• jerry dycus
  June 8, 2022, 11:40 am

  Do you really want to pay $60k for a bedroom you have to unfold? I’ll build you 2 8’x16′ solar THs for just the price of the bedroom.
  Come on people, let’s get real on these prices. If you can’t do better, find another line of work.

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• Annette
  August 5, 2022, 12:03 pm

  While this is a pretty RV with a streamlined design, I concur with Jerry – if one has this much money/borrowing ability, they owe it to themselves to buy real estate because it appreciates. The whole point of tiny houses is to bring one’s costs down and live on a human level, not as a slave to bills and consumption. Say you put down 10% and finance $130K over 12 years at 6 percent (hmmm- and can you find those terms and interest rates for an RV? Interest can be pretty high on RVs, and terms pretty short). The payment on that loan will be in the neighborhood if not more than $1,300/month, parking will be maybe $700, so now you have $2K/month before utilities and all of the regular living expenses. Meantime, that $2K per month could finance a $300,000+ on a 30-year fixed term loan. By the end of that 12 years, the RV is likely to be worth quite a bit less (depreciation of 35 to 40 percent after 5 years is normal on RVs) than the original cost and the lot rent has likely increased. Nationally homes average an appreciation of 3.5 to 3.8 percent per year, and in some regions and locations they appreciate much much more than that per year. If you’d taken a fixed loan of $130K at 6 percent (todays rate is around 5.25%) for 30 years your payment is around $720, no rent charges in addition – if you financed a $300,000 loan at 6 percent for 30 years that you might have taken instead of this expensive RV you’d still pay around $1700/month but no money paid to rent. Where I live the homes have appreciated an average of 9.65 percent over the past 5 years, and last year averaged over 21 percent appreciation. Obviously there’s no guarantees and it’s harder to get a house loan since the housing crisis, and prices are high; but at $150K this RV is only for people who can really afford to lose money, and for whom that amount is not important nor essential.

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  • James D.
    August 5, 2022, 2:54 pm

    Things to consider is appreciation is not guaranteed and markets always have their ups and downs. Along with being vulnerable to any significant economic events that like the stock market can mean times when there will be significant loses as well as times when housing costs will go through the roof as it has been doing the last few years, which could offer opportunities for significant gains but it’s also part of the many reasons housing has become unaffordable for an increasing percentage of the population as the benefit of a home owners often comes as the cost of making it more difficult for those still seeking to own a home.

    Appreciation is also generally not much greater than the rate of inflation for most properties. While it ignores you’re actually spending up to multiple times what the purchase price of the home was on all the long term costs of the home over the years. The annual average basic, non-mortgage, home owner costs have exceed $15,000 nationally, and that’s still not counting all costs of living that owning a property effects.

    So you’re actually paying to own and live on a property, you’re just minimizing your loses in reality and making sure you have something to walk away with at the end.

    The only ones who truly profit over real estate are the banks and those who regularly buy and sell properties.

    Understand, all houses depreciate, it’s the land and tying the property to the local economy that allows for appreciation but depreciation of the house itself is why it’s possible to do things like flip properties because you’re making it like new again so it can sell at full market value. While true appreciation is tied to the local economy being in a state of growing prosperity and that the house is kept current and well maintained.

    THOWs just aren’t tied to land, so there’s nothing to augment the normal depreciation. However, value of houses still go up and down with the market and it’s still possible to renovate a THOW to renew its value. So it’s not impossible to be able to sell a THOW for more than you purchased one if you time the buy and sell at different ends of the market trends as it cycles between periods of prosperity and periods of recession or even depression.

    There’s also multiple ways to make a property earn you an income, such as renting it out or running a business from it, which will usually get you far more revenue than any appreciation could compare to…

    Good point on interest rates, though, often something overlooked. THOW financing will often be at higher rates but higher rates are also effecting the whole housing market right now as the rates have been raised and is worsening the effect of mortgages. Tiny living just usually compensates by lowering most of your long term costs, which can be the larger effect on your finances and is one of the reasons most tiny home owners either don’t own anything or are quickly paying it off in often much less than ten years.

    This all changes over time and not every example will work out the same but people should always focus on what’s appropriate for their situation. Some may be able to buy something like this and easily finance it to pay it off quickly but others may not be able to do so even if it was 1/10th the price and would have to consider something very different.

    Houses are also not all the same and this can be especially true of Tiny Houses, as there’s a wide range of features, amenities, designs, and ways to do them that will all effect what you’re actually paying for and how that will effect someone’s life and both short term and long term finances.

    There’s always going to be choices and consequences of those choices. Thus the actual whole point of alternatives like tiny houses is simply taking control, focusing on what’s important to you and fits your specific situation the best. It’s just not going to work out exactly the same for everyone because everyone won’t all be in the exact same situation and can have very different ideas of what’s appropriate for them from someone else, vice versa, etc. thus it’s good to have as many options as possible to work and fit as many people as possible…

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