Who Ever Said Bigger is Better?
The Benefits of Transitioning into a Tiny Home
Dare to Downsize
Since the housing bubble burst in 2007, people nationwide have dared to downsize and have decided to pack up their essentials and leave the excess behind. Moving into a home roughly 100 to 400 sq. ft. isn't the easiest decision, but it could mean the difference between homeownership and foreclosure. Let's look at the benefits of reducing the surplus square footage and adopting the simple life instead.
Reaping The Rewards of Tiny Living
1. Lower Mortgage Payments — According to Bankrate.com, monthly mortgage payments for tiny homes, including utilities, can be as low as $450/month.
2. Sustainability — Due to the smaller size, tiny homes use fewer resources, require less energy to power up, and inherently create a smaller carbon footprint. All that adds up to a greener way of living and helping to preserve our environment for future generations.
3. Reduced Stress — Because of the simpler lifestyle and lower cost of living in a tiny home, stress levels tend to drop significantly after relocating from a full-sized house with full-sized bills to match!
4. Less Upkeep — This is simple math. The smaller the space you live in, the less cleaning and repairs you will have to perform. Also, the upkeep tends to be less costly because of the smaller spaces you inhabit. #Winning!
5. Lower Utility Bills — You will experience a noticeable decrease in your monthly water, power, and heating and cooling bills, thanks to the sizeable drop in the energy it takes to keep a tiny home up and running.
6. At One with Nature — Tiny homes are often built in rural, small communities because of the limited space to build in more densely populated cities and towns.
7. More Room for Outdoor Entertaining — Smaller homes leave more space to enjoy the surrounding property. So, if you frequently dine al fresco, this housing arrangement could perfectly fit your lifestyle.
Weighing the Benefits
As you can see, many reasons exist to explore the idea of ditching full-sized digs for a bite-sized replacement. The benefits of moving into a tiny home are numerous and are certainly intriguing enough to probe the topic further.
You are not alone if you have recently considered moving into a tiny home. The apparent rise in popularity of the charming smaller-sized abodes that have donned the #tinyhouselife hashtag on social media is a testament to how sizing down can benefit your wallet and cortisol levels.
With 10,000 tiny homes already standing and more on the way, the United States has undoubtedly started to see a shift from the dream of owning a home that is flagrantly flaunt-worthy to settling for a more modest model that still has all the necessary trappings and trimmings to remain function-friendly from day-to-day.
This trend is even more enticing for the hordes of millennials and Gen Z professionals who are doubling down as wannabe homeowners from Maine to California as it becomes increasingly difficult to secure the funds to purchase property of the more conventional sort.
There's No Place Like Home
No matter how you slice it, there are obstacles to overcome whether we find ourselves in times of housing market crisis or not when trying to find "The House." And let's be honest; according to the experts studying the current housing market trends, the outlook could be more favorable.
“A perfect storm of still-high mortgage rates and home prices amid historically low housing stock continues to put homeownership out of reach for many — most notably first-time buyers…”- Robin Rothstein for ForbesAdvisor.com.
Most notably, the reasons for making the transition to tiny, ranging from becoming more environmentally conscious to stacking more cash in your reserves, the upsides are apparent enough for some to abandon the alternative.
Also, nobody enjoys paying out the nose for monthly expenses while maintaining a mountain of debt (and a boatload of buyer's remorse.) But, unfortunately, clicking your heels three times will not land you in a home any sooner.
No wonder taking on a tiny home has become more palatable, especially to the up-and-coming generation hoping to find the path of least resistance that leads to breaking into the housing market and sticking the landing with both feet firmly planted on a piece of property to call their very own.
