Once you read past all the articles about COVID-19 and the physical effects, hidden in there are some of the financial effects it has had on a massive number of the worlds population.

The one thing, hopefully, people have realised because of this pandemic is you need to have some kind of nest egg to see you through. This could easily happen again, do you have a new life plan/ financial moving forward?

Amazon specifically, and I'm sure eBay by similarity of sales are seeing an increase in their sections of tiny home sales.

The question is are people building them, and moving into them to reduce their monthly outgoings to create a nest egg from savings because of smaller monthly outgoings?

Or, possibly using them to create income? If you are in the position to have an additional small home on your property it could create a nice annual residual income.

And now so many people and companies have realised working from home is a reality, you could in theory put that home anywhere.

We aren't talking about a glorified garden shed here. A quick search on Amazon landed me a on a home for $119,000 pictured featured below. Its less than 800 sqft so maybe too small for a lot of people and certainly not good for a family.

The search continued for a reasonable size home, a little less than 1400 sqft for $64,000 also on Amazon.

Hop over to eBay and tiny homes there top out at $165,000

The obvious caveat with doing this is you also need to buy the land too, but if you are lucky to have a job that you can do remotely now, then your immediate local area isn't where you need to search, now you can search the whole country, or maybe the world

When I write this I think of a friend who told me his sister lives in Manhattan and pays $4500 a month for a 600 sqft apartment. She now works from home until told otherwise, would she and others like her be candidates for this type of home, or are they already in the process of buying and/ or building.

The world is obviously changing, if you were to do it all again would you be so heavily invested in real estate, or look for a cheaper cost of living or a way to add residual income to get you out of the rat race sooner?

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The Tiny house movement in New Zealand mostly consists of the latter pictures, VERY small dwellings on a moveable chassis, converted busses and the like with the key factor being the movable bit. I think this is primarily driven by building and local regulations about taxes for services where a fixed building becomes more liable for water supply/sewerage etc costs.

While some have bought into tiny homes as a cheap form of housing many in NZ most who get into it are more interested in a minimalist lifestyle.

It seems in general average house sizes in New Zealand have been decreasing for a while anyway.

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/103551/average-size-new-dwellings-dropped-200-square-metres-2010-158-square-metres-2019

The first property I bought was 2 bedroom 800 SqFt, just for me on my own. I don't know what you would call it in the US or even if you have something comparable, a single building specifically built as 2 accomodation units titled separately, sitting on a piece of land co-owned by both accomodation unit owners. 800 SqFt was a fine size for a couple but no more.

As long as there's a decent garage for my bikes I have no need for a huge house.

I thought about these for many years, and feel those tiny homes while cute are the answer to a question no one asked. Because everything is relative, location, cost of living, size of the house, are always inter related. A tiny house would make a lot of sense somewhere where housing is expensive, but not elsewhere where regular homes could be had for same or even less money.

Say, if I wanted a nice weekend ocean shore or mountain top little place to go to in a prime location, without crazy cost, perhaps a tiny home would be the answer. Or would it?. But as primary residence, I'd change location to somewhere with decent infrastructure and reasonable housing costs. A two bedroom, living, kitchen, bathroom does it for me. No huge property needed but gotta have garage! Surprisingly for me (not from the builder's companies point of view) trends have been not favoring a lot of regular yet small homes, of up to 1,500 sq ft to be built, they still are hard to find in convenient areas.

Surprisingly not a lot of regular yet small homes, of up to 1,500 sq ft are built, they still are hard to find in convenient areas.

Cause in the US the idea of bigger is better is spoon fed to us by the media and a lot of people buy into it sadly even when they can't really afford to

Yeah, so true. When I moved out of NYC congested area was able to get in the South a home , brand new, for less than 1/2 price of an almost similar in sq feet up there, albeit with no pool or large yard (which I didn't really need anyway). But if looking around to have a decent, comfortable home, and not depending on location that restrictively, the further one moves away from biggest congested coastal US metropolis, the more your money buys. Not to mention crazy tax reductions. And then there are places like Eastern TN, where even riding is better and no state tax.

Having lived on the east coast a few times it's a place I'd visit on occasion but not a place I'd ever want to live again. If I did have to I would most likely be forced into a tiny home simply due to space and cost restrictions that I could afford

Depends on what areas on East coast and what your standards for quality of living represent. But I agree, there are better housing deals to be had elsewhere, if speaking from a purely monetary view. As well as others, from the natural scenery. etc. points of view.

I lived in FL, NYC and Maine and I still have rental property in VT, I just find the west a lot better for both as you say a good monetary point of view and overall well being

We’ve watched Tiny House Nation, where they custom-build homes with a ridiculous amount of secret compartments, extra storage and dual use furniture. For two people in a part of the US where you can be outdoors nine months of the year, I think two people could be happy with under 500 sq ft and a decent outdoors space.

We’ve also watched those House Hunters International shows on buying a pre-existing tiny home. For parts of the world with four seasons living, I think a 650 sq ft one level home with a backyard space is the minimum required that we’d need to be happy.

I can’t imagine living in a tiny home with two kids, a spouse and one or more pets, but somehow they find people willing to do it in under 500 sq ft: