Tiny Houses...the ultimate insanity?

[Katzndogz]

Apartment buildings being built here are very, very small sleeping areas with a tv in the wall. Kitchens and bathrooms are communal. There is also a large room like a social room where there are work stations to plug in your laptop. The idea is that people aren't going to spend that much time at home. When I was looking for an apartment I ran across these places. Rent started at a thou a month.

 

[Jarlaxle]

It's like going back to live in glorified cardboard box.

it used to be you strived to get a bigger house in your life.

now it's why own anything but a glorified box worth, nothing.

I am glad I sold my house, and I will never buy another one. Until I stopped doing it, I didn't realize how much work it was. I have about half the space, and am perfectly happy with it.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

It's like going back to live in glorified cardboard box.

it used to be you strived to get a bigger house in your life.

now it's why own anything but a glorified box worth, nothing.

Did you say 'cardboard box'...??


[1st Yorkshireman:]
Cardboard box?

[3rd Yorkshireman:]
Aye.

[1st Yorkshireman:]
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t’ mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.

[2nd Yorkshireman:]
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o’clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of ‘ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

[3rd Yorkshireman:]
Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of shoebox at twelve o’clock at night and lick road clean with tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two with bread knife.

[4th Yorkshireman:]
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, eat a clump of coal poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

[1st Yorkshireman:]
And you try and tell the young people of today that ….. and they won’t believe you.

[All Yorkshiremans:]
No – no they won’t!









Source: LYBIO.net

 

[Againsheila]

Apartment buildings being built here are very, very small sleeping areas with a tv in the wall. Kitchens and bathrooms are communal. There is also a large room like a social room where there are work stations to plug in your laptop. The idea is that people aren't going to spend that much time at home. When I was looking for an apartment I ran across these places. Rent started at a thou a month.

In Seattle, they're calling them "micro apartments" but in my mind, it's just a room for rent an they shouldn't be allowed to call them apartments at all.

 

[longknife]

I know people here in Las Vegas who sold their homes at a loss because of the high foreclosure rate and bought massive travel trailers - the kind that expand out. They rented spaces in the various RV parks around town at more than half the cost of utilities and property taxes and live quite contentedly.

Snowbirds from up north were upset because it leaves them with far few choices of where to squat for the cold months.

 

[Carla_Danger]

It's like going back to live in glorified cardboard box.

it used to be you strived to get a bigger house in your life.

now it's why own anything but a glorified box worth, nothing.

I wish you could string a sentence.

You see Stephanie, it's not the size of your trailer that counts, and it's not all the junk you can fit in your pigsty that counts, it's the quality of life that matters most.

 

[Againsheila]

I really like watching "Tiny House Nation." I love seeing all the things they can use for multi purposes and watching people scale down to live in those tiny homes. I couldn't live in one, not with my husband, maybe by myself? Sometimes I think it would be cool to live in a tiny home by myself, but then my husband just retired and I've got twice as much husband on half as much money, being by myself these days seems like a good idea sometimes.

 

[Moonglow]

I went from a 2400 square foot home to a 900, I certainly still have more room than I need and the utilities are 1/3...Along with a 200 dollar a year tax payment reduction...When the last kid is gone, I will reduce my living quarters more so..
I think it's a waste for one or two people to live in huge houses, but my relatives do..

 

[Katzndogz]

I think my little guest house is 300 sq ft. But, I have a really big patio. It must be half the size of the house. It's okay.

 

[Rustic]

One where another should be a personal choice, but anything that pisses the federal government off - is a good thing.

 

[OnePercenter]

One of the trends of millennials is minimalism; rejecting the materialism and excesses of my generation.
But Tiny Houses?
How is it not the ultimate insanity to pay up to $160 per sq ft. of living space? You have insane people paying as much as $100,000 when all done...for a "home" and small land parcel that doesn't have a toilet that flushes.
How does this make sense?

sounds like a cash cow to me

sounds like a cash cow to me

For three reasons.

1) For many, due to wages not keeping up with costs are building their own and placing on already owned family property. Republicans really suck!

2) If you have a large yard, and as long as you keep the tiny house on wheels you can place for rental income.

3) The RVIA certified tiny houses are the next travel trailers and 5th wheels.

 

[JimBowie1958]

One of the trends of millennials is minimalism; rejecting the materialism and excesses of my generation.
But Tiny Houses?
How is it not the ultimate insanity to pay up to $160 per sq ft. of living space? You have insane people paying as much as $100,000 when all done...for a "home" and small land parcel that doesn't have a toilet that flushes.
How does this make sense?

How does buying jeans with holes in them make any sense?

How does getting a peircing through ones navel make any sense?

How does calling Rap music make any sense?

How does voting for Obama a SECOND TIME make any sense?

And yet lots of stupid white people do this stuff.

 

[Stephanie]

It's like going back to live in glorified cardboard box.

it used to be you strived to get a bigger house in your life.

now it's why own anything but a glorified box worth, nothing.

I am glad I sold my house, and I will never buy another one. Until I stopped doing it, I didn't realize how much work it was. I have about half the space, and am perfectly happy with it.

there is a lot in owning one that's for sure.

 

[Stephanie]

It's like going back to live in glorified cardboard box.

it used to be you strived to get a bigger house in your life.

now it's why own anything but a glorified box worth, nothing.

Did you say 'cardboard box'...??


[1st Yorkshireman:]
Cardboard box?

