The tiny-house movement (also known as the small house movement) is an architectural and social movement promoting the reduction and simplification of living spaces. Tiny homes have been promoted as offering lower-cost and sometimes eco-friendly features within the housing market, and they have also been promoted as an option for homeless individuals. However, the lack of clearly defined features and legality in many cases can cause issues for ownership, including being more expensive for the amount of area, vulnerability to natural disaster, lack of storage, difficulty hosting, smaller or lacking traditional home appliances, and legal and or zoning issues. There is some variation in defining a tiny home, but there are examples and they are usually based on floorspace. The International Residential Code states that a tiny house's floorspace is no larger than 400 square feet (37 m2). Merriam-Webster says they can be up to 500 ft2. One architectural firm used a threshold of 600 ft2 to define a tiny home. What further complicates the definition is that tiny homes may or may not be mobile, and lack clearly defined features.
Introduction The tiny home movement started in the late 1990s has grown through the 2020s. The movement's core involves living full-time in a very small floorspace building. In some cases, tiny houses are very small houses with a foundation, plot, and traditional sewage and electrical hookups, while in other cases, they are more mobile, similar to an RV or mobile home. Types of tiny houses include shipping container homes, small houseboats, bus conversions, and more. Tiny homes have gained popularity among people trying to downsize, and in areas of short-term rentals, disaster relief housing, and homeless relief housing. Small houses are also used as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to serve as additional on-property housing for aging relatives or returning children, as a home office, or as a guest house. The national median cost of a tiny house in 2019 was $60,000 but could run much higher depending on features. A 2024 Fidelity survey found that 73% of Americans say they would consider living in a tiny home, due to affordability and the appeals of a minimalist lifestyle. In several incidents, tiny house owners have found themselves in a legal gray area. In one case in Canada, tiny home owners got into legal trouble due to a local issue with property rules for homes versus RVs. Another challenge of tiny houses is that they can be pricier per square foot than regular-size homes. In the 2010s and 2020s, television shows featuring various aspects of tiny houses became popular, and tiny homes trended on social media, especially Instagram. For the most part, tiny homes have not gained widespread adoption, and have remained a niche market: In Grist, Eve Andrews wrote: "You’re more likely to encounter one while scrolling through $300-a-night Airbnb listings than browsing Zillow."
Precursors of tiny homes
Henry David Thoreau and his 1854 book Walden are often quoted as an early inspiration for the tiny-house movement. From the late 19th century through the Great Depression, shotgun shacks were small, single-story buildings in use among Americans in cities. Although few such houses contained more than two bedrooms, they provided accommodation for blue-collar families in southern U.S. cities like New Orleans. The modern movement is considered to have started in the 1970s, with artists, such as Allan Wexler, investigating the idea of contemporary compact living. Early pioneers include Lloyd Kahn, author of Shelter (1973), and Lester R. Walker, author of Tiny Houses (1987). Sarah Susanka started the "counter-movement" for smaller houses, something she details in her book The Not So Big House (1997).
In 1999, Jay Shafer built the first modern tiny home — a 90-square-foot mobile tiny home — and founded the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company In 2002, Shafer, Greg Johnson, Shay Salomon, and Nigel Valdez founded the Small House Society, which advocates for the tiny house movement. Salomon and Valdez also published a guide to the modern tiny-house movement, Little House on a Small Planet, in 2006, and Johnson published his memoir about living in a tiny house, Put Your Life on a Diet, in 2008.
With the Great Recession affecting the economy of the United States from 2007 to 2009, the tiny-house movement appeared to gain momentum. Nonetheless, tiny-house purchases remained a minimal percentage of real estate transactions, with only approximately 1% of total home buyers acquiring houses qualified to be labeled as tiny homes. In fact, the average size of newly constructed homes in the United States continued to grow — from 1,780 sq ft (165 m2) in 1978 to 2,479 sq ft (230.3 m2) in 2007, and further still to 2,662 sq ft (247.3 m2) in 2013. In 2013, the Tiny House Fair in Yestermorrow, Vermont, was organized by Elaine Walker. Two years later, she founded the non-profit American Tiny House Association. Tiny houses received considerable media coverage during this time, with a television show on the movement, Tiny House Nation, airing in 2014, alongside the similar program Tiny House Hunters.
Globally
While the movement is most active in the United States, interest in tiny homes has been observed in other countries as well:
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