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I personally live in a very very small home and live minimally and it cost me almost nothing. I'm sure I lucked out compared to the average person. So what is

I personally live in a very very small home and live minimally and it cost me almost nothing. I'm sure I lucked out compared to the average person. So what is the reason that these smaller homes aren't more common? I would think that if there were a market for these homes someone would cash in on it, so is it zoning? Is it people's aversion to building their own homes themselves and the service-ification of everything? How do we reverse course and what are the pressures preventing that, in your view?

DoreenMichele 5y ago
We need to remove administrative barriers, like zoning barriers. And we need financing mechanisms. The easiest thing to finance in the US is single family detached homes. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of them. It's quite hard to finance some types of housing popular in other countries, like cohousing.
- betwixthewires 5y ago
  I'm right there with you on administrative barriers. What do you think of other housing options more common in the US, such as mobile homes, RVs, duplexes/quadplexes etc? What about ideas like renting rooms, dormitory style housing with shared spaces and things like that?
  - DoreenMichele 5y ago
    Mobile homes, RVs and the Tiny House movement are basically hacks to get around a broken system. The first tiny house was put on wheels to get around the zoning codes rather than fight them (I'm old enough, I read some of the earliest coverage of it back when it was a new idea). Those things are proliferating mostly because we won't fix our broken system. Not mostly because people actually prefer that stuff. Dorms, duplexes, renting a room etc fall under what I advocate for: SROs and Missing Middle Housing.
    - betwixthewires 5y ago
      How are they hacks and not solutions? If smaller living spaces for smaller family units is a solution wouldn't they be solutions and not hacks? If people actually want smaller housing and choose these things, aren't they real solutions? Mobile homes date back to the same time as the modern suburb, were designed to target a similar demographic and are pretty ubiquitous across most of rural US, as are RVs in many places. I've seen tiny houses on wheels for the reason you state, I actually have neighbors with really beautiful houses like this.
      - DoreenMichele 5y ago
        It's fine that they exist. The problem is we've zoned out of existence other options. These don't make for car-free living in walkable neighborhoods. And they don't appreciate in value the way standard housing typically does.
        betwixthewires 5y ago
        Can you give me some examples of housing that has been zoned out of existence that you have in mind? Apartment buildings, duplexes and renting a room are not illegal in the vast majority of municipalities. RVs absolutely make for walkable neighborhoods, and everyone gets a little garden space too if they want. Some RV parks even have a grocery store inside. I thought we were looking at solutions to homelessness? Why does a dwelling have to appreciate in value? This appreciation of price in the current housing market is not natural and is the result of increasing population, artificial restriction of building more housing and is arguably a symptom of the root cause of the homelessness problem in the US. If the goal is solving homelessness how can that be expected to continue?
        DoreenMichele 5y ago
        Parking minimums and street width minimums are a huge issue. They are an active barrier to building an old fashioned, walkable, mixed use downtown and actively undermine the health of such places that still do exist in some areas. There's lots of literature on that fact. Set backs and other zoning changes also mean you often cannot build townhomes right up to the lot line, even if older townhomes right up against the lot line dominate the street in question. They are grandfathered in and don't have to be torn down, but you can't build more like it. This typically makes such homes highly prized and expensive and out of the reach of most people.

DoreenMichele 5y ago

We need to remove administrative barriers, like zoning barriers. And we need financing mechanisms. The easiest thing to finance in the US is single family detached homes. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of them. It's quite hard to finance some types of housing popular in other countries, like cohousing.

betwixthewires 5y ago
I'm right there with you on administrative barriers. What do you think of other housing options more common in the US, such as mobile homes, RVs, duplexes/quadplexes etc? What about ideas like renting rooms, dormitory style housing with shared spaces and things like that?
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  Mobile homes, RVs and the Tiny House movement are basically hacks to get around a broken system. The first tiny house was put on wheels to get around the zoning codes rather than fight them (I'm old enough, I read some of the earliest coverage of it back when it was a new idea). Those things are proliferating mostly because we won't fix our broken system. Not mostly because people actually prefer that stuff. Dorms, duplexes, renting a room etc fall under what I advocate for: SROs and Missing Middle Housing.
  - betwixthewires 5y ago
    How are they hacks and not solutions? If smaller living spaces for smaller family units is a solution wouldn't they be solutions and not hacks? If people actually want smaller housing and choose these things, aren't they real solutions? Mobile homes date back to the same time as the modern suburb, were designed to target a similar demographic and are pretty ubiquitous across most of rural US, as are RVs in many places. I've seen tiny houses on wheels for the reason you state, I actually have neighbors with really beautiful houses like this.
    - DoreenMichele 5y ago
      It's fine that they exist. The problem is we've zoned out of existence other options. These don't make for car-free living in walkable neighborhoods. And they don't appreciate in value the way standard housing typically does.
      - betwixthewires 5y ago
        Can you give me some examples of housing that has been zoned out of existence that you have in mind? Apartment buildings, duplexes and renting a room are not illegal in the vast majority of municipalities. RVs absolutely make for walkable neighborhoods, and everyone gets a little garden space too if they want. Some RV parks even have a grocery store inside. I thought we were looking at solutions to homelessness? Why does a dwelling have to appreciate in value? This appreciation of price in the current housing market is not natural and is the result of increasing population, artificial restriction of building more housing and is arguably a symptom of the root cause of the homelessness problem in the US. If the goal is solving homelessness how can that be expected to continue?
        DoreenMichele 5y ago
        Parking minimums and street width minimums are a huge issue. They are an active barrier to building an old fashioned, walkable, mixed use downtown and actively undermine the health of such places that still do exist in some areas. There's lots of literature on that fact. Set backs and other zoning changes also mean you often cannot build townhomes right up to the lot line, even if older townhomes right up against the lot line dominate the street in question. They are grandfathered in and don't have to be torn down, but you can't build more like it. This typically makes such homes highly prized and expensive and out of the reach of most people.