, removing parking requirements, etc. This would be more effective at diversifying housing offer as well as letting people build smaller. There are still many places where building a static tiny home is prohibited, and that's part of why so many of them are on wheels : because they can't legally not have wheels. But this also comes with a massive drawback : maximum weight requirement. Those maximum weight requirements mean that often we have to choose lighter materials for insulation, which often leads to poorer insulation than what is possible for a static home, or higher insulation cost due to more expensive materials to get the same insulation quality with a lower weight.
I love this idea and would have joined the movement in my 20s if it had been around. For abled young people not planning families or needing to consider elderly parents down the line, this seems wonderful. This concept, while superb, needs expanding/modifying for the reality of most people in the world, who live in three or four generation households. Also, what is the lifetime of these structures. Houses, at least in the UK or Brazil where I've lived, are expected to last between 100 and 200 years, with maintenance and care.
I'm not even all that old and I have swore off two-story houses already. I can't imagine being in my 70s+ trying to climb a ladder to squeeze into loft bed. No thanks, just give me an apartment at that point.
I got a tiny house in 2016. Matt, you’re right on with your assessment both good and bad. I was able to cut my expenses down to $1,500/month for everything (sans food and entertainment). I’m now debt free and on track to be able to retire early if I want even though I’ve spent almost a year (on and off) unemployed since then. It wasn’t all because of a tiny house, but it gave me a lot of freedom and the flexibility to roll with what life has thrown at me.
I have been in a tiny house but felt really claustrophobic. That being said looking at how house prices in Canada are rising it might be my only option.
Not much different here in the UK, especially in the south house prices are so expensive that most young people can only afford a small house. All the new houses are made small so that the developer can maximise profit and pish as many in as possible.
@@philiphawkins4684 it seems to be the story all around the world. As a struggling film maker I think I will be wearing a while before I get a house to start a family in.
The one thing that makes me hesitant of moving into a tiny home is that for a regular person, who doesn't own land, your need to rent a space to park your tiny home. In other words, you wouldn't be able to be rent free. Some states require that there that the tiny house may not be the primary residence in the land, and treat the tiny house like an RV. I feel we've got a long way to go before tiny houses are treated like actual homes.
Haven't got frozen pipes before, what kind of temperature do you get those? I've lived in a place with winter going down -2 to -5 C . I never turn on the heater as it gives me a terrible head ache . I just wear a jacket or thermals + jacket . Walls is pretty well insulated with double or triple layered insulated windows , maybe that helped .
I think the only thing I disagree with is saying how forgoing AC and other appliances increases the efficiency. Would be like saying how I've increased the efficiency of my car by not owning one. I live in a hot part of Australia so AC is mandatory in my mind 😂 Love your videos Matt!
Is it though? The point is keeping the living space at a comfortable temperature. If you can achieve that in a different way (clever design, choice of material, insulation…), then why is an AC mandatory? And even it it still is: it will be much easier and require way less energy to cool a tiny house than a big one.
He said CENTRAL ac and heat. The small homes all tend to have climate systems, but they are more apt to have a small wood stove and a small split AC instead of a huge outdoor compressor. Not a CENTRAL unit.
Most mini-splits units do both AC and heating and it's easy to get one that handles 400 sq feet (more than is needed for most tiny homes) and still are pretty efficient.
the thing bout tiny homes is you can expand them as you go, but so many laws are in the way of just doing. if laws werent blocking so much you could start out in a 1 room tiny home and just build on extra rooms as you go or as is needed.
Small spaces can have mental impacts, on many people, privacy, depression, claustrophobia, small houses are not for all people, small spaces can be effectively compared to a prision cell, to some people.
Thank you for the great video! You compare cost and impact of single (family) homes. But what about apartment houses, which are often more efficient? I do not think that building even more single family homes in the suburbs is the future, tiny or not.
Indeed. Check out Strong Towns for a compelling analysis of why suburban city design is not sustainable. Tiny houses all seem to focused on free standing units (not efficient for heating!) and almost require a large outdoor space in order to be able to live there and keep your sanity. That leads to relatively low densities I think. Also, I often see wood burning heating in such tiny houses. Not a big issue when it’s sitting alone in the woods, but not an efficient form of heating either and not environmentally friendly or healthy. You don’t want that in cities or even if you have them close together like in some of the imagery shown in the video.
Because renters and buyers are two separate demographics in the housing market. The tiny homes RARELY end up in the suburbs, they tend to not pass local code. Just like manufactured and trailer houses are rarely inside the city limits unless there is a special "park."
I think I could live in a tiny home, but I would need a storage structure for my camping equipment, kayaks, canoes, bikes, tools etc. That would be a lot bigger than a tiny home, but the storage area would have minimal power requirements so over all I expect it would bring my emissions way down.
@@benjamindover4337 I use them all on a regular basis, and virtually all are associated with activities that have minimal environmental impact after the production phase. I also buy pretty good stuff that won't wear out easy, then keep things until I don't need them and at that time I sell or give away to someone that will use it. And I don't upgrade at every new product release.
This is the problem I see with a lot of Tiny Homes. The home itself is just a bedroom and eventually the owner adds an outside shower and then an outhouse, understandably, to get away from any poop smells in such a small place. Then they add an outdoor kitchen and a toolshed/garage for the utilities and before you know it they live in an average sized house. Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea of Tiny Homes but it seems more like an affordable base home that you add onto. Great for getting a lot of people started in home ownership I suppose.
Maybe there is a market for houses that are in the 1000 sq ft range. These would be smaller than the current typical house but not as extreme as a tiny house. That way you could potentially get a lot more people to downsize.
The problem with framing this as “environmentally responsible” is that it takes the burden of carbon emissions and puts them on individuals rather than industry which is the actual biggest emitter. If the grid were decarbonized, and if green building supplies were available, then a large home could be similarly as green as a tiny home without asking people to change their entire lifestyle and degrade their quality of life to make it happen. Why should citizens giveup their dishwashers and garages just because the power plant down the street runs on more cost effective coal or natural gas? Additionally what does an economy look like after its citizens have given up their cars, planes, trains, ships, houses, etc. The answer, stop letting coal and fossil fuels be so cost effective by actually making the industries who use it responsible for its negative externalities, instead of placing the burden of those externalities on the people.
Did you not see the statistics about the proportion of emissions from homes in the US and UK? Clearly that chunk of CO2 emissions are our responsibility - too many people are happy to be "green" until that means actually making some changes themselves. Certainly industry should be obliged to reduce it's emissions - but that doesn't abrogate the responsibility of the individual to do the same.
@@malcolmrose3361 oh.... I've sorta started ignoring matt showing statistics after some earlier videos. Sorry. The only statistics that match his data and are publicly available are from bloomberg news. There might be others behind paywalls but i do not have access to those.
@@malcolmrose3361 But individual choice is woefully inadequate to tackle the 'consumer choices' problems. You have to change what's available and price out the dirtier options.
We bought an older 40ft motor yacht for super cheap and live on it. 2 bedroom 2 bath and about 655 square feet. We love it! We paid less than $10,000 cash for it after selling our dirt based house for around $200,000
We don’t need tiny homes, we just need to build apartment blocks. They can be much larger than tiny homes while getting even more climate benefits. A tiny home loses heat to all six sides of the building. A single apartment unit only loses heat to the surfaces that face outside. Apartment blocks also allow denser mixed use development and can support public transportation, which allows for even more climate savings. Tiny homes are just another example of people wanting to fix climate change by just buying things, instead of making actual changes to the way that our society is structured.
@Horseshoe Party pardon? Heat loss also means heat seeps into the home during warm months, so air conditioning works harder. I didn’t mention anything about homelessness, what are you going on about?
The problem with "tiny homes " is that in todays world that means very expensive construction costs. Because of hyper regulated housing codes, the idea if small livable spaces is non-existent. so we wind up making expensive trailer homes instead. if you look at houses from the past most of the ones for working class folks consisted of 3 rooms one of which was detached (who wants the outhouse, inhouse?) a kitchen a living/sleeping room, and aforementioned shitter. Regulations now say you need to build a McMansion or it would not be livable. Look up minimum room sizes for each purpose (seeping, bathing, cooking etc. ) It starts to look like the regulations were written to make houses more expensive and therefor able to be taxed more.
There's one thing you seem to be missing that makes your data look significantly rosier than it actually is. Most "Tiny Home" owners are already quite a bit wealthier than the average person. They also often have friends or family who's land they park or build on. This movement is overall a good thing, people should have more options of how to live with some more wiggle-room in between 1 room apartments and 5000 sqft McMansions. However, I think this movement gets an outsized amount of publicity because of the relative wealth of the people looking into it. I feel like an overall emphasis on owning less is good, but I'd honestly rather more builders be interested in smaller, more efficient houses instead of "Tiny Homes".
Well, there's already a lot of tiny homes out there for poor people: Shanty towns, townships, favelas, cage homes, gypsy villages/traveler settlements, huts, cars, tents, tunnels and bridges. However, not too many people are happily living in such neighborhoods or living next to them while tiny home advocates are inspired by these shitty ways of housing during their backpack sabbaticals. If people are forced to live in shanty towns to save the climate which they can't leave, it's just waiting for a revolution or massive flows of economic migration towards places that have good conventional housing.
It's difficult to find dedicated communities that help you move in and provide grid utilities too. Also, if you have a complaint about your neighbours (E.G: Playing music really loud), either you have to move or they do. So there really isn't somebody to help solve conflicts quickly. It would be nice to see something like a real estate agent help people find good locations to move in. After that, you can contact the landowner's website (or something) if you need help/manage conflicts (the same way you'd do if you have a problem with your apartment neighbours). You'd obviously have to pay a 'rent land' fee. But this should still be much more affordable than traditional fixed homes. Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination. I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples. Tiny homes on wheels also give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage. I'd love to see what types of buildings/stores/shops would be built around tiny home communities. I'd also like to see landowners build a website where tiny homeowners can vote on what type of building they'd like to have built. This all costs a lot of money (millions to billions) to start a business up like this though. So it needs a Government level of intervention IMO.
While working my way through college and law school, in the 1970s, I lived in 2 tiny houses, one was 280 square feet, the other 780. They were called mobile homes and I loved them both, as they were the first places I could call home. In the first, I earned $1.65 per hour working in a service center for cars, called gas stations where most people got their cars which were out of warranty repaired in ancient times. The second, I was working as a Probation Officer at $8060 per year. I always felt rich and never missed a meal. I could easily see myself in another totally powered by solar energy here in South Florida. These homes allowed me to live comfortably on minimal income supporting myself. These could readily be one solution to homelessness and the climate crisis.
