Hillary Hoffower
Millennials love tiny houses.
- $4 symbolize the lifestyle gap between $4 and baby boomers.
- I recently stayed at $4 in the Catskills $4, and the mother-daughter duo who run it pinpointed three reasons why millennials love $4.
- $4 are more affordable than suburban mansions, offer a unique experience, and enable millennials to work remotely.
- $4.
$4 are more than 200-square-foot dwellings on a set of wheels.
They're also symbolic of some of the key differences between millennials and baby boomers. I experienced these differences firsthand when I recently visited $4 in the Catskills and stayed in a 269-square-foot $4 for three days.
The resort is run by mother-daughter duo Marjorie (who goes by Margie) and Melissa Juszczak. I asked them why they think millennials have fueled the growing $4, and their three answers made it clear just how different millennials are from their parents.
1. Millennials can actually afford tiny houses.
"People love tiny houses because the McMansion died," Melissa told me. "Millennials can't afford mansions." Tiny houses, she added, are generally more affordable for millennials.
The suburban mansion is losing its spot as part of the American Dream, and it's partly because they're too expensive for millennials, who are financially behind, $4. A 2016 Trulia study found that premiums paid for McMansions declined significantly in 85 of the country's 100 biggest cities, $4.
As Margie, a baby boomer, pointed out, her generation "does houses in the suburbs, but the next generation is coming out of school with student loans." $4, coupled with a $4, is delaying millennials saving for a down payment.
Hillary Hoffower/Business Insider
The tiny house I stayed in at the resort.
It doesn't help that first-time homebuyers today are likely to pay 39% more than first-time homebuyers $4. And $4 will be able to afford a traditional 20% down payment within the next five years, according to $4.
The median listing price for homes in the US is $4, whereas the median cost of buying a tiny house is $4. Others spend anywhere from $4.
2. Tiny houses are all about the experience.
But the McMansion is also seeing a decline because millennials have different homebuying priorities than baby boomers: They prefer convenience and quality over size, $4. This ultimately boils down to experience.
Margie and Melissa both told me that for millennials, tiny houses are all about the experience. "Millennials aren't tied to their house," Margie said. Melissa added that millennials don't want a life full of stuff. "Less is more," she said.
Hillary Hoffower/Business Insider
Tiny houses may be small in size, but they offer a much bigger experience.
Experience is so coveted among the generation that it's $4. "The world we live in thinks the more money you throw at it, the more fancy materials, the more luxury it is," New York-based designer Andrew Kotchen, founding principal of architecture and design firm Workshop/APD, said in an $4. "It's not true. Certainly there are baseline conditions of quality and craft, but it's $4."
$4, so why should their home be any different?
3. Tiny houses offer a nomadic lifestyle for millennials working remotely.
One of the biggest experiences that tiny houses offer millennials is the ability to be on-the-go. Margie said more millennials can work remotely or move with a company, opportunities that weren't as plentiful for baby boomers at that age.
Working remotely is a popular work perk for millennials, $4. About 43% percent of Americans worked from home at least once in 2016, $4
Hillary Hoffower
As a writer, I worked remotely at the kitchen table during my stay.
Tiny living affords such a lifestyle. Consider Ryan Mitchell of $4, who has saved more than $100,000 since going tiny, $4. With that money, he started a new business, which he then sold, using the profits to buy land of his own. He's also been doing a lot of traveling, sometimes spending up to a few months in a country at a time.
Tiny living also enabled Jenna Spesard to become an entrepreneur and take on a nomadic lifestyle. "I'm saving enough money every month that I can travel all over the world a few times a year while working on my own business," Spesard, of $4, previously $4. "I never would have been able to do that before going tiny."