[3rd Yorkshireman:]
Aye.

[1st Yorkshireman:]
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t’ mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.

[2nd Yorkshireman:]
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o’clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of ‘ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

[3rd Yorkshireman:]
Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of shoebox at twelve o’clock at night and lick road clean with tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two with bread knife.

[4th Yorkshireman:]
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, eat a clump of coal poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

[1st Yorkshireman:]
And you try and tell the young people of today that ….. and they won’t believe you.

[All Yorkshiremans:]
No – no they won’t!









Source: LYBIO.net

 

[Picaro]

It's pretty much the only feasible response to a housing industry that is only building homes for the high income few. There is a really dire shortage of affordable housing at the mid and lower end of the 'market' now, plus the fact that having to change jobs every two or three years and move to stay even moderately employed is also becoming the 'norm' as well.

Anybody priced lumber and drywall, paint, etc., lately? It's high, and of pretty crappy quality to boot these days.

 

[Picaro]

I went from a 2400 square foot home to a 900,.

My wife has three closets bigger than that. I, on the other hand, have two pair of shoes, two pairs of boots, 4 prs. pants, some socks, and 5 or 6 shirts.

Except for my three barns full of 'useful' crap, like tractors, a wood shop, welding shop, a metal working shop, hay, and chickens.

Oh yeah, and a pocket knife ...

 

[OnePercenter]

The skyrocketing of the cost of renting an apartment is the cause of this. Many rents, even in poorer areas, is approaching the cost of a house payment a month. The gap is getting very narrow. If you listen to those who go the tiny house route they say "rent is burning money, better to pay it into equity than flush it down the toilet".

But since buying a normal sized home requires a large down-payment, the tiny home option is the most appealing and has the biggest bang for the buck.

Rent here is absolutely outrageous.
ONE Bdrm apartments in a decent complex is averaging $750-$800 a month. ONE bedroom.
So...what you are saying makes sense actually.

I think nationally rent use to be 1/4 of household income, now it is approaching 1/2. Something has to give.

I think nationally rent use to be 1/4 of household income, now it is approaching 1/2. Something has to give.

Stop voting for Republicans.

 

[Picaro]

The skyrocketing of the cost of renting an apartment is the cause of this. Many rents, even in poorer areas, is approaching the cost of a house payment a month. The gap is getting very narrow. If you listen to those who go the tiny house route they say "rent is burning money, better to pay it into equity than flush it down the toilet".

But since buying a normal sized home requires a large down-payment, the tiny home option is the most appealing and has the biggest bang for the buck.

Rent here is absolutely outrageous.
ONE Bdrm apartments in a decent complex is averaging $750-$800 a month. ONE bedroom.
So...what you are saying makes sense actually.

I think nationally rent use to be 1/4 of household income, now it is approaching 1/2. Something has to give.

I think nationally rent use to be 1/4 of household income, now it is approaching 1/2. Something has to give.

Stop voting for Republicans.

And stop voting for neo-fascist brown shirt Democrats as well.

 

[EverCurious]

I finally had time/energy to investigate this matter I was unable to find an easy chart for historical mortgage rates because they oft varied from bank to bank and state to state so there was no real standard value in "early history" - however, I found historical home prices which we can roughly extrapolate on a calculator - I'll be using 3.5% annual interest rate 30yr to figure the monthly cost. (IIRC mortgage interest rates have varied from 3 to 7% in general, I'll later try to find exact interest rates for the past 6 years to make a decent comparison.)

Historical home cost - Historical Census of Housing Tables Home Values - Housing Topics - U.S. Census Bureau
Historical rent - Historical Census of Housing Tables - Gross Rents
Historical household income - Median Household Income in the United States

(Unadjusted Values are used - bottom charts on housing cost & rent)
1970 - Median household income $7,701 = $641.75/m
1970 - Median home price $12,200 = $55/m -- 8.57% of monthly income
1970 - Median rent $108/m -- 16.83% of monthly income

1980 - Median household income $16,671 = $1,389.25/m
1980 - Median home price $47,200 = $212/m -- 15.26% of monthly income
1980 - Median rent $243/m -- 17.49% of monthly income

1990 - Median household income $28,680 = $2,390/m
1990 - Median home price $53,700 = $241 -- 10.08% of monthly income
1990 - Median rent $447/m -- 18.70% of monthly income

2000 - Median household income $41,446 = $3,456.83/m
2000 - Median home price $119,600 = $537/m -- 15.53% of monthly income
2000 - Median rent $602/m -- 17.41% of monthly income

So on average rent ratios to income has not really changed since the 70's, mortgage ratios are the only thing that changed, and other than the jump in ratios from the 70s (which I recall is when we started to see housing regulations enforced) and the drop in ratios during the 90s recession it's relatively stable there as well. Also not even today is the median rent a quarter of income.

Still, it is safe to say that buying is /always/ better than renting; not only is it cheaper, but it is an investment.-- Perhaps it would be better to compare annual cost ratios to get a better feel for the ratios, but I'm out of time here.

When I have some more free time/desire I'll try to find 2000-2014 averages (and the mortgage interest rates) and see if there's a major change there (with the housing bubble pop and recession, I'd actually expect the ratio of cost of home to income would go down, while the ratio of rent to income stays relatively the same.)

 

[Wilbur Right]

, but then my husband just retired and I've got twice as much husband on half as much money,

That's funny. Well said.