The State Where People Spend the Least on Tiny Homes

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 20, 9:30AM EDT

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The State Where People Spend the Least on Tiny Homes — © punktoad / Flickr

Tiny homes have grown in popularity recently. They are defined as those that have under 400 square feet of living space, which is smaller than most modest-sized urban apartments. It compares to the average American house size of just over 2,500 square feet. Many of these tiny homes are mobile and have wheels, so they can be towed from place to place.

One reason people buy these homes is the expense. Realtor.com recently pointed out that one with relatively good features costs between $80,000 and $100,000, well below the median price for a home in America.

Porch.com recently did its own research on tiny homes, and some of their conclusions were slightly different from widely used numbers. Their research showed that the average size of a tiny home at 225 square feet. The average cost was pegged at $52,000 or “87% cheaper than a regular home.” The conclusions were summarized in a report titled “Affordable Alternative or Passing Fad? A Study of the ‘Tiny Home’ Market in 2021.”

The cost of a tiny home is less attractive when looked at on a square-foot basis. By this yardstick, they are 62% more expensive than a full-sized house.
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Among the major findings of the study are the ages of buyers of tiny homes. The researchers found:

Statistically, Millennials are especially drawn to tiny homes due to their price, flexibility of location for remote work, and eco-friendliness. And for Baby Boomers, a tiny house is an opportunity to exchange a big empty nest of a family home for something more affordable with significantly less upkeep.

The state with the lowest price for tiny homes is North Dakota, at $28,000. It is followed by Arkansas ($31,700), Kansas ($33,500), Mississippi ($34,500), New Hampshire ($35,200), Kentucky ($35,300), Missouri ($35,700) and West Virginia ($36,200).

One trend that stands out among these states is the very low median household incomes compared to the nationwide number.

Click here to see which county has the most expensive homes in America.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.