There are many RUclips channels that feature "tiny" homes, (e.g., "Living Big in a Tiny House", "Exploring Alternatives", etc.), where you get real life stories from people who decided to live in a tiny house. Another possible cost saver is many are building their tiny homes themselves, (either alone or with help.)
Many times it's not real life stories, but just hyped instagram nonsense. You can feel the cringe when people cannot properly stretch try to convince the viewer and themselves it's somehow better than to have comfortable space around yourself. If someone came to these guys with a properly sized home in exchange for their prison cell, they would take it in an instant. It's good when you're young and single. Not a solution to your mortgage-free life. If you're young and single - rent and don't get trapped in a tiny house. Peace.
Well as a 27 year old in the Canadian housing market, I feel like owning house is never going to happen. Between here and living in Europe for a few years, I've got used to living in
Matt, Well done! This is a wonderful and practical report. I definitely would love a Tiny House or Boxable home as a 2nd home in mountains or lake super close to my daughter! I must try an Air-BNB just for fun in NC! Cheers, Eric
Tiny homes, rvs, prefab, earthships, passive......all very interesting topics to me......great job giving a well rounded view of the tiny home movement.
Thanks, Matt for yet another great video! However, I think it misses one important aspect. Comparing ” regular” houses on foundations, big or small, where the land is freehold to tiny houses on wheels one very important aspect is often forgotten and that is that a house on foundation or on wheels is a depreciating asset. The land is what increases in value over time. Although I realize that a tiny house on wheels may be a great option for a lot of people to get out of the rent trap. I believe it's important to make clear in the comparison that not owning the land you park on means forgoing the value increase of the land, not just for yourself but for the next generation as well. Appreciating land is probably the most important way for regular people to build up wealth and to transfer it between generations.
One of the big problems of Tiny Homes is community acceptances. It is hard to legally park a Tiny Home in places that are not a campgrounds/RV Park. Too many towns have ordinances barring Motor Homes, Modular Homes, long residence in RVs and construction of homes under 1200 square feet. Many times Tiny Homes are licensed as RVs.
@@lorissupportguides True but then you need to add that cost before you do a like for like comparison. Matt didn't do that in this otherwise great video.
We kind of have a tiny home in our backyard that we made from a large storage shed we already had when my son and grandson had to come and live with us. We had the electric redone, put up new interior wall panels and laminate flooring, reinforced the lofts, and put in a ceiling fan. I built loft ladders from scratch as I could not find any that weren't outrageously expensive, and secured a small wooden fence at the end of each loft for safety. Our city let us get away with not considering it a whole separate home unit as we did not put in a kitchen and basically use it as extra bedrooms and living area. We also bought a compost toilet as it was too expensive to run plumbing.
I wanted a tiny house, but then I had a kid. I’d go insane in a tiny house with them. 2:52 I’m pretty sure large homes only ever became a thing because of maids & butlers. If you don’t have one of those, you know exactly what a pain it is to clean your huge house.
My wife and I lived in a tiny studio apartment for 1 month before we realized we needed to have a door SOMEWHERE to separate us haha. Tiny is great, but there is such thing as being too close to someone. Luckily theirs plenty of options that are sized between a full blown tiny home and a stand alone single family home to choose from!
The growth of home size in the past 50 years have nothing to do with maids and butlers. It has more to do with marketing. The pizza effect. Why sell you a cheese pizza when I can sell you a meat lovers and make more money?
@@Milanesa2010 that’s fair, probably many factors. I just see, more like hear, the gardening services and assume there’s maid services. A moderate house is fine, but I’ve seen some big houses and think about how I’d spend so much more time cleaning. I imagine if I was making enough money, I’m sure I’d find an add that gets me a maid to come clean up a bit. I suppose that’s capitalism at work; making new problems so there’s more reasons to spend money, all the while making more money.
The thing about home: It is a place where we go to feel good and safe. So emotional component is also important, not just logical one. I was checking some tiny houses (mostly based on containers) but the price m2 is higher than for traditional house. I mean, you can build a smaller house. For me, I need to feel good in my home, otherwise it is not worth it. And in them, I feel claustrophobic, even though I am not really like that. It just doesn't feel HOME. Also, financially, the price of those houses goes down pretty fast once bought, as there are always some new shiny models. I see on listings you can buy old ones (less than 10 yrs old) for 3-4000 while the new ones cost 30-40'000. That is quite a difference. Traditional house usually holds its price pretty well. Sometimes, you can even make some money if you sell it after 15-20 years. The reason why traditional houses consume that much has to do more with people living in them and their inability to control their consummation. Where i live, we do not use AC, so that is not an issue. We have lights that are functional, and used when needed. And it is the same for all electricity or water. Be conscious to not consume when you do not need.
Aren’t apartments much more of all these things than tiny homes? Combining them with more green space and amenities could make them more long term livable.
compare the price for the consumer vs tiny home. Appartments are built by large corporations driven by a desire for huge profits. Tiny houses are owned for a fraction of the cost of an appartment by their users, not big corporations. More freedom, better for the environment, no mortgage death traps, no more profits for super rich shareholders. A win all around for the little guy!
it really depends on where you buy those apartment the nice things about tiny houses is that you can live in the boonies i don't think you'd find a good apartment in rural Arizona
@@bakakafka4428 sure but in the land use and environmental sense they are much better. If apartments were designed a bit more for the well being of the residents and made more affordable they would be way better than a tiny house. Safer much more space for the environmental footprint.
There’s a law in Mass that if a trailer park owner is going to sell it then the current residents get right of first refusal. I’d like to see something similar put in place for apartment buildings. That way we might see apartments get bought and turned into condos every now and then. That way, we get the efficiency benefit of apartments AND people don’t have to be renters for their whole life.
@@RjWolf3000 Again, good luck with that. The problem is as an appartment user, you're always dependant on big corp. They own the building, at best you pay through the nose to own part of it but can't really make important decisions about what happens to the entire building. And forget about making them affordable. We live in a capitalist world, no corporation is working for its customers, only for its shareholders.
So glad covering this topic. I currently live in a tiny house in Cornwall (UK). As a beekeeper seeing the bees outside my window most morning is fab. Plus you really appreciate how little items you need to be happy. 164square feet incase anyone wanted to know size.
Hi. I'm in the UK too and thinking of a tiny house. Can you tell us what your land/tenancy situation is like? How did you find a site? What is your monthly site fee/rent?
It totally depends on your mode of income. If you work remotely you can go anywhere with satelite orf good mobile connection. If not then you will have to set it somewhere not to far from your workplace. And there is a pioneering advantage. If 50-100 million+ people start going around with mobile timy house you wont find a spot where you are alone and it would spoil nature resrrvations with semi permanent residents. So it is not a long term scalable solution at all.
@@thijsjong Tiny houses will never be a mass option IMO so the countryside views are safe. Its just too hard in terms of organizing your own services and utilities which require some basic level of self discipline and capability. In the end most will willingly collect their UBI and go live in a pod hive. Most will eat the bugs and say, "yummy".
Take a look at many Asia countries. Millions are living in tiny house for decades. I currently stay in Vietnam. Tiny house is common. 5m by 5m with a toilet and a loft. Vietnamese raise families in these houses. Myself have stay in such tiny house for a short period when building my own house.
Those houses do not address the dead-end of suburban sprawl, depriving people of a viable modal split like good cities (forcing car usage, no duplexes or 4 units per house with usable garden etc, no restaurants or small apartment buildings sprinkled in) and more. There is no option to choose the appropriate size depending on family size or moving easily when more size is needed. I am certain, that you do not like that in particular, but have no other option and too small is not a solution if the structural problem of the US is not solved.
I already live in one it's about 25 m2 almost fully solar powered so far it's been good I adore the fact that there isn't a space that I don't see and use no room that could stay unused ,
I live in a tiny home and i love it, off grid, with over kill solar that will eventually power my electric car, when i get one. Environmental concerns didnt exist, i wanted to be a home owner on a low income. I bought a 20ft container and built it up with every paycheck for 2 years, no loan. Well, I borrowed money from a family member to fund my overkill solar, 22KW LiFePo4 batteries and 7500 watts of solar panels. :P Better than paying $10,000 to a monopoly to drag a power line and charge me every month for the rest of my life. :P
Really great video, Matt! We definitely need to live gently on our planet. I hope to live like this in the near future and make videos on the process. I would love to see a video on the most sustainable apartments in high rise buildings in dense cities or megacities.
There’s a playlist on my channel of several apartments I toured in Da Nang, Vietnam. And a video of my current rental condo here in Cebu, Philippines. It’s only 264 sqft, but livable.
I am a rather big guy (6' 3), and a tiny house sounds painful, then I saw one that had 8 foot ceilings, single floor 400 sqft with not only a cool solar/wind setup but a really modern feel to it and fell in love. I now want to buy land (up here in Colorado), and place a main home (as close to net 0 as possible), and a host of small, isolated tiny homes in various builds to Air BNB out and show off what off grind and sustainable can feel like. Between the solar, wind, efficient build/appliances I feel it would be a great way of not only making money, but showing people that may be on the fence about alot of these technologies and techniques if it is right for them.
After living in a dormitory 50 years ago, with cafeteria, classrooms, lab & recreational facilities within easy walking distance. I always thought something like that would be a good choice after the kids left home. Not perfect,, but certainly an energy efficient lifestyle. This idea is entirely antithetical in a neoliberal world order, but a possibly an option in avoiding a 6th Great Extinction.
Me and my mom vacationed a short time in a stationary two-story tiny house. We had WiFi and stuff. Bedroom on the ground floor, living room and kitchen on the extra floor. Not bad. I live in a house where everything is on the ground floor. Mom lives in a condo.
It's a good way to increase the precariat of workers that can be ' moved along' when not needed. They can be easily exploited and bullied by authorities, local governments and business. They can also help drive the price of normal houses further into the stratosphere as this ' option' becomes more commonplace and more frightening. It's a dream come true for many businesses but a nightmare in the making, when this phenomenon matures. I am typing this from a stylish tiny house, with a nice view, that allowed me to live rent free at last. It's a good sidestep for a few now, but I can see how this will go for the next generation and it's not good.
