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Ethan Waldman wanted to cut his living expenses. He already shared a two-bedroom rental house with a friend, but Waldman, 31, suspected he could save more living alone in an untraditional space - a tiny home.

"I saw it as a way to reduce what I spent on rent, a way to own a home for not too much money and a home that could be moved," says Waldman, who blogs about his experience.

Four years later, Waldman now splits his time between his 220-square-foot home in Morristown, Vermont, and his fiancée's condo in Burlington. He estimates that he saves about $1,250 to $1,300 a month through drastically reduced utility costs and not paying rent.
Slideshow: Click here to take a closer look at these 3 tiny houses
Waldman is part of the so-called tiny home movement that has grown in popularity if not actual numbers. There aren't many statistics tracking the number of tiny home dwellers and U.S. Census figures show that the median size of new home has grown more than 10 percent compared to a decade ago and is more than 50 percent larger than in 1985.

But tiny home living has captured the mainstream consciousness thanks to popular TV shows - including Tiny Home Nation, Tiny Home Builders, and Tiny Home, Big Living - blogs and conferences, all dedicated to this unconventional kind of abode.

Many would-be tiny home owners are attracted to the environmental benefits of a smaller footprint, the pared-down lifestyle that goes against American consumerism, and - not least - the financial savings that come with living small.

"I don't feel the financial dread I used to, thinking about how I have a 30-year mortgage and will be paying this into our 70s," says Jody Brady of the Simply Enough blog, who now lives in a 12-foot by 24-foot home in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia with her husband and owns the house outright. As for her previous home, a 3,500-square-foot house in Arlington, Virginia? "That house owned us," Brady, 59, says.
The cost of building a tiny home
Related: 10 Tiny but Luxurious Homes Click to see more of the Waldman House
Despite other savings, constructing a tiny home requires a significant upfront financial commitment. For instance, Waldman's house cost $30,000 in materials and $13,000 in labor; he outsourced the cabinets, roofing and insulation but did the rest himself. He paid for most of it through savings, some of which he gathered during the construction process.

Brady paid for her tiny house from proceeds from her previous home's sale, which sold for $850,000, and the sale of many of her possessions. All in, the house cost $40,000 to build, entirely for materials since she and her husband built the house.

While the Waldman and Brady houses were cheaper than a larger home - the average cost of an average home to a homebuilder is $289,415 - the price per square foot is higher. Waldman's home cost $150 per square foot (considering materials and labor) and Brady's cost $139 per square foot, compared to $104 per square foot for an average new home, according to the NAHB (using only construction costs).
Don't forget the land
But Andrew and Gabriella Morrison of Ashland, Oregon, were able to construct their tiny home for about half that at $55 per square foot. That included their 207-square-foot home with a 110-square-foot loft, plus a 160-square-foot sleeping cabin for their son and a 120-square-foot one for their daughter.
Related: The Best Home Improvement Projects for Your Money
"It took us four months to build it," says Gabriella, who runs TinyHouseBuild with her husband. "It was just Andrew doing all the work. We never hired out. Our total costs including cabinetry and appliances was $33,000."

Click to see more of the Morrison House Mortgage savings
It's not the cost of building the house that tiny home builders have to consider. There's also the expense of the land, which is typically wrapped up into the total cost of a traditional home. Waldman rents the land his home sits on, using a work-rent trade. He provides web design for the land owner instead of paying rent.

The Bradys live on a plot that is owned by a friend, who they pay about $225 to $250 a month for the land, storage space and use of her washing machine and dryer.

The Morrisons, however, own their land and paid $65,000 for the 5.5-acre property, which is cheap compared to other plots of similar size in their area, largely due to a lack of a septic system. "If it had an approved septic system, it would have cost three times as much," says Andrew.
Energy savings
They ponied up an additional $18,000 to create an acceptable septic system, which turned out to be less expensive than buying a septic-approved lot. But that's still a lot of dough, considering the Morrison's shelled out $116,000 in cash for land, construction and a septic system. That's more than half of the median U.S. home price.

Despite the substantial upfront money involved - which often is enough for a 20-percent down payment on a regular home - these tiny home owners save big on not borrowing money, in both the short term and long term.

Other costs Click to see more of the Brady House
First, there is the savings every month from not making a mortgage payment. For instance, the monthly mortgage payment on a $160,000 loan is $764 (30-year fixed at 4 percent). That's a big chunk of change every month. Then there's the interest that you never get back, to tune of $115,000 over the 30 years on the same home loan.

"About 27 percent of your salary goes to housing, which equates to more than 10 hours of a 40-hour workweek," says Andrew Morrison. "How many hours of your life do you want to spend working for your house?"

Smaller homes in general come with lower utility costs, so a tiny home offers even bigger savings. Waldman spends $100 to $150 a month on average for heating and electricity. His heating system uses propane.

Both the Morrisons and Bradys invested in solar power for their tiny homes, which required more money up front. The Morrison's spent $8,000 after tax credits for a solar system. They spend about $75 a month on propane for heating water and cooking. They also have a gas generator for winter that costs about $50 a month for three months.

The Bradys shelled out $5,000 on a solar generator that supplies most of the home's energy. They run the hot water heater, microwave and refrigerator on grid electricity, which costs about $25 a month (including water), or $300 a year. "At our house in Arlington, we paid $3,000 for electric, gas and water for the year," Brady says. They also splurged on a wood stove for the winter months for $4,500.

