Alternative Housing

There’s a housing crisis going on right now.

While that’s obvious, the solutions may be less so. I’d like to discuss some of the realities of what we’re facing right now and how we can do something about it. If you know me in person, you’ll know that I’m not a fan of complaining about an issue if we aren’t willing to do what we can to fix it.

That said, let’s explore this topic a bit.

The Problems:

There are a few main issues (and probably several minor ones) that are contributing to this problem. The problem itself is that there’s a shortage of housing inventory (meaning there’s a lack of available homes on the market) and the ones that are on the market are unaffordable.

Economy

The first thing you’d probably expect me to say is the economy and you’d be right.

We’ve had a steady increase in the cost of housing since the 70s (not long after the U.S. abandoned the gold standard) which has led homes to be almost 300% more expensive to buy than previously.

So what’s the big deal? Well, the only thing that makes it an issue is when income doesn’t match the rise in housing cost.

In my county in particular, housing cost has gone up by 103% while the average household income has only gone up 43%.

I’ve had a handful of older folk struggle to understand why it’s so hard for a young person to buy a home and this is why!

Since the standard for “middle class” is based on whether or not you can afford to buy and own a single-family home, you may be surprised to hear that you’d need to be making around $120k annually to even consider owning the average single-family home.

I don’t have debt, I’ve handled my money pretty well, I’m good at saving and investing and yet I’m looking at the reality that I won’t be able to afford a home any time in the next 15-20 years assuming prices were to stay the same (they won’t).

Most young people don’t have it as good as I do and have medical bills, car payments, higher rent, student loan debt, credit card debt, lower income, and whatever else. They’re looking at the reality that they can’t even think about starting a family or owning a home of any size or quality until they retire.

(In my county you’d need to be making close to $120k just for a fixer-upper!)

Materials

This is not probably the first thing that comes to mind when trying to understand the housing shortage but it’s an underestimated pain.

The materials we use today in the U.S. for homes are not only very poor quality (our garbage drywall, cheap plastic finishes, glue and stick floors, badly formed foundations etc) and are very over-priced.

Today if you want something that will be sturdy and hold up long term, you need to spend an outrageous amount of money. On top of this, close to 30% of the materials you paid for will be wasted in the construction process.

I don’t know about you, but if my house were to cost $300k when it could’ve only cost $200k I’d rethink a lot of my construction plans!

These issues in wasted and overpriced materials contributes to the housing shortage issue since people are less likely to build anything.

Zoning Restrictions

One of the biggest reasons for the housing crisis is local zoning restrictions.

Regardless of your feelings about local zoning ordinances, they’re causing a problem. In many areas new homes are restricted in how they can be built.

Most of the time this is a matter of restricting how small and affordable you’re allowed to build and not how large and extravagant you can build it.

My own county administrator readily admitted to me that this is because “Local jurisdictions are incentivized to built larger, more expensive housing because of the property tax they receive as revenue”. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty scary to me.

Even if you’re someone who’s in favor of property tax, you have to admit this is a major pitfall.

In my county, local ordinances are handled on a township level. In many townships around me they can decide all of the following about your house:

• How big your home is (fair enough)

• How small your home is (ok??)

• What direction your home is facing (??)

• How much road frontage your house has to have (still unsure about this one)

• Whether you’re connected to city utilities (they have deals with local utility companies to enforce this)

• What aesthetic style your house is built in (excuse me???)

• Whether or not you have more than one dwelling per parcel of property (even if you have 100 acres, you can’t put more than one house on it without legally splitting the property up)

• How many times you can split your property- no more than 3. (Oh. Well that last one wouldn’t work out very well then)

My main question as food for thought is this: How much ownership do you really have over your home if they can decide all of that for you and you still have to pay to keep it?

So you’re starting to get a sense of the scope of how bad this is.

I should mention that most of who is in charge of the townships and county were NOT in power when these rules were made and I’m not saying they were made out of malice necessarily.

Living Big

And lastly, we have an issue with the average American living WAY too big.

The average home in the U.S. is around 2500-2700sqft. This doesn’t sound big to anyone living in a house that size, but that is quite large.

If you want to live in a house that big, then you’re free to do that.

We’re so used to excess that we take for granted how little we could actually get by on. We consume so much of everything that we cause new problems and stresses for ourselves that we wouldn’t have otherwise!