@Horseshoe Party You probably think everyone, the sensible side of Trump is a leftist. Clearly you've huffed way to much diesel and Jenkem for that matter.
2 problems I have with tiny houses currently: water/sewer hookups and doing laundry. I smaller, washer/dryer combined unit can solve the laundry issue, but it requires the water/sewer hookup to be dealt with still. And before you start talking storage tanks for them, that crosses the line from tiny mobile house to full on camper trailer with all sorts of requirements and problems that come with it, including having to be able to haul the full tanks if need be or having too little capacity to be practical.
This is always going to stay a niche. People like space, so when they can get it, they will get it. It's also completely unsuitable for big cities, because you can't stack them :-)
@@dinokknd True, but right now those suburbs are built assuming everyone wants to live like that. Almost identical houses row after row. Maybe throw some variation in there with tiny homes?
@@dinokknd True, but right now those suburbs are built assuming everyone wants to live like that. Almost identical houses row after row. Maybe throw some variation in there with tiny homes?
I like what Boxabl is doing. Just the idea that I can buy a tiny house now that I can fold it up and move it anywhere, but if I want to add more space later I can just attach another Boxabl onto my existing one. Of course you still need to consider land, foundation, black/gray water systems, etc.
Huge impact.....in compatible to other households. Realistically it has absolutely no impact even if there were thousands of these. Cynical sounding I know but it's the truth, our society is to focused on whatever sounds nice without actual major practical overhauls to actually make some progress. This is just a cool house but it does near on nothing to aid the environmental situation.
I wouldn’t choose a tiny house because I want my children and grandchildren to able to stay with us when they come to visit. I also enjoy woodworking … I guess I could find another hobby, but I like making things. But I intend to downsize substantially after we retire anyway. But aren’t apartments and condos even more efficient since most units only have 1 exterior wall? If you want to be able to move easily, why not just live in a camper? It would be nice to be able to live in the north in the summer and move south in the winter without the expense of owning two homes.
The Summerwood Products Bala Bunkie is actually $20,744 (01/18/2022), not $10,000. As a matter of fact, the base kit is $12,296. That price is simply a kit, without the windows, doors, loft, ect, which does not come prebuilt and you have to build it yourself. Hope this helps.
I liked it when you said “out of necessity “looks like a lot of people are need of a small home out of necessity right now I am seeing more In my home town that is a tourist town and as such we have a huge affordable house problem
I live in a 20x8 'toy hauler' open floorplan rv trailer and it's perfect for a single person. My folks live in a much larger 47ft, triple-slide toy hauler witha seperate garage area. It's...expansive, and requires a large truck to tow it, but they're retired and 'living the life' so whatryagonnado.
I have blueprints for a tiny home I found on another RUclips channel (Living BIG in a Tiny Home). Can't wait to secure the funding and get started! My plan is to have as little reliance on the traditional electricity grid as possible, hopefully solar glass will be close to on-par with panels by then.
True, but I feel like most apartments should be condos. We keep saying that we have a “supply problem” with housing but then don’t bat an eye when companies keep buying up that supply and turning it into rentals.
I would love to have an earth ship. I first read about them as a kid in the 90's. It was such a cool idea at the time to repurpose what everyone considered garbage. This was before cities in the US had widely adopted recycling.
I live in a short bus I converted 4 years ago which is about 110sqft and has a shower composting toilet solid fuel range cooker induction hobs seating for 3 with small single bed (2' 6" wide) that expands to UK king size (5ft wide) full size kitchen sink, fridge washing machine and drier plus overhead and cupboard storage plus of coarse driver and passenger seat for when I need to move the bus. Oh and I have 1325w of solar on the roof. I would like a bit more space at times but it's hard to give up the idea of almost no bills aka about £800 a year for everything.
Great video and I'm lucky. Southern England is in some of the densest population in the world. UK has some of the smallest homes in the developed world. Interestingly I don't have a heating bill as the building is so well insulated. I've never needed to use it! ;-) That's already saved me thousands of pound£!
I am interested in tiny house design. But, I have absolutely no interest in ever living in one. To me, they serve the same purpose as writing short stories, the experience makes you better at designing the full-size thing.
You should read Sarah Susanka's book The Not So Big House she even goes through the struggles that ended up resulting in people building small modular homes and how she came up with it.
Agreed. I’m hoping to buy a townhome in my city in the next year or two. Let’s me put solar panels up, and have a small garden while staying close enough to use public transportation often. Huge win for efficient land use as well as my CO2 emissions!
Just got some land in Tennessee for under 10k. Living in a camper atm but hoping to build a tiny home by summer. Depending on the cost of wood I'm expecting to spend around 3-5k for building materials. As a low wage worker I'm excited to not pay rent anymore!
I'm all for sustainability, efficiency and things like that. I plan to take serious steps to address that in any home I own. However, I also want a large home, and probably larger over the years. With the advent of WFH, my home is my office, my gym, and so much more. Plus I'm growing a family, so we need space for them too. My coming home, I'll be seeking in the realm of 2000sqft-2400sqft + basement. But increasing efficiency in the home once I acquire it is going to be my #1 priority for so many reasons. Plus I'm not going to buy a home that has a natural gas stove, for starters. I plan to have this as a serious asset, since a lot of my time is in and around the home.
It's mostly about depriving yourself of a lot of comforts, as Matt says. I have been following tiny houses somewhat, and unfortunately the actually usable non-movable ones are about as expensive as normal homes, and the movable ones are very dependent on local regulations. Most trendy ones are PR-only, with very limited living options. They are more like a PR-hyped mobile home. The multi-purpose, custom stuff is much more expensive than something from IKEA, with limited options, warranty, etc. Speaking of warranty, the tiny homes also carry a much shorter one. And if you have a fixed one built as custom, the builders will probably ask for extra for too little work. Last I heard though, banks weren't very keen on lending for tiny mobile house as a house, only as regular credit, or as a special class, higher rated than home loan. And there are more than a few scams out there like basically all the container ones, which have basically no real insulation possible unless you throw away pretty much all of the container. This info is about a year or two old, and I'm not in the US, so the insane housing prices did probably change this somewhat. Also not mentioned: probably not an option for anyone with any mild physical disability, as space is of a premium
Thank you. As a person with multiple chemical sensitivities and mobility disabilities (need to use a wheelchair), I don't think a tiny house would work for me at all. They might be OK for a single person or couple who are young and healthy.
Cool. Come to Hong Kong. Our flats are going down all the way to 200 ft^2. However, it still cost you whole life of working to earn the money to buy one.
The problem is that tiny homes are mostly owned by people who have a regular sized home as well. Tiny homes are fine, but if they aren't lived in, they are a waste.
As a concept they have certain advantages in sustainably, but imho are only for certain people with a specific mindset, lifestyle and not typically welcome in larger urban society. I've stayed in several of them for a week or so and at my size and age 6'6" 240 and Old found them painful and more work to live in. The Showers suck, bumping heads on things and crawling up a ladder to a queen size and low overhead...just doesn't cut it in my book, let alone liking to cook and having to do that on a tiny propane stove and an oven the size of a toaster. However, I do say "Good on those who wish to go that way" it all helps!
I think the biggest take-away is not just the upfront cost, but more so the creative use of the available space and room planning/distribution. Imagine if modern single-family homes were constructed with the tinyhome principles in mind, so that you could actually get the same usable space as before, but perhaps the overall footprint is halved. This would not only give more available land, but it would also significantly lower the cost of construction, as well as maintenance and monthly bills. Heating/cooling would go down since you only have half the space to heat/cool. Less expense will go to stuff like carpeting, paint and cleaning, furniture and decoration, lighting, electricity as a whole, and so on. And if utility is the same despite a smaller footprint, it's likely that resale value won't take a big hit either, due to the advantage of lower monthly expenses while still offering the same core utility and space as a traditional single family house. The only place you really see this unfold, is in the typical NY apartments where as much utility is crammed into as tight a space as possible due to the insane pricing per square feet of space.
Would you want to live in a tiny house? Do you already? Go to brilliant.org/Undecided to sign up for free. And also, the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium membership.
If you liked this video, check out: Why 3D Printing Batteries Matters; ruclips.net/video/Jlt8_z86F-o/видео.html
Yes.
"Undecided" clever name.
It depends. What about the high-rise multi-story apartments, like the one I'm living in? It packs a high population density per building.
@@muhdfauzibmohdrais3844 I teach kids in China and they mostly live like this. Pushing meat is evil... agenda $ always
Hell No! 😂that’s basically a prison lol😭
Having lived in small spaces before, the fantasy about there being less cleaning is just that -- a fantasy. There's less space to clean, but because everything is so tightly packed in, you feel it immediately if something gets dirty. As a result, I'd feel like I was ALWAYS cleaning and nothing was ever clean. There's definitely a happy medium between having to clean all the time because the space is too small, and having to clean all the time because the space is too big.
Thanks for the dose of realism. I’d also imagine that since the place is so small cleaning can only take so long. So you might end up cleaning daily for 15 minutes instead of every three days for 45 minutes.
In a small space, it's so hard to organize stuff. For example uf I need to quickly pull out some old clothes, I need to rearrange some stuff, pull it out then again re-arrange everything back
Also those tiny houses seem like a vacation home, for some reason they just feel like a place you'd go for a vacation and love
I love second floors where you can see the first floor easily
I currently live in a really small space (10 square meters). This is because I'm saving up money to move to New Zealand. When I moved here I moved from a 85 square meter apartment and I have with a lot of creativity been able to get everything sans furniture into this new space. But you have to be very cogniscent about what you're doing. I clean up about 2-3 minutes per day and manage to keep things real tidy.
I think it also forces your hand to put things back in their place. Because as soon as you start putting things out of their designated places it starts getting messy.
But yeah, I pay 500 SEK (about 60 USD) a month for this, which allows me to save about 13500 SEK per month. And that's what enticed me in. Obviously.
@@Zizoor What does it feel like
Does it feel like a normal home
A vacation home
Or what?
It would be interesting to see a breakdown comparison between cost of tiny houses vs massive sky scraper apartments.
Man skyscrapers are not the best solution, 3 to 7 floar blocks are ok for a dense city, just look at paris and barcellona
Hear hear!
you can make a building that's basically micro apartments the size of tiny homes stacked up 3-6 stories. That will get you higher density, lower prices, and way more units on the housing market.
@@adamspencer3702 That's about the most sensible thing to do. Of course, nobody does it.