The other costs of furnishing a tiny home run the gamut. The Brady's wanted an alcohol-burning stovetop and oven, which cost $1,500. An electric one would have been much cheaper at $300, but it would waste more energy.

In general, appliances designed for small efficiency apartments can be relatively inexpensive, while those made for boats and RVs are costlier. Waldman's water heater, which is designed for a boat and smaller than other off-the-shelf ones, cost $1,500. Generic ones typically run between $300 and $800.

A special composting toilet can go for anywhere between $800 and $2,000, which is a lot more than a run-of-the-mill porcelain one for $100. Waldman opted to build an economical, bucket-style sawdust toilet instead. But his shower is lined with pricey copper roofing shingles that add some style.

"In a tiny home, you're able to use expensive, quality material that you may not have been able to use in a bigger home," he says. "But because of the scale of the house, these rich materials were affordable."

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Ethan Waldman wanted to cut his living expenses. He already shared a two-bedroom rental house with a friend, but Waldman, 31, suspected he could save more living alone in an untraditional space - a tiny home.

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Living Wage Calculator - Living Wage Calculation for King County, Washington

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The living wage shown is the hourly rate that an individual must earn to support their family, if they are the sole provider and are working full-time (2080 hours per year). All values are per adult in a family unless otherwise noted.

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The key to happiness at work isn’t money–it’s autonomy

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When I was around 10 years old, my stay-at-home dad went back to work. For the next few years, he switched jobs a lot. For a while he took portraits in a photography studio; another time, he managed a bookstore. He told me more than once that he was looking for a job with plenty of autonomy. He was an independent spirit and liked to see his own ideas implemented–traits that I inherited from him. To this day, I know personal autonomy is an important factor when he’s choosing a new role.

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In Seattle, home prices grew 10.3 percent in September to a new median of $630,000, mirroring a similar trend for the suburbs in King County.

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After a punishing year for anyone looking to buy a home in and around Seattle, the fall price cool-down that many buyers have been waiting for hasn't arrived with much force.

The good news for buyers is that Seattle isn't setting any more home-price records like it did this spring. And the rate of home-price increases has slowed to about half of what it was earlier in the year.

But the bad news is that home costs are still growing much faster than normal, and exceed recent pay hikes. The market remains one of the hottest in the country, even though the region is finally starting to see more houses come on the market.

Real-estate agents are mixed on the new data released Wednesday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Some say it's a blip on the radar - prices have slowed before, only to rocket back up soon after - while others say it's a sign of a return to normalcy after four years of price growth.

"There's still high demand, but instead of 10 offers, we're seeing two or three," for lower-priced houses, said Edward Krigsman, a Seattle broker with Windermere. "I don't think it's merely seasonal. I feel like we're in a bit of a structural correction."

September marked the third straight month in which King County single-family home prices declined from their all-time peak reached at the end of the spring. Prices are typically lower this time of year.

Buyers pummeled by the red-hot market seen earlier in the year might take what they can get at this point.

In Seattle, the annual increase in home prices has begun to level off and now represents half the explosive growth rate seen at the beginning of the year. The typical Seattle house now costs $630,000, up 10.3 percent from a year ago.

A similar trend of relatively slower growth is reaching suburbs around King County, as well: Prices on the Eastside also grew 10.3 percent from a year ago, hitting $750,000, down from the record prices and higher growth rates seen earlier in the year.

Although this month's data presented a muddled picture on prices, the change in inventory was clearly positive. For the first time in the last few years, additional homes in significant number are finally starting to come back on the market for sale.

The number of houses for sale in the county is now at its highest point in two years, although it still has a long way to go to get back to "normal" inventory levels. That could help contain the recent bidding wars and price spikes triggered by the historically low supply of homes for sale.

But it doesn't seem to be helping much yet.

"I have definitely noticed that my buyers have more to choose from, but what it feels like to me is that the buyer pool has been so large, and ever growing, that the increase in inventory has not eased the demand issue," said Redfin agent Kyle Moss.

Still, he said, buyers may have the chance to be choosier. That would be a welcome change to home seekers who keep reporting that it's taken several months, and multiple failed bids, to get a home.

Alyson Andrews and her longtime boyfriend, Gerard, visited about 100 homes over 10 months after deciding to move out of their Green Lake rental. First, they realized the market was "too crazy" to buy in Seattle. Then, after settling on Shoreline, they lost four houses in bidding wars, even after agreeing to go $100,000 above the asking price.

"It was just mind-blowing," said Andrews, 28, who eventually got a house in Shoreline for about $520,000.

"You go there and there are 15 other people touring it," she said. "I had no idea it was this crazy of a market, and this competitive, and that half a million dollars can't get you a decent" house.

Renters aren't seeing any relief, either.

Rents continue to rise at a similar pace as home costs, and are now up 9.3 percent across the Greater Seattle area compared to a year ago, according to a new Dupre + Scott Apartment Advisors report. That's similar to the increase reported in each of the last two years, and puts Seattle among the fastest-growing rental markets in the country.

The typical two-bedroom, two-bath unit across King County costs about $1,870 a month - $570 more than five years ago. The current average rent varies wildly from about $1,160 in Enumclaw to $3,110 in downtown Seattle.

Rents are still climbing despite about 10,000 new apartments opening in each of the last two years across King, Snohomish and Pierce counties - the most since 1990, Dupre + Scott said. But the firm forecasts an even greater number of apartments to open next year, which might help slow down the rising rents.

