Tiny House Living: A smart move or an overreaction to the former mortgage crisis?

By Laura Bohnert

The latest craze in house-buying just got smaller…a lot smaller…in fact, it got downright tiny.  But are Tiny Houses really the smart move they seem to be, or are they merely an overreaction to the former mortgage crisis?

What are Tiny Houses?  Tiny House living defines itself as a social movement in which, essentially, individuals choose to downsize the space they live in, and they take it to the extreme.  You’ve probably seen a TV show or two that features a family of 6 squeezing into a Tiny House that is between 100 and 400 square feet (compared to the typical 2,600 square foot American home), and you probably thought to yourself: How? Or maybe even just: Why?

For most of the people who switch over to the tiny side of living, it isn’t just about the trend—although the trendiness of the movement does add to its appeal.  Most are looking to create a simpler way of living, a more efficient space that can more easily lend itself to the freedom for more time and travel (especially with a Tiny House on wheels), the ability to live more environmentally friendly, and, of course, the ability to escape financial concern and live more efficiently and feasibly.

And that typical financial burden is a huge factor that is driving many to Tiny Living.  For many of us, a third to a half (and sometimes more) of our incomes goes directly towards paying for housing, whether that pays rent for an apartment, or a mortgage payment for a house or condo.  As a result, 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and many more are caught up in cycles of debt (alongside Canada’s economy in general), and with a shaky economy that is leading to a significant amount of job insecurity, it’s no wonder many are considering littler to be a lot lovelier.

But is Tiny Living really the solution?  For many who have jumped on board the Tiny House craze, the switch to Tinier Living was a lot more difficult than expected—and it isn’t always that much cheaper.

In principle, the idea of downsizing your belongings and living more meaningfully with what you do have sounds great, though—it’s something we should all be doing in order to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle, whether we live a Tiny lifestyle or no.  And choosing a more affordable lifestyle, even if it is a bit smaller, should be at the top of all of our priority lists, especially in an economy that is as unpredictable as it is unstable.  And if keeping up with the Jones’s means competing over who has the smallest house, then maybe that is the best strategy to achieving an all-around lifestyle that can pull Canada out of its debt cycle—but we need to make sure our Tiny Houses, and the spaces we put them on, are actually as sustainable and cost-effective as they make themselves out to be.