Counterculture Tiny Home Movement Turns Its Back on Traditional Measures of Status
Highlights
- The 2008 housing crisis led some to question our country’s housing finance system
- Traditional status-fueled decision-making not always aligned with people’s values
- The tiny house movement supports experiences over things
- Today’s tiny house counterculture meshes with environmentalism
Are Tiny Homes a Solution to the Housing Crisis?
Tiny homes have gained popularity as a potential solution to the housing crisis. These compact, minimalist dwellings offer affordability, sustainability, and mobility. While they can provide housing options for some, their effectiveness in addressing the broader housing crisis depends on factors such as local regulations, infrastructure, and individual preferences.
Tiny homes can be part of a multifaceted approach to housing challenges but may not serve as a sole solution for all segments of the population.
Countercultures often start when a crisis causes people to reconsider aspects of traditional culture. The tiny house movement turns traditional measures of status upside down. Let’s look at where the movement got its start.
Housing Crisis Set the Stage for the Tiny House Movement
The housing bubble and crash of the late 2000’s illustrated that wealth built on real estate could evaporate overnight. According to ProPublica, between 2007-2011, four million homeowners lost their properties to foreclosure.
Most mortgage-holders had depended upon lenders to help them choose appropriate loans and to explain the copious legal and financial documents needed to be signed. Many were misled instead.
You may have experienced this crisis directly, or grown up in its aftermath.
After the housing crisis, builders slowed putting new houses on the market. Home buying companies bid up the price of the existing stock. In fact, investment companies increased their purchases of single family homes so much that in 2021 they bought 24% of all sold.
Mortgage standards also tightened, so home loans became harder to attain.
Still Sky High Rents And A Tight Housing Market Today
The COVID housing bubble saw prices in many locales soar to new heights. Some newly-remote office workers took their coastal proceeds and moved to cheaper markets, pushing up prices there, too.
Many existing home owners have reacted to 2022-2023 interest rate increases by holding onto their low rate mortgages. This continues to constrain housing supply.
Rents went up consistently during this same time as well, outpacing wage increases. Earlier this year, TheHill.com wrote that the average American renter, for the first time, pays more than 30% of their income on housing.
Is the tiny house trend over? No – like you, many show continued interest in tiny homes, as they look for alternatives to the mortgage or rental game. Small spaces represent an important option, one with fixed home costs at a much lower price point.
The Tiny House Movement Delivers A Different Form of Status
Nobel Laureate economist John Harsanyi, said that “apart from economic payoffs, social status seems to be the most important incentive and motivating force of social behavior.”
A group of researchers identified the top three universal traits associated with high social status: being honest, brave, and having a good sense of humor. Beyond wealth and fame, of course.
Those with low social status tend to react defensively when threatened by its loss, but also tend to be more empathetic and community minded. Higher social status equates to higher earning potential, but this is in part due to an exaggerated belief among high-status people that they are more capable than they are. This overconfidence tends to be read by others as competence, making them more effective in job interviews.
In fact, in situations where the focus is on cooperation, high-status signals tend to backfire. “People are instinctively aware of the benefits of modesty when the context clearly values cooperation,” found another group of researchers.
Tiny house communities value cooperation over competition.
The Tiny House Movement Questions the Link Between Big Spaces and Status
From 1920 to 2014, the average home size in the US went from 1048 square feet to 2657, even as the average number of people living in a single house went down.
Recently, the trend among the rich to own two or more homes has increased. According to Business Insider, top second-home locations with the most ultra-wealthy include Miami, FL, The Hamptons, NY, West Palm Beach, FL, Paris, France, and Montecito, CA. Many of these large dwellings sit empty much of the year.
Perhaps you, like others in the tiny home movement, question the wisdom of using so many materials and so much land to house fewer and fewer people per single-family structure.
The Tiny Home Movement Supports Experiences Over Buying
The Internet created access for anyone to purchase anything from anywhere at any time. But scarcity has always fueled status. So while trend-hunters may shop on sites like GOAT to find something otherwise hard to attain, many in younger generations have turned their attention to experiences over things.
Social media rewards sharing exciting life events. Spending less on housing, by living in a tiny house, frees time and money for other more interesting adventures.
The Tiny Home Movement | Echos Of The 1960s
The 1960’s counterculture movement questioned whether the nation’s focus on materialism and consumer culture masked larger issues of social inequality, militarism, and environmental degradation.
Similarly, the tiny house movement encourages upcycling, living off-grid, buying and using less, spending more time in nature, and increasing community interactions.
The tiny house movement remains small but continues to grow. As more communities adopt small space-friendly zoning rules, look to shelter previously unhoused people, and seek ways to give people of different ages access to ownership, it will only increase in its relevance.
So, Is the Tiny Home Movement a Solution to the Housing Crisis?
The question “Are tiny homes a solution to the housing crisis?” unveils a multifaceted issue that intertwines with broader societal trends. The tiny house movement, born out of the 2008 housing crisis, challenges traditional notions of status and emphasizes experiences over possessions.
While it may not single-handedly resolve the ongoing housing crisis, it offers an innovative alternative that addresses issues of affordability, sustainability, and community cooperation. Much like countercultural movements of the past, the tiny house movement is evolving to find its place in a world where housing costs remain high, and people yearn for a different, more conscious way of living.
As communities adopt supportive zoning regulations and explore solutions for housing insecurity, the tiny house movement is poised to grow in relevance, contributing to a broader conversation about the future of housing in a changing world.
