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MAY 2018 • VOLUME 23 • ISSUE 1
Tiny home boom or bust? By Riki Markowitz
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n the Austin-Round Rock metro, there’s a housing trend that’s not so much bubbling under the surface, but rather, it’s close to bursting at the seams. In this case, “seams” is synonymous with zoning constraints. The tiny house movement is not a recent phenomenon. This is an important distinction because its longevity demonstrates that as soon as developers build a tiny-home community here in Austin, we expect that people will come.
Historians of the genre credit author Henry David Thoreau with being the godfather of the tiny home movement. In 1854, Thoreau chronicled his experience living in a 150-square-foot cabin next to Walden Pond. Today, Walden is to tinyhome enthusiasts what "On the Road" is to fans of 1950s beat-poet, road-tripping culture. “Tiny Houses,” published in 1987, was possibly the first book about micro homes and a return to living modestly. Between the 1850s and 1980s, tiny homes were pretty common on private property. They were known as granny cottages, in-law suites, guest apartments and the pool house. The first company in the United States to build tiny homes, Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, was founded in 1999. Many credit owner Jay Shafer with kickstarting the modern movement when he co-founded the Small House Society, an organization that promotes small-living lifestyles. In 2007, the movement received widespread recognition when Oprah aired a video of Shafer and his 96-square-foot home, and then gave her audience decorating tips. Just over a decade after Oprah endorsed tiny-home living, the movement has only had some moderate success. For some reason, there’s a big gap in the numbers of people who watch tiny house hunting, decorating, and building TV-shows, and actual tiny
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house owners. It may even be considered one of Oprah’s biggest failures if there weren’t so many laws that restrict builders from developing micro-housing communities. In Central Texas, the housing market continues breaking sales records quarter-over-quarter, year-after-year. But with each increase, the middle class gets further away from being able to afford homeownership in popular metro areas. It would seem like Austin is a perfect
location for tiny home neighborhoods. In land development code terminology, tiny homes are known as accessory dwelling units (ADU). An ADU is a fraction of the cost of an ordinary home. At about 1,100 square feet and under, they use less gas and electricity. Micro houses are primarily a one or two-person household. In Austin, 35 percent of homes are a one-person
Front Page: Continued on page 28
Features of the Month Column: ABoR—Tiny Home Hurdles and Upcoming Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 3 Column: WCREALTORS—Living Small. Know What You're Getting Into! . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 7 Column: HBA—HBA Launches HomeAid Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 15 Column: Women's Council—Are Tiny Homes the Future of Home Ownership?. . . . . . . pg. 18 Column: RRC—Tiny Homes Appeal to Buyers in All Generations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 20 Expert Commentary: Understanding the Nature of Buying a Condo. . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 22 Associates in Progress: OnQ Financial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 25 Special Feature: Local Builder Hangs Up His Boots; Sells Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 26 Upcoming Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 33