Three unconventional living conditions adopted by Americans to make housing more affordable

This story is the third in a series of four parts. Read the first part here And the second part here.

Since the high housing costs over the past decade have placed the purchase of a traditional house away from the reach of many Americans, the increasing number turns into unconventional alternatives.

Some reuse old commercial buildings or buy land and pre -homes, while others choose to share homes with strangers to reduce costs.

Here are three unconventional methods that the Americans live themselves:

Small homes

When Elisa Pots and her husband Rick moved from New York City to Seattle 10 years ago, they arrived just as the city was suffering from the largest population boom in its 174 -year history. Thanks to an increase in technical jobs in addition to the growing city economy, Seattle has gained about 60,000 new populations between 2010 and 2014, according to the American Statistical Office data.

This mutation increased the demand for housing, which in turn caused the high price of homes in the city. Six months after their arrival, the couple discovered that they could not buy a house in Seattle or its suburbs.

They eventually started investigating other options and encountered the movement of the small house.

Small homes are exactly what they look: small housing usually no more than 500 square feet, and they are often designed to look like mini versions of homes similar to suburbs. It comes with all the usual amenities listed in larger houses such as bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and sometimes even garages. Small homes can be built on a basis or contain wheels so that their owners can capture and go whenever they want.

After hitting the great recession in 2008, the Americans’ interest in reducing the growing houses and small homes became more popular. By 2014, the small city of Texas became the first small friendly city announced. Now many states, including Kentucky, Missouri, Vermont and Maine, are major places to live in small homes, either because they provide a wide space to stop them or because the laws division of government areas are subject to them.

Small homeowners say that movement and energy efficiency are among many benefits of their small dishes. But one of the most attractive aspects of small homes is its ability to withstand costs.

Small homes are usually less expensive than traditional homes. The cost of the basic small house can range between $ 20,000 and $ 60,000, although prices can vary according to building materials, size and additions, according to Bankraate.

Boots and her husband currently have two small houses, one of which each, as they gather together wherever they go. The small boots house costs a little more than the average-about $ 75,000-and the matter ended to its small house on demand at a cost of more than $ 100,000.

However, the couple believes they are better financial than if they had bought a traditional house.

Nobody has a mortgage on any of the house and pay about $ 650 per month each to rent the area they occupy in the RV park on the slopes of Mount Hood in Oregon, where they are currently stationed. Then they pay about 100 dollars each for that in exchange for facilities such as electricity, water and garbage.

Completely, they pay much less than the average monthly rent of one bedroom apartment in the state, which is currently $ 1795, according to Zillow. The costs of their housing are also much lower than paying the mortgage of $ 2000 a month they expected to pay on a traditional house outside, Portland or Seattle.

“We have been unbelievable, to do a lot of things that people dream about,” Pots said.

barnominiums

Barnominiums, or Barndos for a short period, are homes similar to pies outside but include all the usual amenities of the traditional home – bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and dining room – from the inside.

They have become more popular among Americans over the past decade, especially in the rural areas of the country: it is sufficient to find a national survey last year that seven percent of the builders of one -family house have built Parndo in the past 12 months.

Pargianium definitions can vary, but there are two main types. The first is a fold that then is converted into a house, while the second is a metal building after the frame built from A to Z to resemble the barn.

Converting the barn into a house for people is usually much more expensive than just building one zero point, according to Paul Murphy, home planning adviser to the Texas -based MY Barndo company, which has been designing and building a barnominium since 2023.

He said that Parndo metal after the frame would be less expensive to buy from the traditional house, because the materials to make them are usually cheaper.

Murphy said that his company is building its tires in Bernidoyium and its accompanying wall panels with red iron, which are less expensive for each square foot of the wood.

His company also charges Parnenimium groups, or prior tires that can be used to build buildings more quickly.

“Getting this time to get to the house faster is another benefit from Parndo,” Murphy said.

Parnominium will cost $ 35 to 45 dollars per square roof, Tony Gladi, the owner of Buildmax, who sells the Barndo collections, for House Beautiful. Meanwhile, building a traditional house can cost between $ 100 and $ 155 per square foot, according to Bankate.

participant

Joint housing is mainly a community of private homes where people share common spaces and facilities. Many of these societies consist of a series of small individual houses that have many amenities in traditional home kitchens and bedrooms located near a joint house, which contains a large dining area, a large kitchen, meeting rooms and several guest rooms.

Participation in housing is not a new idea: Architect Katie McCamant NPR told her that she brought her to the United States in the early eighties after studying housing in Denmark. Others in the American co -co -architect and author Charles Dorit to bring the concept to the United States

It has become more popular in decades since then, as Americans have been looking for ways to combat loneliness, find support for care and compensation for their carbon fingerprint. Now there are at least 165 joint society in the United States, with 140 other training community, according to the US Housing Association.

The model also provides financial benefits – even if it does not look at first.

Several common housing communities are formed when a group of people interested in financing the development of the society they want, according to Don Rinhardt, a member of the housing participating in Louisville.

“The cost of joint houses is usually sufficiently compensated by the smaller imprint of individual homes,” said Renehardt.

Because of the common areas of a joint house, the joint population can live in smaller individual houses.

“You do not need to get a space for many people to attend or your guest room,” said Reigns Cohen, a community organizer at the National Housing Association participating in a participating community in Berkeley, California.

Cohen said that these smaller individual houses are cheaper in construction, which are less expensive to maintain, heat and cool.

But some of the largest costs of providing costs for this model do not come in the process of building homes, but from living within society over time. Many participants participate in resources and domestic workers. For example, community members may assign grass responsibilities for one person or a group together to pay for gardening services.

“The joint housing is about the long term and what you can do together,” said Reinhardt.