@@adamspencer3702 Sounds like the houses in "Ready Player One"
A big missconception is, that the size of a house alone makes it "green". But a small bachelor appartment is just as sufficient and even if built traditionally just as "green". An appartment has 4 or 5 sides to a neighbour, where there is no heat loss, no material intensive exterial walls. Location is a key too. 200 people living in a 20 storey building use very little land and infrastructure like roads, sewage lines, power lines, busses, trams etc.. 200 tiny houses spread out use lots of space and lead to all the current traffic and urban sprawl problems. This is never regarded when comparing the quaint tiny house in savage nature to the small appartment in the concrete jungle. While your video is good and inspiring, it leaves out the bigger picture.
I started watching the video hoping for some kind of reasoning along these lines. I was disappointed. The title should be changed to "Why I like tiny homes".
Problem in general with the movement surrounding tiny houses is that they glorify it too literally. It's still a house and comes with all negative environmental and social impacts of being a house. Tiny living is a staple in many cities already, but only now it's being glorified as a lifestyle rather than being out of neccessity like it used to be. This adversely will affect housing costs.
Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination.
I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples.
Tiny homes on wheels give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage.
Sensical zoning, building, and residential design practices are obviously the best direction.
Unfortunately, the US is designed from the ground up to turn its citizens into wage slaves via recurring debt and expenses. Citizens do not really see the _economic_ benefits of being packed in like sardines in apartment blocks. Rather, that benefit is being pocketted by big banks betting on your apartment complex's value, encouraging the builder to sell for top dollar, the government to tax the land for top dollar, and the landlord to in turn charge you top dollar for rent.
Small homes are more of an economic response to me. They dodge zoning b@llshit, they dodge certification, and they actually exist on a small enough scale that, FOR ONCE, buying and owning a home is affordable for the youngest generations... God forbid we dont pay rent the rest of our lives.
@@hatman4818 Well said. We might escape this fate, but the generation just onfront of us, that are currently in schools, they may never be able to say they own a house, until they're gifted one by a relative dying.
neat idea, but i cant imagine lots of apartment sized houses being more efficient than an apartment building
I think the difference is that you own the tiny house, vs perpetually renting an apartment from someone else that actually owns it. You'll never pay off an apartment, whereas one of the major benefits of the tiny home is affordability. You pay it off, then it costs you nothing other than what you need to run/maintain it, and any applicable taxes.
@@cmcpheet in my country, appartments can also he bought. And efficiency...renting or buying is irrelevant isnt it?
@Tyson Bryant Literarily this, the so called "live in pod, eat bugs".
@@cmcpheet I’m gonna blow your mind here: you can buy an apartment
I could if I had to move into a tiny house, no way would I move into an apartment block "flats" in the UK. Noise from above, below and on each side (shudder)
I think this video overlooks the environmental/climate implications of having large amounts of the population living in disparate lots of land vs densely grouped neighbourhoods (i.e. walkable cities).
The cost of sewage, electricity infrastructure, roads and transportation, but also fire, healthcare, childcare, education… all those costs and climate impacts climb when housing is designed in isolation with the individual in mind.
To speak nothing of whether you can have a job nearby your tiny home.
Tiny homes are legit, though- and seem like a lot of fun (we researched building one!), but it’s important not to overlook the system of housing and it’s impact collectively.
Excellent reply. My wife and I have live in an off-grid (i.e. no hardwired utilities: Solar, 1040 Ah of batteries, 550 gallon cistern filled with rainwater, graywater filtration garden, separating toilet, backup gasoline generator, propane for heating) tiny home for 3.5 years now. The ability to tuck such a house into a secluded nook and avoid the upfront cost + ongoing maintenance of utilities is pretty huge on the front end. It makes a solid amount of sense, to us, in our situation (169 acres of conservation land + off-grid pioneers, even if we don't really want to be all the time because it's hard, especially in an elevated structure). However, it's pretty poorly targeted for a variety of situations. As with everything, especially much of what Matt covers, it's just another tool in the global resource-management toolkit - applicable to a variety of situations, and poorly suited to others.
I low key really want to live in a hobbit village. The best of both worlds.
I agree. I live in a planned suburb with a mix of apartments/condominiums (from around 52m2 to 88m2), terraced homes (around 90 to 120m2) with yards, and detached houses. Car roads are separated from walking and bicycle paths/greenways, and all schools, train stations, library, and shops are accessible by the paths. While living spaces are smaller than in new suburbs of detached houses, the area is popular for convenience. I'd love to see if tiny houses could be added to the mix, perhaps as terraced housing.
@@marysue4729 It's difficult to find dedicated communities that help you move in and provide grid utilities too.
Also, if you have a complaint about your neighbours (E.G: Playing music really loud), either you have to move or they do. So there really isn't somebody to help solve conflicts quickly.
It would be nice to see something like a real estate agent help people find good locations to move in. After that, you can contact the landowner's website (or something) if you need help/manage conflicts (the same way you'd do if you have a problem with your apartment neighbours). You'd obviously have to pay a 'rent land' fee. But this should still be much more affordable than traditional fixed homes.
Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination.
I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples.
Tiny homes on wheels also give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage.
I'd love to see what types of buildings/stores/shops would be built around tiny home communities. I'd also like to see landowners build a website where tiny homeowners can vote on what type of building they'd like to have built.
This all costs a lot of money (millions to billions) to start a business up like this though. So it needs a Government level of intervention IMO.
Tiny homes are great for 1-2 people, but not for families. I believe many of the homeless veterans should get a free tiny home to live in and get off the street.
Well, they are dropping empty shipping containers all over they place near ports on the west coast. They would make good bones for quick homeless housing.
@@MustPassTruck Wooden tinny housing can be crafted from "parts" like in an assembly line schema. It could become really cheap.
Shipping containers are costly. Even if companies don't use them, they won't sell cheap.
Or just regular apartments. Way more efficient
@@salvatorefarmerson3226 You can get bare, used shipping containers for about $2k.
The issue with shipping container homes is that you still have to build the home "around" it. So cost goes up. Make to code? Cost goes way up. Unless you want to spend the money, containers tend to be better suited for storage and small garages.
I agree, tiny homes are not great for families. I don't believe free housing should be a solution for homeless. When you give people free stuff, people then expect free stuff. In order to have a safe place off the streets, you'll be responsible for cleaning and/or maintaining "this" portion of the neighborhood. A group of people living and working together to keep their city clean and safe, and maybe growing a community garden, in return for their own place. It gives them responsibilities and a sense of ownership. But that's just my opinion.
i've looked into a tiny myself, was strongly tempted to buy one, but with me not having a big towing license, or a car capable of towing them, i bought a one bedroom house instead. it's pretty much as small as i could get while still being big enough to do everything i wanted it to.
Towing license? I've kept my eye on the tiny house movement for over a decade now and I've never heard of that.
I find it interesting that those tiny house ads rarely show the huge ass truck you need to tow them around and most likely use as a daily commute.
I wonder how much does that impact the environmental and economic evaluation of those tiny houses.
Tiny houses, huge trucks sounds like going in two different directions at the same time.
@@ItchyKneeSon I think that he meant a special license for trailers etc.. In some countries your regular drivers license isn't enough to drive with trailers. The same way that your regular drivers license isn't enough to drive a truck.
Dude...tiny houses are not trailers meant to be towed around like an RV. You move them ONLY when you need to from city to city and its not expensive to pay a pro hauling company to move it for you. I guarantee towing on the rare occasion you need to move is soooo much cheaper than paying fees to smell a house and then haul your belongings. Think about it :/
@@offgrid1356 not all tiny houses, but those that are built on a wheeled chassis are distinguishable from trailers mostly because of the different name. And some extra style. A fancy trailer is a trailer nonetheless
Off grid over 20 years in a 14x14 hand built cabin. No house payment, no utility bills and freedom. I teach people how to build off grid cabins and install solar power on my channel.
I lived in a heritage mansion that got converted into tiny units. Mine was 450sqft and I loved it. I think a tiny home community would work fine with a large central hub of services (school, grocery, rec centre, library, etc.). It wouldn't really be too sprawly since the lots are smaller, most people could get around with bikes, golf carts, or electric autonomous vehicles.
That's what my friend said to his girl
We built and lived in a tiny home in Alberta, Canada. It was still our favourite house so far. The biggest challenge is finding somewhere to park. Every county close to any urban center has zoning regs that severely limit or outright deny TH living. Most up here see them as no different than RVs, which are basically limited to campgrounds. Other TH people we know in the area rent some space on someone's acreage, away from prying eyes who might report them. We planned to live in our TH with our first child, but he was born super premature and required bulky oxygen tanks/equipment; so that ultimately ended our stay in there.
Yeah, it's difficult to find dedicated communities that help you move in and provide grid utilities too.
Also, if you have a complaint about your neighbours (E.G: Playing music really loud), either you have to move or they do. So there really isn't somebody to help solve conflicts quickly.
It would be nice to see something like a real estate agent help people find good locations to move in. After that, you can contact the landowner's website (or something) if you need help/manage conflicts (the same way you'd do if you have a problem with your apartment neighbours). You'd obviously have to pay a 'rent land' fee. But this should still be much more affordable than traditional fixed homes.
Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination.
I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples.
Tiny homes on wheels also give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage.
I'd love to see what types of buildings/stores/shops would be built around tiny home communities. I'd also like to see landowners build a website where tiny homeowners can vote on what type of building they'd like to have built.
This all costs a lot of money (millions to billions) to start a business up like this though. So it needs a Government level of intervention IMO.
Yes I live in one now! 580 sq feet! Needs renovation though! My bills and taxes are low!
I love that my house in Poland is made out of cinder blocks. Keeps the heat inside in the winter, and cold in the summer.
im 100% down for a tiny home have wanted one forever, what was stopping me was not having a solid internet connection. but once Starlink is up and running im dipping into the mountains to live in a cabin :D
you'd be surprised to know (as I was) that wood construction has better insulation profile than concrete blocks.
Starlink will really increase the amount of people living out in the boonies, especially since work from home is becoming so much more normal.
@@Milanesa2010 i dont think so... concrete blocks arent bare on the outside they are sprayed with foam and then siding put on it. and as concrete can hold more heat or lack of heat makes it a better insulator for a home. trust me ive lived in both types of houses and its much easier to heat/cool the cement block house.
You don't want to hold heat, at least not with something that has direct connection to the outside, as that just transfer the heat out. You can build well insulated houses using cinder blocks, but it's a reason that in the cold north houses are usually wooden, since it's easier to avoid these "heat bridges" with it.