September marked the second full month since British Columbia announced a closely watched 15 percent tax on foreign homebuyers in the Vancouver metro area. Since then, there's been a huge increase in interest from Chinese buyers looking toward the Seattle area.

It's impossible to know how exactly that's affected prices here. But the area most popular with Chinese buyers - in and around West Bellevue - saw a record median price of $2.19 million in August just after the Vancouver tax was announced, before dropping a bit in September.

"I'm feeling the pressure of what feels like increased foreign investment, more so than in the past," Moss said, adding he's seen more buyers from out-of-state, as well.

Overall, the median King County house now costs $538,000, up 9.7 percent from a year ago but down 6 percent from the record prices seen a few months ago.

The Queen Anne/Magnolia neighborhood led the way with an annual price hike of 33 percent, followed by 28 percent in the southeast Seattle/Seward Park area and 25 percent in both the Sodo/Beacon Hill region and the Benson Hill part of Renton. But the rest of Renton saw prices drop slightly.

Condos, in particular, are seeing prices surge unabated as buyers look for cheaper options. The typical Seattle condo in September cost a record $475,000, up a whopping 31 percent in one year.

The biggest slowdown in the Puget Sound region was in Kitsap County, where prices rose 7.6 percent from the previous year. The current price of $285,000 is off 5 percent from this year's peak.

Snohomish County led the way on the county level, with home prices in September climbing 11.1 percent vs. a year ago, to a median of $395,000, just shy of the county's all-time high.

Pierce County saw home prices hit $279,000, up 10.5 percent from a year ago and similar to the high points seen earlier in the year.

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Seattle home prices still raging despite extra inventory, slow fall season

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In Seattle, home prices grew 10.3 percent in September to a new median of $630,000, mirroring a similar trend for the suburbs in King County. Share story After a punishing year for anyone looking to buy a home in and around Seattle, the fall price cool-down that many buyers have been waiting for hasn't arrived with much force.

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Photograph by Gene Lester/Getty Images

When you're looking for a place to live, one number rules your world: You should spend no more than 30 percent of your income on housing. You may hear that rule of thumb from a financial adviser or parent, a landlord or lender. It's embedded in online budget calculators and federal policies. There's just one problem: "It's essentially an arbitrary number," says David Bieri, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. "It creates more distortions than it actually solves."

If the 30 percent rule ever made sense-which economists contest-it's almost meaningless now, when almost 41 million U.S. households spend more. Income growth has been tepid, yet home prices are rising and rents have soared, threatening to make cities from Austin to New York unaffordable for average earners. In San Francisco, any available reasonably priced housing quickly disappears. "It's not just techies fighting over $5,000 apartments," says Matt Schwartz, chief executive officer of the nonprofit California Housing Partnership. "The competition at the bottom end is fierce."

The ratio's roots date to 1969, when Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), the first black senator elected since Reconstruction, pushed through a law to help the poorest of the poor afford shelter. The Brooke Amendment, as it became known, capped rent in public housing at 25 percent of residents' income. Former Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) later called it "one of the greatest acts of compassion ever to pass this body." Facing a budget crunch in 1981, Congress raised the rent ceiling to 30 percent, and it's held there ever since. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac apply a 28 percent cutoff for home loans they buy from lenders.

Even before the Brooke Amendment became law, economists said the ratio oversimplified the affordability question. In the intervening decades, many have come to favor what's known as the "residual income" approach, which focuses on whether a family can afford other basic necessities after paying for housing. "If your income is $500,000 a year, you can pay 40 percent and still have money left," says Frank Nothaft, the chief economist at Freddie Mac. "But if your income is $20,000 a year, it will be hard to make ends meet if you're paying 30 percent of your income on rent."

Michael Stone, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston who has studied the issue since the 1970s, coined the term "shelter poverty" to describe the condition of people who spend so much on housing that they have to cut back on other necessities, such as food and health care. Stone found that the total number of households paying too much for housing according to the 30 percent ratio is roughly the same as under the residual income approach, but the composition of the groups is different. Families with two incomes and no children can spend more on housing than those with kids, which have to pay more for everything from clothes to day care.

Stone wrote in a 2006 paper that using the residual income approach reveals how "affordability problems for families with children are rather more severe than usually thought." He proposed that government programs for first-time home buyers provide borrowers with a residual income calculation to help them avoid getting in over their heads. That proposal, made just before the housing market peaked, hasn't been implemented.

Federal rent subsidies keep housing costs to 30 percent of income, which has an unintended effect, Bieri says: It encourages people to live in cities where housing costs are higher and the quality of life is better. "We should account for the fact that in New York, when you pay for housing you are not only paying for the cost of shelter, you are also paying for access to jobs" and amenities, he says. Bieri is trying to develop a subsidy formula that would account for the extra costs associated with living in desirable cities. "The last thing you should do is subsidize those places," he says; instead, the government should focus the limited funds earmarked for housing aid on struggling regions.

For many families, getting to and from work is the second-largest monthly expense, one that's directly tied to where they live. A house in a far-out suburb may look cheap, but add in gas for an hour-long commute and the cost rises considerably. Developers are increasingly building high-end housing near public transit, which in some cases pushes lower-income families to less convenient locations.

