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More buyers looking for smaller abodes
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More from BusinessA growing number of Americans are finding that they have more home than they want or need.
The reasons are numerous. Baby boomers, 77 million strong, are looking to downsize in retirement. Young home buyers find it increasingly difficult to afford or maintain larger homes. Urban land is at a premium. Smaller homes in desirable neighborhoods are scarce or outlawed by covenant. And environmental concerns about a residence's "carbon footprint" have further dampened enthusiasm for spacious showpieces.
Jay Shafer lives comfortably in a 100-square-foot house in Sebastopol, Calif. You may have a tool shed or a master bath about the same size. His home is on the small end of a line of compact, ready-made dwellings that he designs for his Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. His designs have won numerous awards for energy efficiency and green building. The homes cost between $20,000 and $48,000, excluding land.
Although many customers use them as vacation homes or mother-in-law cottages, there are those smaller-is-better devotees who, like Shafer, simply prefer to live within their means. Shafer, founder of the Small House Society, says "supersizing" came about when home builders hooked consumers on the one easily quantifiable aspect of every house: its square footage.
Americans quickly came to believe that more square footage paid for itself in resale, especially during the run-up of prices in the past decade. Since 1970, the average U.S. home has grown from 1,500 square feet to 2,450 square feet, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Against that bigger-is-better investor mind-set, smaller homes were either shunned as fixtures from a bygone era or lumped in with mobile homes.
Shafer and others are attempting to change such perceptions by extolling the virtues of small houses, such as energy efficiency, durability, expandability and custom materials.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to downsizing is where to put stuff. Jim Gauer, author of "The New American Dream: Living Well in Small Homes," suggests drawers, closet systems and kitchen cabinets that go to the ceiling.
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