I live in a concrete apartment, wall and roof is basically two separate layers, sort of like a house within a house.
Luckily for you Poland has quite mild climate 😉
@@foobar6846 it doesnt have directoconnection to the outside its sprayed with insulating foam on the outside and paneling put ontop of it.
In the Lean Manufacturing world we have a saying “people will use up any space that they’re given.”
When I’m teaching this to a class I often intentionally seat two people at every table except for one where I seat one person. Without fail, by mid afternoon, that one person has dispersed stuff over their whole table while everyone else takes up only half.
We do the same things in our homes. Larger closets, garages, and yards only leads to use buying more junk.
You don’t even have to go all out on a tiny home. Just purchasing a condo or townhome instead of a single family home can make a huge impact!
I have a really big house, and outhouses.... and its more or less all filled up... The more space you have, the more you use, that is certainly very true!
An even bigger challenge than financing is siting. While tiny houses make so much sense, most municipalities have yet to even begin modifying their building codes to accommodate tiny houses in any meaningful way.
So, if you're a single tiny house, it's difficult to find a legal place to set up. And, if you're a land owner who'd like to develop a tiny house community, it's next to impossible as most zoning ordinances view tiny living more like a mobile home or RV park.
And, while many municipalities are adopting Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) codes, these aren't your typical Tiny House On Wheels (THOW). This kind of thinking defeats the purpose of tiny house living as we've come to understand it, by requiring larger minimum footprints, permanent foundations and utility connections for electrical, water and sewer.
So, those are some of the downsides not mentioned in this piece. One desirable aspect of tiny living that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the video is mobility. For someone who doesn't want to be tied down to a single location, wants to "chase 70" or simply wants to see and experience more of the country, tiny living, be it a THOW, an RV or a van, is very attractive.
As a divorced empty nester, I decided to right-size out of a beautiful 2,400 ft² home in an HOA community with amenities in 2017. Since then, I've recast my career while completely changing the way that I live in just under 100 ft². I couldn't be happier.
I generate, store and distribute my own electricity, and even heat water with excess solar production. I can place a hose in a muddy puddle and make pure water. I designed, built and thoroughly enjoy a recirculating shower that uses a single gallon of water, as well as a composting toilet that produces no sewage.
Best of all, I'm free to go wherever I want, whenever I want by virtue of my ability to work from anywhere.
I started adult life as a nuclear engineer and chemist aboard nuclear submarines where I had a rack (a.k.a. bed) and 3 ft³ to call my own. So, I joke that 100 ft² is quite an upgrade :)
Tiny living definitely isn't for everyone. But for those who chose it, it should be a much easier alternative to pursue.
at 45,000 the price per square is about $250. most tiny home prices always seem to assume the land is free. a tiny home may be fine for 1, but beyond that you will get in each others way.
10:19 - I absolutely love that they're towing the home with the hanging baskets swinging around. 😂 As a tiny trailer owner, I know the importance of having EVERYTHING stowed away and locked down, even when moving a short distance - but that's just hilarious.
These things arent proper camping trailers, theyre more like mobile homes. They sit on wheels to move once in a while, and to dodge the certification process, but otherwise, theyre meant to mostly sit in one place for years.
I've been curious about this myself recently. One small problem I keep running into is that everywhere I search, the towed mobile trailer tiny home or rural off grid homes are what's shown, when I myself am looking for a stationary urban tiny home. I feel like there's just a little too much emphasis/focus on mobility when it comes to this area.
In urban environment in order to live small, you need to live in an apartment, condo, townhouse. Land is too valuable in an urban environment for a tiny house to be affordable.
Tiny home Pros
1. Sometimes, but not usually can be cheaper.
2. Lower carbon footprint
3. Lower utilities.
4. Faster cleaning.
Tiny home Cons
1. Most places ban them. (Don't want a mobile home park mentality)
2. Most are quite expensive.
3. Insurance is high.
4. Many mobile units cannot be parked in most cities
5. Kids.
What? Tiny homes come with preinstalled kids?!
Ok, I'm out.
@@lonestarr1490 😆
Another thing to consider is a mobile tiny home will need a pretty sizeable truck to haul it around. That not only adds to the cost but also the carbon footprint.
Most modular homes are meant to be used as a park unit. You can haul them around but that's not how they're built
Unless you can get your hands on a Cybertruck! :D
You don’t need to own that truck. You just use one when needed.
What??? a) you don't move it everyday. It is a home, after all. and b) Rent a truck when you do move.
I've lived in small apartments and a small house that was about 700sq.ft. I live in a small apartment now. This one is about 700sq ft. But it's comfortable and costs about $500USD total with utilities and groceries. And it's about 10 minutes from the beach. It's in Mexico. All things considered, I'm good. 👍
Personally I'd like to see shift to ~1000 sq ft townhouses and rowhouses. It would give more space to people with families, while also being a regular building that can fit in a normal city without having to park awkwardly in a rural area. Small footprint would mean high-density, walkable communities, but would still provide all the amenities people expect nowadays. Plus, you mentioned your house built in the '50s is about that size, and that seems a really good compromise size for a lot of people.
Getting walkability and higher density of people single family zoning has to give way. Also, set back laws and minimum lot size restrictions have to be changed. But smaller homes will help.
I mean, that's fine for the US and Canada, but we already have that in the UK. Tiny houses may be quite an improvement over terracing.
@@antonisautos8704 Absolutely. Onerous zoning restrictions need to be abolished. I'd much rather have cozy narrow streets full of trees, lined with townhouses, and everyone able to have a decent backyard than wide streets and huge setbacks. No one even uses their front yards anyways! At least people regularly use their backyards for gardening, recreation, socializing, etc. North American cities especially need drastically better design and development.
@@ulrichspencer check out " not just bikes " on here and he goes into detail about it. I think you'll like his videos
@@antonisautos8704 I already watch him! One of my other favorite urban design channels is Oh The Urbanity!, which you may also like.
Hi Matt. This is really a good one. I like it. But it's pretty unspectacular, if you live on a sailing boat, like me. Tiny, low energy consumption, solar power, wind generator, water desalination,... check out how people live aboard. They already use a lot of modern technologies and almost no energy, even on very old boats.
We have lived on a tugboat build in 1887. It was not very comfortable to say the least. I still remember the feeling of luxury when we could just push a button to flush the toilet when we moved into a apartment.
But nowadays we are once again looking for a boat to live on. The boat itself is easy to find but a place to be able to live in it legally is very hard. The feeling of living on the water, having the outside almost inside your house is wonderful.
@@autobootpiloot that sounds great. Nothing compares to living on a boat ;-) l will try to do it until I physically cannot do it anymore. And yes all burocratic things get more complicated. That's a pain in the neck. But there are always ways. Definitely find another boat and enjoy as long as possible. :-)
Many folks live on narrowboats in the UK for similar reasons. I always liked looking at the folding furniture and tiny appliances. Plus nowadays I can see the appeal of parking up by a riverside pub and getting a meal there… the pub garden is your garden, etc.
@@kaitlyn__L that sounds like a great plan. 😉
I lived in a tiny home - a houseboat, for six years in the '80's. The first three years, it was my wife and I. The last three years, we had our first child. Living on the water was WAY much nicer a place to live - three seasons of the year. Sadly, the last season made up for it. There were no appropriately sized anything: from furnaces and furniture. I expect that this has changed since then.
what do you do for living ?
I got so deep into the tiny house movement that I'm about to start going to school for interior design so I can make a career out of designing them. Would love to live in one to. In my home town in Canada, we just passed some new laws that not only allow tiny homes, but the city encourages them! It's great!
Designing a small structure is relatively easy. You may want to focus on mobility and/or modularity of said structures.
@@ungoyone I do like including a back door that can be used to build on an extension if the occupants need more space, like if a family grows or they need a home office. Works better on foundation though unless you like driving a road train lol
Yep. Since Canada is importing half a million people each year, you get to enjoy living like a serf on 200 sq feet. Enjoy that. Your city definitely does!
:)
@@ungoyone Well he is talking about interior design and in this case small structures can be more challenging as big ones as you need to be more space efficient. Like with the stairs we have seen in the vid, that also have storage, furniture you can fold up and hide when not needed, or using ladders, that can be folded up, when not needed. I think you can be very creative in small spaces.
That's awesome! Glad to hear there's some progressive cities up here. We lived in a TH just outside Calgary but had to do it under the radar on an acreage to avoid the zoning regs.
I’ve been doing some research into tiny monolithic domes. I really like the idea combined with geothermal heating/cooling. I have come to realize that a $250 electric bill is robbing me of my ability to squirrel away significant savings.
Mine (I call it The Gypsy Wagon) is 14x8, 112 sq ft. I’ve been in it for 4 years and love love love it! It was $5K, used.
It’s allowing me to continue to exist while I pursue my artistic endeavors.
It’s important to setup with access to a real bathroom though. It would be a problem not to have that access.
Hiw do the kids copy with the space?
@@rafaeldegiacomoaraujo8778 Not recommended for children, or spouses … only the lonely (who like it that way).
I would love to live in a tiny house, but I also love to use the big boy stuff like large solar arrays. I’m thinking of combining that.
The thing is that the size of houses, particularly in NA, is not so much because people love big houses, but instead it's because of zoning laws, which often impose minimum size lots as well as minimum dwelling surface, and setbacks.
Having a minimum size lot with significant setbacks and no subdivision possible often means that the way for a developer to make the most money out of a lot is to build the biggest house possible, because a bigger house will sell for more, even though that's not necessarily what people are looking for.
If we want to talk about reducing the footprint of homes in North America, we need to start by changing zoning codes to allow for smaller units, smaller lots, multiple units on the same lot, remove setback requirements, removing parking requirements, etc.
This would be more effective at diversifying housing offer as well as letting people build smaller. There are still many places where building a static tiny home is prohibited, and that's part of why so many of them are on wheels : because they can't legally not have wheels. But this also comes with a massive drawback : maximum weight requirement. Those maximum weight requirements mean that often we have to choose lighter materials for insulation, which often leads to poorer insulation than what is possible for a static home, or higher insulation cost due to more expensive materials to get the same insulation quality with a lower weight.