"We should account for the fact that in New York, when you pay for housing you are not only paying for the cost of shelter, you are also paying for access to jobs."- David Bieri

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In November, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a new "location affordability index" that shows how housing and transportation costs compare with income in almost 200,000 neighborhoods. And in June, California's legislature approved using $65 million to develop affordable housing near transit hubs. An analysis by the California Housing Partnership, which lobbied for the funding, found that building affordable housing close to transit would allow one of every two low-income households to dispense with a car, a major savings.
Coming up with a practical alternative to the 30 percent rule isn't easy, because many factors influence affordability. The statistical model behind HUD's location affordability index is the result of almost a decade of research and includes 30 variables. Stone has proposed putting affordability standards on a sliding scale that accounts for other measures such as location, family size, and income. The 30 percent rule's simplicity may be why it has endured despite decades of criticism. It makes it easy to compare locations and measure housing trends over time. At best, Bieri says, the rule is a "moist-digit indicator," as in "lick your finger, stick it in the air, and see where the wind is blowing."

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Department of Housing and Urban Development

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Housing's 30-Percent-of-Income Rule Is Nearly Useless

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When you're looking for a place to live, one number rules your world: You should spend no more than 30 percent of your income on housing. You may hear that rule of thumb from a financial adviser or parent, a landlord or lender. It's embedded in online budget calculators and federal policies.

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The average size of the home in the 2015 construction cost survey was 2,802 square feet. The average square feet has been steadily rising since its initial drop from 2,716 square feet in 2009 to 2,311 square feet in 2011. The Census Bureau's "Characteristics of New Single-Family Homes Completed" contains annual data on the floor area of a single-family home.

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Models of Measuring Job Satisfaction & Their Critique

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Job Security Influences Job Satisfaction & Performance

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The Effects of Autonomy on Job Satisfaction

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Autonomy in the workplace refers to how much freedom employees have while working. For some organizations, autonomy means employees are allowed to set their own schedules. In other organizations, ...

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Standard of Living: Definition, How to Measure, and Example

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A standard of living is the quality of life that is available to a person or a population, based on factors such as housing quality, access to food, and economic opportunity.

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Why More People Than Ever Want to Live in Tiny Houses

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Tiny House Community Infographic | TIMBER TRAILS: Enabling cabin, cottage, and tiny house builders with resources for fast, efficient, and affordable housing alternatives. Live Large -- Go Tiny! > > TimberTrails.TV

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President Obama says he's all about the middle class.

He's labeled his agenda, Middle Class Economics, and released a raft of plans that he says will help these families get ahead. To pay for it, he'd tax the rich.

But not everyone in the middle class would benefit from Middle Class Economics. It's heavily weighted in favor of married couples and parents of young children.

"Many people in the middle class will get no benefit from the president's proposal," said Roberton Williams, a fellow at the Tax Policy Center. "Among the middle class, it's targeted at people with kids and second earners. Virtually no single middle class people without kids will get anything."

The White House and some liberal policy groups, however, contend that the center's methodology wrongly labels some affluent Americans as middle class.

Related: What you need to know about Obama's proposal for the middle class

It's tough to gauge how the tax plan would actually help the middle class because the averages can be deceiving. Many people on both sides of the aisle pounced on the center's recent analysis that showed middle income people, making between $49,000 and $84,000, would pay an extra $7 in tax, on average.

Drilling down, however, reveals that the center added an average $19 tax bill to everyone in that bracket to account for a tax on banks, which ultimately is borne by all Americans.

A different picture emerges when one looks at just the individual income tax provisions. These include a credit for working couples and expanding the child care tax credit.

That's why taxpayers with children come out the big winners under the president's plan. Nearly 51% of middle class filers with kids would receive a tax cut. These taxpayers would receive a $329 decrease, on average.

Some 45% of married folks who file jointly would get a tax break. This group would see an average cut of $200.

Related: How Obama would close the 'trust fund loophole'

Far fewer middle class single and elderly taxpayers would benefit from Obama's plan.

Only 12.5% of single filers would get a tax cut. Overall, this group would see a $61 increase, because nearly 7% of middle class singles would see their taxes go up and that skews the overall average.

Among the elderly, only 10% would enjoy a dip in their taxes. But because many in this group would be hit with another of the president's provisions -- that would require estates to pay capital gains on appreciated assets -- they would pay an additional $152, on average.

Overall, fewer than one in four middle class taxpayers would benefit from Middle Class Economics, according to the center's analysis.

Still, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan and some left-leaning groups say the Tax Policy Center overestimates the tax hikes on the middle class.

The center doesn't factor in unrealized capital gains into its income ranking, argues the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. So people with moderate incomes but considerable assets are considered middle class. A very small number of these taxpayers would be hit hard by the proposed capital gains tax on estates, which skews the overall average.

Donovan, speaking on NPR Monday morning, pointed to the Department of Treasury analysis, which shows that between a quarter and one-third of families in the $50,000 to $75,000 income range would see a tax change. Their taxes would be lowered by between $450 and $570, on average.

Treasury's analysis, which counts the unrealized gains as income, shows that 99% of Americans paying the capital gain tax have incomes above $500,000.

Also, the Tax Policy Center's analysis doesn't take into account the proposal to make the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent because it wouldn't happen until after 2017, says CBPP. This would also help middle class families.

As for the rich, the president's plan does accomplish its goal of raising their taxes. Just over three-quarters of the Top 1% would see a tax hike, of $34,500, on average. And more than nine out of 10 of Top .01% would see a tax increase, of $167,250, on average.

CNNMoney (New York) First published January 30, 2015: 7:09 PM ET

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Who actually benefits from Obama's 'Middle Class Economics'

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Many in the middle class, particularly the single and the elderly, won't see any tax breaks under Obama's MIddle Class Economics plan, according to the Tax Policy Center.

