Tehama Country Real Estate

Tehama Country Real Estate – Mini Homes a New Housing Trend U rban apart ment dwellers may not be the only people r esiding in small spaces. The new tr end in American home living is housing downsizing, when individ uals decide to live in signifi cantly closer quarters -some as little as a walk-in closet. Move over McMansions, microhomes ar e the latest craze for costand eco-con scious indi viduals look ing to capital ize on the American dr eam of home ownership. On the heels of homes doubling to over twice the size of traditional Eur opean homes in the last half cen tury, the scale is tipping in the other dir ection. The national average house size dr opped for the first time in nearly 15 years, about the equivalent of one r oom. As the national family size aver age continues to shrink as well, many people ar e finding they sim ply do not need as much house as in the past. Others ar e taking smaller homes to the extr eme, pr efer ring micr o-houses that of fer living As 1 in 5 people in the U.S. owe mor e on their homes than the house's curr ent value, and with the government for eclosing on r oughly 3 million homes last year alone, a small home may be a smart f i n a n c i a l investment. What's mor e, small homes ar e mor e envi ronmentally sound. space in as little as 65 squar e feet with customizable kitchen, sleeping and living ar eas. Ther e ar e some advantages to liv ing in a small abode, most notably cost. Accor ding to Jay Shafer, owner of the Tumbleeweed Tiny House Com pany, people can build a tiny home for as little as $20,000. That's a far cry fr om the average home price of $250,000. They r equir e much less building mate rials and ener gy to heat and cool the space. Those inter est ed in going gr een may find that micr o-houses ar e the ideal way to do so. For those inter ested in a micr ohome, consider a prefabricated model fr om one of these companies: * k i t H A U S (www.kithaus.com) * BluHomes Origin (www.bluhomes.com) * Katrina Cottages ( w w w. k a t r i n a c o t tages.com) * M i n i H O M E S (www.sustain.ca/) 3

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