I love this idea and would have joined the movement in my 20s if it had been around. For abled young people not planning families or needing to consider elderly parents down the line, this seems wonderful. This concept, while superb, needs expanding/modifying for the reality of most people in the world, who live in three or four generation households. Also, what is the lifetime of these structures. Houses, at least in the UK or Brazil where I've lived, are expected to last between 100 and 200 years, with maintenance and care.
I'm not even all that old and I have swore off two-story houses already. I can't imagine being in my 70s+ trying to climb a ladder to squeeze into loft bed. No thanks, just give me an apartment at that point.
Tinny houses for those who can’t yet afford a full size house, I think it’s great idea!
I got a tiny house in 2016. Matt, you’re right on with your assessment both good and bad. I was able to cut my expenses down to $1,500/month for everything (sans food and entertainment). I’m now debt free and on track to be able to retire early if I want even though I’ve spent almost a year (on and off) unemployed since then. It wasn’t all because of a tiny house, but it gave me a lot of freedom and the flexibility to roll with what life has thrown at me.
Do you have a THOW or one on foundation? I really want to get a THOW, but figuring out where to park it is a challenge in my state.
I have been in a tiny house but felt really claustrophobic. That being said looking at how house prices in Canada are rising it might be my only option.
Not much different here in the UK, especially in the south house prices are so expensive that most young people can only afford a small house. All the new houses are made small so that the developer can maximise profit and pish as many in as possible.
@@philiphawkins4684 it seems to be the story all around the world. As a struggling film maker I think I will be wearing a while before I get a house to start a family in.
The one thing that makes me hesitant of moving into a tiny home is that for a regular person, who doesn't own land, your need to rent a space to park your tiny home. In other words, you wouldn't be able to be rent free. Some states require that there that the tiny house may not be the primary residence in the land, and treat the tiny house like an RV. I feel we've got a long way to go before tiny houses are treated like actual homes.
A tip ; To reduce heating : turn off or down the thermostat or heater and wear a jacket at home .
Make sure you don't have frozen pipes, that would negate the savings
Haven't got frozen pipes before, what kind of temperature do you get those? I've lived in a place with winter going down -2 to -5 C . I never turn on the heater as it gives me a terrible head ache . I just wear a jacket or thermals + jacket . Walls is pretty well insulated with double or triple layered insulated windows , maybe that helped .
Me, my wife, and three dogs live in 80sqft. We used the space very efficiently, and love it. Also Walden is awesome!
I think the only thing I disagree with is saying how forgoing AC and other appliances increases the efficiency. Would be like saying how I've increased the efficiency of my car by not owning one. I live in a hot part of Australia so AC is mandatory in my mind 😂
Love your videos Matt!
Is it though? The point is keeping the living space at a comfortable temperature. If you can achieve that in a different way (clever design, choice of material, insulation…), then why is an AC mandatory? And even it it still is: it will be much easier and require way less energy to cool a tiny house than a big one.
He said CENTRAL ac and heat. The small homes all tend to have climate systems, but they are more apt to have a small wood stove and a small split AC instead of a huge outdoor compressor. Not a CENTRAL unit.
@@redwolfexr In a one room trailer, the split unit is central.
agree. I guarantee you that nobody in the American South lives without air conditioning.
Most mini-splits units do both AC and heating and it's easy to get one that handles 400 sq feet (more than is needed for most tiny homes) and still are pretty efficient.
the thing bout tiny homes is you can expand them as you go, but so many laws are in the way of just doing. if laws werent blocking so much you could start out in a 1 room tiny home and just build on extra rooms as you go or as is needed.
Small spaces can have mental impacts, on many people, privacy, depression, claustrophobia, small houses are not for all people, small spaces can be effectively compared to a prision cell, to some people.
You forgot to add the cost of where you park the mobile house. Some places charge $500 a month for parking, electric, water, and sewer.
Thank you for the great video! You compare cost and impact of single (family) homes. But what about apartment houses, which are often more efficient? I do not think that building even more single family homes in the suburbs is the future, tiny or not.
Indeed. Check out Strong Towns for a compelling analysis of why suburban city design is not sustainable. Tiny houses all seem to focused on free standing units (not efficient for heating!) and almost require a large outdoor space in order to be able to live there and keep your sanity. That leads to relatively low densities I think. Also, I often see wood burning heating in such tiny houses. Not a big issue when it’s sitting alone in the woods, but not an efficient form of heating either and not environmentally friendly or healthy. You don’t want that in cities or even if you have them close together like in some of the imagery shown in the video.
Because renters and buyers are two separate demographics in the housing market.
The tiny homes RARELY end up in the suburbs, they tend to not pass local code. Just like manufactured and trailer houses are rarely inside the city limits unless there is a special "park."
@@redwolfexr true, comparing to condos may be more appropriate.
I've been following Living Big in a Tiny House on yt for several years now. Lot's of great ideas.
I think I could live in a tiny home, but I would need a storage structure for my camping equipment, kayaks, canoes, bikes, tools etc. That would be a lot bigger than a tiny home, but the storage area would have minimal power requirements so over all I expect it would bring my emissions way down.
Why do you need to own all of those things? To fill a storage space with unused stuff?
@@benjamindover4337 I use them all on a regular basis, and virtually all are associated with activities that have minimal environmental impact after the production phase. I also buy pretty good stuff that won't wear out easy, then keep things until I don't need them and at that time I sell or give away to someone that will use it. And I don't upgrade at every new product release.
What you are describing exists... its called a TRAILER.
This is the problem I see with a lot of Tiny Homes. The home itself is just a bedroom and eventually the owner adds an outside shower and then an outhouse, understandably, to get away from any poop smells in such a small place. Then they add an outdoor kitchen and a toolshed/garage for the utilities and before you know it they live in an average sized house. Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea of Tiny Homes but it seems more like an affordable base home that you add onto. Great for getting a lot of people started in home ownership I suppose.
@@benjamindover4337if you want to enjoy the outdoors, you will need gear. You can't just walk naked into the wilderness.
Maybe there is a market for houses that are in the 1000 sq ft range. These would be smaller than the current typical house but not as extreme as a tiny house. That way you could potentially get a lot more people to downsize.
The problem with framing this as “environmentally responsible” is that it takes the burden of carbon emissions and puts them on individuals rather than industry which is the actual biggest emitter. If the grid were decarbonized, and if green building supplies were available, then a large home could be similarly as green as a tiny home without asking people to change their entire lifestyle and degrade their quality of life to make it happen. Why should citizens giveup their dishwashers and garages just because the power plant down the street runs on more cost effective coal or natural gas? Additionally what does an economy look like after its citizens have given up their cars, planes, trains, ships, houses, etc.
The answer, stop letting coal and fossil fuels be so cost effective by actually making the industries who use it responsible for its negative externalities, instead of placing the burden of those externalities on the people.
Did you not see the statistics about the proportion of emissions from homes in the US and UK? Clearly that chunk of CO2 emissions are our responsibility - too many people are happy to be "green" until that means actually making some changes themselves. Certainly industry should be obliged to reduce it's emissions - but that doesn't abrogate the responsibility of the individual to do the same.
@@malcolmrose3361 what statistics are you talking about?
@@angrydragonslayer About a minute into the video - 20% in the US, twice that in the UK.
@@malcolmrose3361 oh.... I've sorta started ignoring matt showing statistics after some earlier videos. Sorry.
The only statistics that match his data and are publicly available are from bloomberg news. There might be others behind paywalls but i do not have access to those.
@@malcolmrose3361 But individual choice is woefully inadequate to tackle the 'consumer choices' problems. You have to change what's available and price out the dirtier options.
We bought an older 40ft motor yacht for super cheap and live on it. 2 bedroom 2 bath and about 655 square feet. We love it! We paid less than $10,000 cash for it after selling our dirt based house for around $200,000
We don’t need tiny homes, we just need to build apartment blocks. They can be much larger than tiny homes while getting even more climate benefits.
A tiny home loses heat to all six sides of the building. A single apartment unit only loses heat to the surfaces that face outside. Apartment blocks also allow denser mixed use development and can support public transportation, which allows for even more climate savings.
Tiny homes are just another example of people wanting to fix climate change by just buying things, instead of making actual changes to the way that our society is structured.
@Horseshoe Party pardon?
Heat loss also means heat seeps into the home during warm months, so air conditioning works harder. I didn’t mention anything about homelessness, what are you going on about?
@Horseshoe Party and apartments don’t mean “ghetto” ffs
The problem with "tiny homes " is that in todays world that means very expensive construction costs. Because of hyper regulated housing codes, the idea if small livable spaces is non-existent. so we wind up making expensive trailer homes instead. if you look at houses from the past most of the ones for working class folks consisted of 3 rooms one of which was detached (who wants the outhouse, inhouse?) a kitchen a living/sleeping room, and aforementioned shitter. Regulations now say you need to build a McMansion or it would not be livable. Look up minimum room sizes for each purpose (seeping, bathing, cooking etc. ) It starts to look like the regulations were written to make houses more expensive and therefor able to be taxed more.
There's one thing you seem to be missing that makes your data look significantly rosier than it actually is. Most "Tiny Home" owners are already quite a bit wealthier than the average person. They also often have friends or family who's land they park or build on. This movement is overall a good thing, people should have more options of how to live with some more wiggle-room in between 1 room apartments and 5000 sqft McMansions. However, I think this movement gets an outsized amount of publicity because of the relative wealth of the people looking into it. I feel like an overall emphasis on owning less is good, but I'd honestly rather more builders be interested in smaller, more efficient houses instead of "Tiny Homes".
Well, there's already a lot of tiny homes out there for poor people: Shanty towns, townships, favelas, cage homes, gypsy villages/traveler settlements, huts, cars, tents, tunnels and bridges. However, not too many people are happily living in such neighborhoods or living next to them while tiny home advocates are inspired by these shitty ways of housing during their backpack sabbaticals. If people are forced to live in shanty towns to save the climate which they can't leave, it's just waiting for a revolution or massive flows of economic migration towards places that have good conventional housing.
It's difficult to find dedicated communities that help you move in and provide grid utilities too.
Also, if you have a complaint about your neighbours (E.G: Playing music really loud), either you have to move or they do. So there really isn't somebody to help solve conflicts quickly.
It would be nice to see something like a real estate agent help people find good locations to move in. After that, you can contact the landowner's website (or something) if you need help/manage conflicts (the same way you'd do if you have a problem with your apartment neighbours). You'd obviously have to pay a 'rent land' fee. But this should still be much more affordable than traditional fixed homes.
Having high rise buildings alongside tiny homes I feel is the best combination.