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Everyone's talking about saving America's middle class. But just who exactly falls into this group?

That's actually a much more difficult question to answer than it seems. While some experts define the middle class by income, others define it by lifestyle. Still others say it's a state of mind.

Here are five different ways that economists, federal agencies and even the White House measure and characterize the middle class.

Income

Whether you're considered middle class most commonly depends on your income. But experts differ on how much you have to earn to fall into this camp. One of the narrowest definitions limits it to those who are literally in the middle fifth of the nation's income ladder. A wider characterization includes everyone but the poorest 20% and the wealthiest 20%. Displayed below is the Pew Research Center's definition, which is two-thirds to two times the national median income for your household size.

*Annual income for a four-person household; Source: Pew Research Center

Wealth

Some Americans may not be bringing in middle-class incomes, but they have a lot of savings or investments. This is particularly true of the elderly living off their nest eggs. So some experts prefer to use wealth as the determining factor. New York University Professor Edward Wolff, for instance, defines middle class as the middle three-fifths of the wealth spectrum. Those below that threshold are in debt and those above are wealthy.

*Net worth; Source: Edward Wolff, NYU

Consumption

Another way to define middle class is by how much you spend. This more accurately reflects your well-being since income doesn't take into account non-cash government benefits, such as food stamps, or savings and can fluctuate greatly from year-to-year, say proponents of this measure.

The consumption measure used by Notre Dame Professor James X. Sullivan includes spending on food, transportation, entertainment, housing and other items. It excludes health care expenses and education, which Sullivan says might be considered investments. He defines the middle class as those in the middle fifth of spending.

*Annual spending for a four-person household; Source: James Sullivan, Notre Dame

Find out if you are
middle class What being middle class
means to me

Aspiration

Soon after President Obama took office in 2009, he created a task force aimed at raising the living standards of the middle class. But first the task force had to define middle class.

How did it choose to define this group? Through their aspirations ... you know, the house with the white picket fence, the occasional family vacation and a few other things.

Source: White House Task Force on the Middle Class

Demographics

The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank takes a more complicated approach. They combine sociology with economics to define the middle class. Economists there don't like using annual income because it can vary widely over time.

So it look at three demographic characteristics - age, education and race - that aren't as volatile and that they say better determine one's income and wealth accumulation. The middle class is generally made up of people who fit some combination of the three. (This is not to say, for instance, that every 45-year-old black college grad is middle class.)

The Fed describes those doing better than the middle class as thrivers and those doing worse as stragglers. Check out our flow chart below to see who meets this definition of middle class.

Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank

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What is middle class, anyway? - CNNMoney

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The successes and struggles of making it in America

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Tiny houses are providing a shift to the middle class lifestyle of living for people who make less than middle class wages in the state of Washington.

1. Intro

1. What is a tiny house?

1. Dimensions

2. Cost

2. Who would live in a tiny house?

1. Retirees

2. Family Members

3. Single/Married

4. College students

3. Is it for everyone?

2. What is a middle class life style?

1. a comfortable standard of living

2. significant economic security

3. considerable work autonomy and rely on their expertise to sustain themselves

3. What is a middle class wages?

1. National Average

2. Washington State

3. Living wage

4. How do tiny houses provide the lifestyle without the income?

1. a comfortable standard of living

2. significant economic security

3. considerable work autonomy and rely on their expertise to sustain themselves

4. Cost of Living vs Living Wage

5. Conclusion

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This article brings up good ideas
1. Backyard homes
2. Family vs single living
3. Retirement
4. Time
5. Money
6. Adding people can revitalize a neighborhood, allowing schools to stay open, giving neighborhood businesses more customers, making transit service cost-effective, and saving on infrastructure costs.
7. tiny home living isn’t for everyone

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Living Large in Small Houses | Sightline Institute

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My husband and I think we’ve found a way to pay off our mortgage early, without taking on an extra job or working nights. We’ve decided to construct a rental unit—a “mother-in-law suite”—within our home. If it pans out as we hope, the rental income will let us pay off our loan 10 years early. And who knows: it could give us a chance to live closer to family as we, or they, get on in years. Jason and I are not alone; lots of folks across Cascadia and beyond are experimenting with adding a second (or third) dwelling to an existing single-family home. And in perhaps the most interesting development, more and more people are choosing to buck the “bigger is better” trend in North American housing. They’re taking small spaces—back yards, side lots, or freestanding garages—and using them to build tiny houses.

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Lifetime Earnings by Education Level - Trends in Higher Education - The College Board

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The typical bachelor's degree recipient can expect to earn about 66% more during a 40-year working life than the typical high school graduate earns over the same period. The typical bachelor's degree recipient can expect to earn about 66% more during a 40-year working life than the typical high school graduate earns over the same period.

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The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) analyzes employee earnings data biennially according to education level. These findings indicate that workers with college degrees earn significantly more than those without; they also emphasize how lower education levels tend to correspond with higher unemployment rates. In 2015, adults with bachelor's degrees took home more than those with high school diplomas. Degree holders earned $48,500 a year, while diploma holders earned $23,900.

Over the past two decades, while college-educated workers' wages have increased, annual salaries for those with only a high school education have decreased. However, the gender of the degree holder, as well as the type of degree, also impacted earnings.

