What does a home of the future look like? It may surprise us

Change is strange. It often comes in completely unexpected forms. It seems obvious in retrospect. But nobody had imagined that before.

Houses and house prices can be a good example of this.

Readers posted anecdotes about their experiences with real estate values ​​in Texas in response to my recent column on the amazing growth in home prices in Dripping Springs.

If you look at the headlines on home prices across the country, the general theme is clear: “What goes up has to come down.” The most popular word for house prices is “bubble”.

In Texas, we’ve had a lot of experience with real estate bankruptcies, so the idea of ​​falling home values ​​isn’t far-fetched. It’s a historical reality.

But our future may not be that simple.

Why? Because our feelings about living space are relative. You are not pinned. They change with what we do.

Let’s look at a few examples.

Tiny houses. While developers continue to favor building McMansions on postage lot, enough people are going minimalist that building “tiny houses” is called a movement. Built on a small trailer bed, these structures typically provide around 150 square feet of living space. They can be pushed into the smallest of openings in backyards. Needless to say, they cost a lot less than typical new homes.

Stay in one and it’s almost certain that lodging isn’t the single largest expenditure on your living expenses.

Parking models. These homes have no more than 399 square feet of living space as that is the maximum size of an RV for tax purposes. Basically, they’re an RV that is built to look and feel like a small house. They typically have a bedroom and a bathroom as well as a living / dining area. Some have sleeping places in the attic.

Both types of houses are now represented by the American Tiny House Association, an indication that this is more than a passing fad.

RVs. Recreational vehicle sales have hit records since the COVID-19 outbreak. The latest sales report on the RV Industry Association website shows a year-over-year increase in total RV shipments of 50.8% year over year through September.

While most RVs are used for recreation and vacation, more and more people are living in them full-time. Some do this because their work is mobile and requires frequent moves. Others do it because it lowers their cost of living. And others do it to withdraw, if not entirely, from household chores.

If you have to worry about less, you have more time for everything else.

One indication of the popularity of non-traditional housing construction is a real estate fund that has built a nationwide collection of RV sites, shared apartments, and marinas. Equity Lifestyle Properties now operates 434 properties, from the Meridian RV Resort in Apache Junction, Arizona to the Cortez Village Marina in Cortez, Florida.

Prefabricated houses. Lots of people look under the nose at prefabricated houses, but they cost a fraction of what traditional wooden houses cost. Add up the shrinking household size of an aging nation and they look even better.

Even further on the edge of the imagination, what if all of these manufacturing developments are just steps towards a new breed of home appliance? It could happen.

While the focus of the conventional housing industry has been on building bigger and bigger houses, it is entirely possible that today’s bigger houses are tomorrow’s white elephants, remnants of a bygone era that are no longer relevant to the way most people live. Skeptics should consider our automotive industry. For decades, his imagination was limited to building bigger and bigger cars – even as Japan and Europe captured market share with smaller, but better-designed vehicles.

Big mistake. Today General Motors and Ford hold less than 30% of the US auto market.

Do you think that living in a small space is crazy or impossible? Then you meet Teresa O’Kane and her husband Scott Soper. I met her last month after docking at St. Michaels Marina in Maryland. I sailed with two of my brothers aboard the Wind Song, a 32-foot Catalina sloop that I recently bought. (Incidentally, it was a comfortable live subscription for the three of us. Two people could live on board full-time.)

Teresa and Scott were on board the “Green Eyes”, their 26 foot long Nordic tug. It has around 150 square feet of living space by her census and has been her home for 13 months exploring the Great Lakes and East Coast for the past two years. She told me that if she ever wanted a bigger boat, it would be more to cope with rough seas than to have more space inside. You can read her blog here.

As always, the greatest place is in our heads. The future will develop from it.

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