I think high rise buildings are more suited for families, whereas tiny homes are more suitable for individuals or couples.
Tiny homes on wheels also give so much more flexibility to community planning than fixed homes. I feel this is a massive advantage.
I'd love to see what types of buildings/stores/shops would be built around tiny home communities. I'd also like to see landowners build a website where tiny homeowners can vote on what type of building they'd like to have built.
This all costs a lot of money (millions to billions) to start a business up like this though. So it needs a Government level of intervention IMO.
While working my way through college and law school, in the 1970s, I lived in 2 tiny houses, one was 280 square feet, the other 780. They were called mobile homes and I loved them both, as they were the first places I could call home. In the first, I earned $1.65 per hour working in a service center for cars, called gas stations where most people got their cars which were out of warranty repaired in ancient times. The second, I was working as a Probation Officer at $8060 per year. I always felt rich and never missed a meal. I could easily see myself in another totally powered by solar energy here in South Florida. These homes allowed me to live comfortably on minimal income supporting myself. These could readily be one solution to homelessness and the climate crisis.
There are many RUclips channels that feature "tiny" homes, (e.g., "Living Big in a Tiny House", "Exploring Alternatives", etc.), where you get real life stories from people who decided to live in a tiny house. Another possible cost saver is many are building their tiny homes themselves, (either alone or with help.)
Many times it's not real life stories, but just hyped instagram nonsense. You can feel the cringe when people cannot properly stretch try to convince the viewer and themselves it's somehow better than to have comfortable space around yourself. If someone came to these guys with a properly sized home in exchange for their prison cell, they would take it in an instant. It's good when you're young and single. Not a solution to your mortgage-free life. If you're young and single - rent and don't get trapped in a tiny house. Peace.
Well as a 27 year old in the Canadian housing market, I feel like owning house is never going to happen. Between here and living in Europe for a few years, I've got used to living in
Matt,
Well done! This is a wonderful and practical report.
I definitely would love a Tiny House or Boxable home as a 2nd home in mountains or lake super close to my daughter!
I must try an Air-BNB just for fun in NC!
Cheers,
Eric
Tiny homes, rvs, prefab, earthships, passive......all very interesting topics to me......great job giving a well rounded view of the tiny home movement.
Thanks, Matt for yet another great video! However, I think it misses one important aspect. Comparing ” regular” houses on foundations, big or small, where the land is freehold to tiny houses on wheels one very important aspect is often forgotten and that is that a house on foundation or on wheels is a depreciating asset. The land is what increases in value over time. Although I realize that a tiny house on wheels may be a great option for a lot of people to get out of the rent trap. I believe it's important to make clear in the comparison that not owning the land you park on means forgoing the value increase of the land, not just for yourself but for the next generation as well. Appreciating land is probably the most important way for regular people to build up wealth and to transfer it between generations.
You can still buy the land where you park
Trying to build intergeneratiobal wealth is how we arrived here
One of the big problems of Tiny Homes is community acceptances. It is hard to legally park a Tiny Home in places that are not a campgrounds/RV Park. Too many towns have ordinances barring Motor Homes, Modular Homes, long residence in RVs and construction of homes under 1200 square feet.
Many times Tiny Homes are licensed as RVs.
@@lorissupportguides True but then you need to add that cost before you do a like for like comparison. Matt didn't do that in this otherwise great video.
We kind of have a tiny home in our backyard that we made from a large storage shed we already had when my son and grandson had to come and live with us. We had the electric redone, put up new interior wall panels and laminate flooring, reinforced the lofts, and put in a ceiling fan. I built loft ladders from scratch as I could not find any that weren't outrageously expensive, and secured a small wooden fence at the end of each loft for safety. Our city let us get away with not considering it a whole separate home unit as we did not put in a kitchen and basically use it as extra bedrooms and living area. We also bought a compost toilet as it was too expensive to run plumbing.
I wanted a tiny house, but then I had a kid. I’d go insane in a tiny house with them.
2:52 I’m pretty sure large homes only ever became a thing because of maids & butlers. If you don’t have one of those, you know exactly what a pain it is to clean your huge house.
My wife and I lived in a tiny studio apartment for 1 month before we realized we needed to have a door SOMEWHERE to separate us haha.
Tiny is great, but there is such thing as being too close to someone. Luckily theirs plenty of options that are sized between a full blown tiny home and a stand alone single family home to choose from!
The growth of home size in the past 50 years have nothing to do with maids and butlers. It has more to do with marketing. The pizza effect. Why sell you a cheese pizza when I can sell you a meat lovers and make more money?
@@Milanesa2010 that’s fair, probably many factors. I just see, more like hear, the gardening services and assume there’s maid services. A moderate house is fine, but I’ve seen some big houses and think about how I’d spend so much more time cleaning. I imagine if I was making enough money, I’m sure I’d find an add that gets me a maid to come clean up a bit. I suppose that’s capitalism at work; making new problems so there’s more reasons to spend money, all the while making more money.
The thing about home: It is a place where we go to feel good and safe. So emotional component is also important, not just logical one.
I was checking some tiny houses (mostly based on containers) but the price m2 is higher than for traditional house. I mean, you can build a smaller house.
For me, I need to feel good in my home, otherwise it is not worth it. And in them, I feel claustrophobic, even though I am not really like that. It just doesn't feel HOME.
Also, financially, the price of those houses goes down pretty fast once bought, as there are always some new shiny models. I see on listings you can buy old ones (less than 10 yrs old) for 3-4000 while the new ones cost 30-40'000. That is quite a difference.
Traditional house usually holds its price pretty well. Sometimes, you can even make some money if you sell it after 15-20 years.
The reason why traditional houses consume that much has to do more with people living in them and their inability to control their consummation.
Where i live, we do not use AC, so that is not an issue. We have lights that are functional, and used when needed. And it is the same for all electricity or water. Be conscious to not consume when you do not need.
Aren’t apartments much more of all these things than tiny homes? Combining them with more green space and amenities could make them more long term livable.
compare the price for the consumer vs tiny home. Appartments are built by large corporations driven by a desire for huge profits. Tiny houses are owned for a fraction of the cost of an appartment by their users, not big corporations. More freedom, better for the environment, no mortgage death traps, no more profits for super rich shareholders. A win all around for the little guy!
it really depends on where you buy those apartment
the nice things about tiny houses is that you can live in the boonies
i don't think you'd find a good apartment in rural Arizona
@@bakakafka4428 sure but in the land use and environmental sense they are much better. If apartments were designed a bit more for the well being of the residents and made more affordable they would be way better than a tiny house. Safer much more space for the environmental footprint.
There’s a law in Mass that if a trailer park owner is going to sell it then the current residents get right of first refusal.
I’d like to see something similar put in place for apartment buildings. That way we might see apartments get bought and turned into condos every now and then.
That way, we get the efficiency benefit of apartments AND people don’t have to be renters for their whole life.
@@RjWolf3000 Again, good luck with that. The problem is as an appartment user, you're always dependant on big corp. They own the building, at best you pay through the nose to own part of it but can't really make important decisions about what happens to the entire building. And forget about making them affordable. We live in a capitalist world, no corporation is working for its customers, only for its shareholders.
Did that back in the 70s! Now I'm looking to do it again in my retirement years...
So glad covering this topic. I currently live in a tiny house in Cornwall (UK). As a beekeeper seeing the bees outside my window most morning is fab. Plus you really appreciate how little items you need to be happy. 164square feet incase anyone wanted to know size.
Wow! You got me beat. I’m living in 264 sqft here in The Philippines. Your spot on regarding being happy with less.
Hi. I'm in the UK too and thinking of a tiny house.
Can you tell us what your land/tenancy situation is like? How did you find a site? What is your monthly site fee/rent?
It totally depends on your mode of income.
If you work remotely you can go anywhere with satelite orf good mobile connection.
If not then you will have to set it somewhere not to far from your workplace.
And there is a pioneering advantage.
If 50-100 million+ people start going around with mobile timy house you wont find a spot where you are alone and it would spoil nature resrrvations with semi permanent residents.
So it is not a long term scalable solution at all.
@@thijsjong Tiny houses will never be a mass option IMO so the countryside views are safe. Its just too hard in terms of organizing your own services and utilities which require some basic level of self discipline and capability.
In the end most will willingly collect their UBI and go live in a pod hive.
Most will eat the bugs and say, "yummy".
Take a look at many Asia countries. Millions are living in tiny house for decades.
I currently stay in Vietnam. Tiny house is common. 5m by 5m with a toilet and a loft. Vietnamese raise families in these houses.
Myself have stay in such tiny house for a short period when building my own house.
Those houses do not address the dead-end of suburban sprawl, depriving people of a viable modal split like good cities (forcing car usage, no duplexes or 4 units per house with usable garden etc, no restaurants or small apartment buildings sprinkled in) and more. There is no option to choose the appropriate size depending on family size or moving easily when more size is needed.
I am certain, that you do not like that in particular, but have no other option and too small is not a solution if the structural problem of the US is not solved.
I already live in one it's about 25 m2 almost fully solar powered so far it's been good I adore the fact that there isn't a space that I don't see and use no room that could stay unused ,
Wow, do all the environmentally concerned Hollywood stars and politicians know about this!?
I wish Hollywood Actors would help us even more by using their platform to tell us how to live. One day...
I live in a tiny home and i love it, off grid, with over kill solar that will eventually power my electric car, when i get one. Environmental concerns didnt exist, i wanted to be a home owner on a low income. I bought a 20ft container and built it up with every paycheck for 2 years, no loan. Well, I borrowed money from a family member to fund my overkill solar, 22KW LiFePo4 batteries and 7500 watts of solar panels. :P Better than paying $10,000 to a monopoly to drag a power line and charge me every month for the rest of my life. :P
Really great video, Matt! We definitely need to live gently on our planet. I hope to live like this in the near future and make videos on the process. I would love to see a video on the most sustainable apartments in high rise buildings in dense cities or megacities.
There’s a playlist on my channel of several apartments I toured in Da Nang, Vietnam. And a video of my current rental condo here in Cebu, Philippines. It’s only 264 sqft, but livable.
I am a rather big guy (6' 3), and a tiny house sounds painful, then I saw one that had 8 foot ceilings, single floor 400 sqft with not only a cool solar/wind setup but a really modern feel to it and fell in love. I now want to buy land (up here in Colorado), and place a main home (as close to net 0 as possible), and a host of small, isolated tiny homes in various builds to Air BNB out and show off what off grind and sustainable can feel like. Between the solar, wind, efficient build/appliances I feel it would be a great way of not only making money, but showing people that may be on the fence about alot of these technologies and techniques if it is right for them.