Let's look at some figures from the U.S. Bureau of Statistics in 2015 on median weekly earnings. For those with only a high school diploma, men earned $751 and women earned $578. With some college or an associate's degree, men earned $872 while women earned just $661. Men holding a bachelor's degree earned $1,249; with women, bachelor's degree holders bringing home $965. With a bachelor's degree or higher, men earned $1,385, with women earning $1049. Finally, men with an advanced degree earned $1,630 and women with an advanced degree earned $1,185.

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National Center for Education Statistics

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How Much More Do College Graduates Earn Than Non-College Graduates?

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The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) analyzes employee earnings data biennially according to education level. These findings indicate that workers with college degrees earn significantly more than those without; they also emphasize how lower education levels tend to correspond with higher unemployment rates.

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Though the American middle class does not have a definitive definition, contemporary social scientists have put forward several ostensibly congruent theories on it. Depending on the class model used, the middle class constitutes anywhere from 25% to 75% of households.

One of the first major studies of the middle class in America was White Collar: The American Middle Classes, published in 1951 by sociologist C. Wright Mills. Later sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College commonly divide the middle class into two sub-groups. Constituting roughly 15% to 20% of households is the upper or professional middle class consisting of highly educated, salaried professionals and managers. Constituting roughly one third of households is the lower middle class consisting mostly of semi-professionals, skilled craftsmen and lower-level management. Middle-class persons commonly have a comfortable standard of living, significant economic security, considerable work autonomy and rely on their expertise to sustain themselves.

Members of the middle class belong to diverse groups which overlap with each other. Overall, middle-class persons, especially upper-middle-class individuals, are characterized by conceptualizing, creating and consulting. Thus, college education is one of the main indicators of middle-class status. Largely attributed to the nature of middle-class occupations, middle class values tend to emphasize independence, adherence to intrinsic standards, valuing innovation and respecting non-conformity. The middle class is more politically active than other demographics.

Income varies considerably, from near the national median to well in excess of US$100,000. However, household income figures do not always reflect class status and standard of living as they are largely influenced by the number of income earners and fail to recognize household size. It is therefore possible for a large, dual-earner, lower middle class household to out-earn a small, one-earner, upper middle class household. The middle classes are very influential as they encompass the majority of voters, writers, teachers, journalists and editors. Most societal trends in the U.S. originate within the middle classes.

Scholars have a variety of technical measures of who is middle-class. By contrast public opinion has a variety of implicit measures. The definitions seem to stretch quite a great deal depending on the political cause that is being invoked or defended, as one commentator noted:

Well, it depends on whom you ask. Everyone wants to believe they are middle class. For people on the bottom and the top of the wage scale the phrase connotes a certain Regular Joe cachet. But this eagerness to be part of the group has led the definition to be stretched like a bungee cord - used to defend/attack/describe everything from the Earned Income Tax Credit to the estate tax.

The middle class by one definition consists of an upper middle class, made up of professionals distinguished by exceptionally high educational attainment as well as high economic security; and a lower middle class, consisting of semi-professionals. While the groups overlap, differences between those at the center of both groups are considerable.

The lower middle class has lower educational attainment, considerably less workplace autonomy, and lower incomes than the upper middle class. With the emergence of a two-tier labor market, the economic benefits and life chances of upper middle class professionals have grown considerably compared to those of the lower middle class.

The lower middle class needs two income earners in order to sustain a comfortable standard of living, while many upper middle class households can maintain a similar standard of living with just one income earner.

Professional/managerial middle class

The " professional-managerial class" consists mostly of highly educated white collar salaried professionals, whose work is largely self-directed. In 2005, these household incomes commonly exceed $100,000 per year. Class members typically hold graduate degrees, with educational attainment serving as the main distinguishing feature of this class.

These professionals typically conceptualize, create, consult, and supervise. As a result, upper middle class employees enjoy great autonomy in the work place and are more satisfied with their careers than non-professional middle class individuals. In terms of financial wealth income, the professional middle class fits in the top third, but seldom reach the top 5% of American society. According to sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert, James M. Henslin, Joseph Hickey, and William Thompson, the upper middle class constitutes 15% of the population.

The upper middle class has grown... and its composition has changed. Increasingly salaried managers and professionals have replaced individual business owners and independent professionals. The key to the success of the upper-middle-class is the growing importance of educational certification... its lifestyles and opinions are becoming increasingly normative for the whole society. It is in fact a porous class, open to people... who earn the right credentials.

Values and mannerisms are difficult to pinpoint for a group encompassing millions of persons. Naturally, any large group of people will feature social diversity to some extent. However, some generalizations can be made using education and income as class defining criteria. William Thompson and Joseph Hickey noted that upper middle class individuals have a more direct and confident manner of speech. In her 1989 publication Effects of Social Class and Interactive Setting on Maternal Speech, Erica Hoff-Ginsberg found that among her surveyed subjects, "upper-middle class mothers talked more per unit of time and sustained longer interactions with children". She also found that the speech of upper middle-class mothers differs "in its functional, discourse, and lexico-syntactic properties", from those in the working class.

Upper middle-class manners tend to require individuals to engage in conversational discourse with rather distant associates and to abstain from sharing excessive personal information. This contradicts working-class speech patterns, which often include frequent mentions of one's personal life. Further research also suggests that working-class parents emphasize conformity, traditional gender roles, and the adherence to external standards in their children, such as being neat and clean and "[believing] in strict leadership". This contrasted with professional-class households, where gender roles were more egalitarian and loosely defined. Upper middle class children were largely taught to adhere to internal standards, with curiosity, individuality, self-direction, and openness to new ideas being emphasized.

