Maybe you’ve seen them online, perhaps on Facebook, where someone shares a link with a photo and says “I want one!” Or perhaps you’ve seen them in coffee-table books or hip shelter magazines. They’re the tiny houses, the micro houses, ranging from 500 square feet down to less than 100. They’re definitely a kind of eye candy, especially the ones with cleverly designed interiors that appeal the way a rich girl’s dollhouse might and attract as snugness can. They have the added advantage of being more environmentally sensitive than a McMansion, of being trendy, even. But who actually lives in them?
In the past half-century, the average American home has grown from about 1,000 square feet to roughly 2,400 square feet. While that figure apparently has dropped a little in recent years, owing in part perhaps to the recession, the very small house is still a hard sell, especially in the Midwest, where land and space are relatively inexpensive.
“When we first started our business in 2005, we were really intent on building a house less than 1,000 square feet,” says Jay Swoboda, the co-founder and project manager of EcoUrban, a St. Louis company that helps design homes and offices. “We did some focus groups and realized people wanted three bedrooms and they wanted it on one floor—so it was impossible to do.” Now, EcoUrban’s houses, which are still compact compared to most, range from 1,000 to 2,000 square feet.
Rocio Romero, architectural designer, manufacturer of homes, and founder of the St. Louis company that bears her name, says she gets the sense that tiny homes are solutions for more expensive areas, such as parts of California and New York, “where you really need a small footprint,” for “people who use their homes more like a sleeping pod.”
Ms. Romero has built her company on her signature prefab LV Home, a handsome, modern design that starts at 1,150 square feet. She says she thinks the market is gradually coming to her, although her customers still tend to be from outside the Midwest. “Back in 2003, when I first started offering these, everyone thought it was just abnormally small, and now it seems like everyone is thinking this is a good-sized home… I guess it’s the same as getting a meal: Do you want fast-food McDonald’s or do you want to go to a nice café with smaller portions and tastier food?”
St. Louis, says Mr. Swoboda, “is still after that 1,600- to 2,000-square-foot home. People still can’t figure out that they don’t need a dedicated dining room that they never have a meal in except maybe once a year—things that are really just a waste of space and costly.”
And where does Mr. Swoboda live?
“I’m living in a 2,500-square-foot historic home that I’m trying to sell mightily so I can afford to build one of my own homes,” he says. “So the cobbler’s children have no shoes… It’s just excessive. I imagine I could get my house to around 1,200 square feet and be pretty happy with it.”