After living in a dormitory 50 years ago, with cafeteria, classrooms, lab & recreational facilities within easy walking distance. I always thought something like that would be a good choice after the kids left home. Not perfect,, but certainly an energy efficient lifestyle. This idea is entirely antithetical in a neoliberal world order, but a possibly an option in avoiding a 6th Great Extinction.
It's called a senior center
@@glenn726 Or an eco-commune... but yes, usually.
Me and my mom vacationed a short time in a stationary two-story tiny house. We had WiFi and stuff. Bedroom on the ground floor, living room and kitchen on the extra floor. Not bad. I live in a house where everything is on the ground floor. Mom lives in a condo.
It's a good way to increase the precariat of workers that can be ' moved along' when not needed.
They can be easily exploited and bullied by authorities, local governments and business.
They can also help drive the price of normal houses further into the stratosphere as this ' option' becomes more commonplace and more frightening.
It's a dream come true for many businesses but a nightmare in the making, when this phenomenon matures.
I am typing this from a stylish tiny house, with a nice view, that allowed me to live rent free at last.
It's a good sidestep for a few now, but I can see how this will go for the next generation and it's not good.
Whenever I imagine a world where these tiny houses are extremely common it seems more dystopian that utopian
@Horseshoe Party You probably think everyone, the sensible side of Trump is a leftist.
Clearly you've huffed way to much diesel and Jenkem for that matter.
2 problems I have with tiny houses currently: water/sewer hookups and doing laundry. I smaller, washer/dryer combined unit can solve the laundry issue, but it requires the water/sewer hookup to be dealt with still. And before you start talking storage tanks for them, that crosses the line from tiny mobile house to full on camper trailer with all sorts of requirements and problems that come with it, including having to be able to haul the full tanks if need be or having too little capacity to be practical.
This is always going to stay a niche. People like space, so when they can get it, they will get it. It's also completely unsuitable for big cities, because you can't stack them :-)
Seems to be a good solution for those ugly sub urbs though.
@@bakakafka4428 That's making the assumption everyone wants to live in a tiny home.
@@dinokknd True, but right now those suburbs are built assuming everyone wants to live like that. Almost identical houses row after row. Maybe throw some variation in there with tiny homes?
@@dinokknd True, but right now those suburbs are built assuming everyone wants to live like that. Almost identical houses row after row. Maybe throw some variation in there with tiny homes?
@@bakakafka4428 abolish suburbs.
I like what Boxabl is doing. Just the idea that I can buy a tiny house now that I can fold it up and move it anywhere, but if I want to add more space later I can just attach another Boxabl onto my existing one.
Of course you still need to consider land, foundation, black/gray water systems, etc.
Tiny houses are miserable, the old 88m2 houses look reasonable from all angles
I'm planning my tiny house/workshop. I know i'll be more than comfortable with the size because I've lived in a minivan for years.
Huge impact.....in compatible to other households. Realistically it has absolutely no impact even if there were thousands of these. Cynical sounding I know but it's the truth, our society is to focused on whatever sounds nice without actual major practical overhauls to actually make some progress. This is just a cool house but it does near on nothing to aid the environmental situation.
I wouldn’t choose a tiny house because I want my children and grandchildren to able to stay with us when they come to visit. I also enjoy woodworking … I guess I could find another hobby, but I like making things. But I intend to downsize substantially after we retire anyway.
But aren’t apartments and condos even more efficient since most units only have 1 exterior wall? If you want to be able to move easily, why not just live in a camper? It would be nice to be able to live in the north in the summer and move south in the winter without the expense of owning two homes.
The Summerwood Products Bala Bunkie is actually $20,744 (01/18/2022), not $10,000. As a matter of fact, the base kit is $12,296. That price is simply a kit, without the windows, doors, loft, ect, which does not come prebuilt and you have to build it yourself. Hope this helps.
I liked it when you said “out of necessity “looks like a lot of people are need of a small home out of necessity right now I am seeing more In my home town that is a tourist town and as such we have a huge affordable house problem
i'm not much of a pet guy so a moderately sized apartment with thick wall (to avoid noise complaint)
is much more than plenty
I live in a 20x8 'toy hauler' open floorplan rv trailer and it's perfect for a single person. My folks live in a much larger 47ft, triple-slide toy hauler witha seperate garage area. It's...expansive, and requires a large truck to tow it, but they're retired and 'living the life' so whatryagonnado.
Start in a camper for 2 years. Then go to a tiny home. After we moved in we went from 3 draws of storage to 12! Living off grid and love it
Waiting for the day Tesla brings out a FSD RV. I'm sure there a plan for it somewhere for mass production.
I have blueprints for a tiny home I found on another RUclips channel (Living BIG in a Tiny Home). Can't wait to secure the funding and get started! My plan is to have as little reliance on the traditional electricity grid as possible, hopefully solar glass will be close to on-par with panels by then.
We already have an affordable housing options like apartments
True, but I feel like most apartments should be condos. We keep saying that we have a “supply problem” with housing but then don’t bat an eye when companies keep buying up that supply and turning it into rentals.
I would love to have an earth ship. I first read about them as a kid in the 90's. It was such a cool idea at the time to repurpose what everyone considered garbage. This was before cities in the US had widely adopted recycling.
I live in a short bus I converted 4 years ago which is about 110sqft and has a shower composting toilet solid fuel range cooker induction hobs seating for 3 with small single bed (2' 6" wide) that expands to UK king size (5ft wide) full size kitchen sink, fridge washing machine and drier plus overhead and cupboard storage plus of coarse driver and passenger seat for when I need to move the bus. Oh and I have 1325w of solar on the roof.
I would like a bit more space at times but it's hard to give up the idea of almost no bills aka about £800 a year for everything.
Great video and I'm lucky. Southern England is in some of the densest population in the world. UK has some of the smallest homes in the developed world. Interestingly I don't have a heating bill as the building is so well insulated. I've never needed to use it! ;-) That's already saved me thousands of pound£!
I am interested in tiny house design. But, I have absolutely no interest in ever living in one. To me, they serve the same purpose as writing short stories, the experience makes you better at designing the full-size thing.
You should read Sarah Susanka's book The Not So Big House she even goes through the struggles that ended up resulting in people building small modular homes and how she came up with it.
If price and land efficiency is your main concern more densely populated neighborhoods with triplex, fourplex is much more sustainable solution.
Agreed. I’m hoping to buy a townhome in my city in the next year or two. Let’s me put solar panels up, and have a small garden while staying close enough to use public transportation often.
Huge win for efficient land use as well as my CO2 emissions!
Just got some land in Tennessee for under 10k. Living in a camper atm but hoping to build a tiny home by summer. Depending on the cost of wood I'm expecting to spend around 3-5k for building materials. As a low wage worker I'm excited to not pay rent anymore!
I'm all for sustainability, efficiency and things like that. I plan to take serious steps to address that in any home I own. However, I also want a large home, and probably larger over the years. With the advent of WFH, my home is my office, my gym, and so much more. Plus I'm growing a family, so we need space for them too. My coming home, I'll be seeking in the realm of 2000sqft-2400sqft + basement. But increasing efficiency in the home once I acquire it is going to be my #1 priority for so many reasons. Plus I'm not going to buy a home that has a natural gas stove, for starters. I plan to have this as a serious asset, since a lot of my time is in and around the home.
It's always a treat to have a video from you, complete with ooyys great soundtrack in the intro.
It's mostly about depriving yourself of a lot of comforts, as Matt says.
I have been following tiny houses somewhat, and unfortunately the actually usable non-movable ones are about as expensive as normal homes, and the movable ones are very dependent on local regulations. Most trendy ones are PR-only, with very limited living options. They are more like a PR-hyped mobile home. The multi-purpose, custom stuff is much more expensive than something from IKEA, with limited options, warranty, etc. Speaking of warranty, the tiny homes also carry a much shorter one. And if you have a fixed one built as custom, the builders will probably ask for extra for too little work. Last I heard though, banks weren't very keen on lending for tiny mobile house as a house, only as regular credit, or as a special class, higher rated than home loan.
And there are more than a few scams out there like basically all the container ones, which have basically no real insulation possible unless you throw away pretty much all of the container.
This info is about a year or two old, and I'm not in the US, so the insane housing prices did probably change this somewhat.
Also not mentioned: probably not an option for anyone with any mild physical disability, as space is of a premium
Thank you. As a person with multiple chemical sensitivities and mobility disabilities (need to use a wheelchair), I don't think a tiny house would work for me at all. They might be OK for a single person or couple who are young and healthy.
Cool. Come to Hong Kong. Our flats are going down all the way to 200 ft^2. However, it still cost you whole life of working to earn the money to buy one.
The problem is that tiny homes are mostly owned by people who have a regular sized home as well. Tiny homes are fine, but if they aren't lived in, they are a waste.
True. We definitely need to get away from the idea that once you’ve “made it” you go out and purchase a vacation home.
As a concept they have certain advantages in sustainably, but imho are only for certain people with a specific mindset, lifestyle and not typically welcome in larger urban society. I've stayed in several of them for a week or so and at my size and age 6'6" 240 and Old found them painful and more work to live in. The Showers suck, bumping heads on things and crawling up a ladder to a queen size and low overhead...just doesn't cut it in my book, let alone liking to cook and having to do that on a tiny propane stove and an oven the size of a toaster. However, I do say "Good on those who wish to go that way" it all helps!
I think the biggest take-away is not just the upfront cost, but more so the creative use of the available space and room planning/distribution. Imagine if modern single-family homes were constructed with the tinyhome principles in mind, so that you could actually get the same usable space as before, but perhaps the overall footprint is halved. This would not only give more available land, but it would also significantly lower the cost of construction, as well as maintenance and monthly bills. Heating/cooling would go down since you only have half the space to heat/cool. Less expense will go to stuff like carpeting, paint and cleaning, furniture and decoration, lighting, electricity as a whole, and so on. And if utility is the same despite a smaller footprint, it's likely that resale value won't take a big hit either, due to the advantage of lower monthly expenses while still offering the same core utility and space as a traditional single family house.
The only place you really see this unfold, is in the typical NY apartments where as much utility is crammed into as tight a space as possible due to the insane pricing per square feet of space.