While a recent[when? ] Gallup survey showed mass affluent households to be conservative on economic issues while liberal on social issues, the upper middle class seems to be relatively politically polarized. In the 2006 mid-term elections, both Democrats and Republicans received over 40% of the vote from those with advanced degrees and those in households with six figure incomes. While households with incomes exceeding $100,000 tended to slightly favor Republicans in that election, they were also the only income demographic where Ralph Nader won more than 1% of the vote in the previous presidential election. Among those with graduate degrees, a smaller group than those with six figure incomes, the majority voted Democratic with roughly 1% having voted for Nader in 2004.

The lower middle class is the 2nd most populous according to both Gilbert's as well as Thompson & Hickey's models, constituting roughly one third of the population, the same percentage as the working class. However, according to Henslin, who also divides the middle class into two sub-groups, the lower middle class is the most populous, constituting 34% of the population. In all three class models the lower middle class is said to consist of "semi-professionals" and lower level white collar employees. An adaptation by sociologists Brian K. William, Stacy C. Sawyer, and Carl M. Wahlstrom of Dennis Gilbert's class model gave the following description of the lower middle class:

The lower middle class... these are people in technical and lower-level management positions who work for those in the upper middle class as lower managers, craftspeople, and the like. They enjoy a reasonably comfortable standard of living, although it is constantly threatened by taxes and inflation. Generally, they have a Bachelor's and sometimes Master's college degree.

-  Brian K. William, Stacy C. Sawyer and Carl M. Wahlstrom, Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships, 2006 (Adapted from Dennis Gilbert 1997; and Joseph Kahl 1993)

Taking into account the percentages provided in the six-class model by Gilbert, as well as the model of Thompson and Hickey, one can apply U.S. Census Bureau statistics regarding income. According to these class models the lower middle class is located roughly between the 52nd and 84th percentile of society. In terms of personal income distribution in 2005, that would mean gross annual personal incomes from about $32,500 to $60,000.

As 42% of all households, and the majority of those in the top 40%, had two income earners, household income figures would be significantly higher, ranging from roughly $50,000 to $100,000 in 2005. In terms of educational attainment, 27% of persons had a Bachelor's degree or higher.

Seen from a sociological perspective based on class-cleavages, the majority of Americans can be described as members of the working class.

The use of the term "working class" is applicable if the position of individuals, households and families in relation to the production of goods and services is the main determinant of social class. Class distinctions are seen in the distribution of individuals within society whose influence and importance differ. The nature of a person's work and the associated degrees of influence, responsibility, and complexity determine a person's social class. The higher the degree of influence and responsibility a person has or the more complex the work, the higher his or her status in society.

As qualified personnel become scarce for relatively important, responsible, and complex occupations income increases, following the economic theory of scarcity resulting in value. According to this approach, occupation becomes more essential in determining class than income. Whereas professionals tend to create, conceptualize, consult and instruct, most Americans do not enjoy a high degree of independence in their work, as they merely follow set instructions.

Definitions of the working class are confusing. Defined in terms of income, they may be split into middle-middle or statistical middle class in order to speak to issues of class structure. Class models such as Dennis Gilbert or Thompson and Hickey estimate that roughly 53% of Americans are members of the working or lower classes.

Factors such as nature of work and lack of influence within their jobs leads some theorists to the conclusion that most Americans are working class. They have data that shows the majority of workers are not paid to share their ideas. These workers are closely supervised and do not enjoy independence in their jobs. Also, they are not paid to think. For example: The median annual earnings of salaried dentists were $136,960 in May 2006, indicating a high degree of scarcity for qualified personnel. The opinions and thoughts of dentists, much like those of other professionals, are sought after by their organizations and clients. The dentist creates a diagnosis, consults the patient, and conceptualizes a treatment. In 2009, Dental assistants made roughly $14.40 an hour, about $32,000 annually. Unlike dentists, dental assistants do not have much influence over the treatment of patients. They carry out routine procedures and follow the dentists' instructions. Here we see that a dental assistant being classified as working class. Similar relationships can be observed in other occupations.

Some modern theories of political economy consider a large middle class to be a beneficial and stabilizing influence on society because it has neither the possibly explosive revolutionary tendencies of the lower class, nor the absolutist tendencies of an entrenched upper class. Most sociological definitions of middle class follow Max Weber. Here, the middle class is defined as consisting of professionals or business owners who share a culture of domesticity and sub-urbanity and a level of relative security against social crisis in the form of socially desired skill or wealth. Thus, the theory on the middle class by Weber can be cited as one that supports the notion of the middle class being composed of a quasi-elite of professionals and managers, who are largely immune to economic downturns and trends such as out-sourcing which affect the statistical middle class.

Sociologists contend that middle class persons usually have above median incomes. As social classes lack clear boundaries and overlap there are no definite income thresholds as for what is considered middle class. In 2004, sociologist Leonard Beeghley identifies a male making $57,000 and a female making $40,000 with a combined households income of $97,000 as a typical American middle-class family. In 2005, sociologists William Thompson and Joseph Hickey estimate an income range of roughly $35,000 to $75,000 for the lower middle class and $100,000 or more for the upper middle class.

Age of Householder

Nativity of Householder

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) Status

Educational Attainment of Householder*

Under 65 years

65 years and older

Native-born

Foreign-born

Inside MSA

Outside MSA

No high school diploma

High school, no college

Some college

Bachelor's degree or higher

*Householders aged 25 and older. In 2021, the median household income for this group was $72,046.

