Small houses are a perfect fit for many homeowners |
| By Jay MacDonald
• Bankrate.com |
|
Frustrated with the size of your home? You're not alone.
But instead of feeling cramped, a growing number of Americans are finding 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 are finding 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.
That doesn't necessarily mean that smaller times are
ahead for everyone. For growing families, some investors, the wealthy
or homeowners who just want the room, bigger will most likely continue
to be better.
But for homeowners who no
longer wish to pay taxes, utilities and insurance on rooms they never use, or
who simply find a smaller home more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing, the
small-house movement is quietly reinventing the U.S. scale of living.
 |
| Less is more for owners of small homes |
| |
| |
| |
|
My
shed, my home
In some cases, the small-house trend goes to the extreme
Lilliputian end of the scale. Jay Shafer lives quite comfortably
in a 100-square-foot house in Sebastopol, Calif. You may have a tool shed or a
master bath about the same size.
Shafer's home is on the small end of a line of compact,
ready-made dwellings 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.
Though 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. | 