When we have large homes, we’re prone to filling it with stuff.

Potential Solutions:

Before we go on, I have to mention that this is a multi-faceted issue that can’t be solved by only one thing. This is something that will have to happen slowly (or very quickly out of necessity) for change to actually occur which is sad news for someone my age (I’m 27) who has very little prospect of owning a home.

That said, here are some potential solutions:

Alternative Housing

Yurts: Yurts are not only affordable ($15-35k) but are quite comfortable and nice in our modern age. They’re safer than ever, well-designed, and can be constructed in as little as 4 days with help!

Yurts are also designed for cold climates and are very well insulated typically. Do your research and see what you think of interiors because most of them are very doable if you live somewhere that allows yurts as homes.

Tiny homes: Tiny homes can also be affordable, but I will caveat that by saying in order to save costs you really need to rethink your living standards. Don’t try and finish these with the interior you see in middle class houses! That will make them a lot more expensive. Try to stick to something more simple and rustic.

Earth shelters: Now earth-shelters (or “earth sheltered homes”) can be built in a wide range of ways.

Some look more like hobbit-holes, others are closed loop (they recycle all of their own outputs) called “earthships” and others are just built into the side of a hill.

These are interesting because earth has an insulating effect which not only saves on a lot of material costs, but also saves you in energy costs over the life of the home.

Container Homes: These are houses made of old shipping containers. Do your research before attempting this, I’ve heard great stories of awesome results, but I’ve also heard nightmares about how they can be to deal with.

Either way they tend to be very structurally sound and can be cheaper depending on what you do to them.

These are just a few options. I’ve seen so many other creative housing types such as 3D printed houses (which cuts down waste and labor time), bell tent living, van living, silo homes, repurposed aircraft hangars, fully underground hobbit holes, treehouses, shed homes, cabins, outfitted buses, and many more.

The point I’m trying to get at is that there are some great options out there that could be MUCH more affordable than the conventional house.

Saving Costs

There are a lot of ways to cut down on costs here.

One is to repurpose materials! This will significantly cut down on your building costs.

Doing the labor yourself can also be a great way to save money if you have the skills. Some things may be better left to professionals but there are still plenty of things you can learn yourself (like all of the interior finishes) that will save a hefty amount.

Another option (especially for you young people) is to split the cost of the land. Land is at a premium price in my area (I’ve seen 1/8th acre development lots go for over $100k, most other parcels are still upwards of $60k/acre) and you don’t need a lot to homestead on. Get some friends or family members to help you start a homestead and save costs for everyone involved.

If everyone split the land costs and built a small house on the land, you could make it a pocket neighborhood or a modern day village (that’s my personal goal!)

Live in a cheaper area. You may have to sacrifice the benefits of urban living in order to live affordably. That’s just the reality of it.

I could do a whole article on financial resilience (reply and let me know if you’d like to see that) but keeping your finances in order and your lifestyle cheap is another way to cut costs and make things more affordable.

Zoning Regulation Options

Although I’m not a fan of local zoning ordinances personally, I understand that some people really like the quality of life it seems to afford which I can respect.

The real root of the issue is that local townships get revenue from property tax. My county administrator told me that he thinks the real solution is to decouple local township revenue from property taxes which could be something to think about depending on where you live and who you are.

At the very least, changes to local zoning to allow people more freedom to decide what to do with their own property would be one step in the right direction.

I recently wrote a proposal for our county commissioners on this subject and I proposed three different potential options:

• Setting aside special zoning for alternative housing

• Setting aside a region of the county for a “keyhole” zone where ordinances are limited.

• Making exceptions for affordable housing.

There’s a lot of creative ways you could go about this, but it really varies based on your specific area’s regulations.

“So what can we do about it?”

Well for one, reach out to your local government and explain to them your concerns! When I reached out to mine, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they actually care and many of them share the same desires as me. It’s just a logistics and legal process to get things changed assuming there’s enough demand.

Popularizing more affordable living helps, and honestly some form of peaceful protest would be in order if they still aren’t listening.

This particular newsletter was a bit more of a rant, but it’s a subject I’m passionate about and it really needs to be addressed if we expect people to live healthfully and holistically.

Resources:

Here are a few channels I enjoy on alternative living:

Kirsten Dirksen

Florb

Exploring Alternatives

Better Together Life

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