Educational attainment is one of the most prominent determinants of class status. Expertise is a necessary component of the capitalist market system, and is seen as one of the factors of production. Those with higher educational attainment tend to be positioned in occupations with greater autonomy, influence over the organizational process, and higher financial compensation. The following chart further explains the correlation between educational attainment and personal as well as household income.

Criteria

TOTAL

Less than 9th grade

9th to 12th grade (no diploma)

High School Graduate (includes equivalency)

Some College, No Degree

Associate Degree

Bachelor's Degree or More

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree

Professional Degree

Doctorate Degree

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018

Percentage distribution of 2+ income households among the quintiles

Household income is one of a household's attributes most commonly used to determine its class status but income may not always accurately reflect a household's position within society or the economy. Unlike personal income, household income does not reflect occupational achievement as much as it measures the number of income earners. Sociologist Dennis Gilbert acknowledges that a working-class household with two income earners may out-earn a single-income upper-middle-class household. For example, according to the US Department of Labor, two registered nurses could quite easily command a household income of $126,000 in 2006, while the median income for a lawyer was $94,930.

Furthermore, household income fails to recognize household size. For example, a single attorney, earning $95,000, may have a higher standard of living than a family of four with an income of $120,000. Yet household income is still a commonly used class indicator.

The parade [of income earners with height representing income] suggest that [the] relationship between the distribution of income and the class structure is... blurred in the middle...we saw dual-income working class marchers looking down on single-income upper-middle-class marchers. In sum, the class structures as we have defined it...does not exactly match the distribution of household income.

-  Dennis Gilbert, The American Class Structure, 1998

The influence of the middle class depends on which theory one utilizes. If the middle class is defined as a modern bourgeoisie, the "middle class" has great influence. If middle class is used in a manner that includes all persons who are at neither extreme of the social strata, it might still be influential, as such definition may include the "professional middle class", which is then commonly referred to as the "upper middle class". Despite the fact that the professional (upper) middle class is a privileged minority, it is the perhaps the most influential class in the United States.

Most ideas that find their way into the cultural mainstream... are crafted by a relative elite: people who are well educated, reasonably well-paid, and who overlap, socially and through family ties, with at least the middling levels of the business community-in short, the professional middle class.

Several reasons can be cited as to why the professional middle class is so influential. One is that journalists, commentators, writers, professors, economists, and political scientists, who are essential in shaping public opinion, are almost exclusively members of the professional middle class. Considering the overwhelming presence of professional middle-class persons in post secondary education, another essential instrument in regards to shaping public opinion, it should come as no surprise that the lifestyle exclusive to this quasi-elite has become indicative of the American mainstream itself. In addition to setting trends, the professional middle class also holds occupations which include managerial duties, meaning that middle-class professionals spend much of their work-life directing others and conceptualizing the workday for the average worker.

Yet another reason is the economic clout generated by this class. In 2005 according to U.S. Census statistics, the top third of society, excluding the top 5%, controlled the largest share of income in the United States. Although some in the statistical middle class (for example, police officers and fire fighters in the more affluent suburbs in the San Francisco Bay Area) may have lifestyles as comfortable as those found among the ranks of the professional middle class, only few have the same degree of autonomy and influence over society as those in the professional middle class. Other white-collar members of the statistical middle class may not only be unable to afford the middle-class lifestyle but also lack the influence found in the professional middle class.

Office buildings such as this are often the place of work for the vast majority of middle-class Americans, whether they are upper-middle-class professional or lower-middle-class secretaries

Due to the many different ways of sub-dividing the middle class, some occupations indicative of the professional middle class might be categorized as upper-middle or lower-middle. Typical occupations for members of the middle class are those identified as being part of "the professions" and often include managerial duties as well, with all being white collar: Accountants, Tenured Professors (Post-secondary educators), Psychologists, Physicians, Engineers, Lawyers, commissioned Military Officers, Architects, Journalists, Mid-level corporate managers, Writers, Economists, Political Scientists, Urban planners, Financial managers, Registered Nurses (RNs), Pharmacists and Analysts.

Autonomy is often seen as one of the greatest measurements of a person's class status. Even though some working class employees might also enjoy largely self-directed work, large degrees of autonomy in the work place, as well as influence over the organizational process, which are commonly the results of obtained expertise, these can still be seen as hallmarks of upper-middle-class or professional-middle-class professions.

As for the lower middle class, other less prestigious occupations, many sales positions, entry-level management, secretaries, etc., would be included. In addition to professionals whose work is largely self-directed and includes managerial duties, many other less privileged members of the statistical middle class would find themselves in semi-independent to independent white collar positions. Many of those in the statistical middle class might work in what are called the professional support fields. These fields include occupations such as dental hygienists, and other professional and sales support.

An upscale home in Salinas, California

The American middle class, at least those living the lifestyle, has become known around the world for conspicuous consumption. To this day, the professional middle class in the United States holds the world record for having the largest homes, most appliances, and most automobiles. In 2005, the average new home had a square footage of 2,434 square feet (roughly 226 square meters) with 58% of these homes having ceilings with heights in excess of nine feet on the first floor. As new homes only represent a small portion of the housing stock in the US, with most suburban homes having been built in the 1970s when the average square footage was 1,600, it is fair to assume that these large new suburban homes will be inhabited by members of the professional middle class.

Overall, many social critics and intellectuals, most of whom are members of the professional middle class themselves, have commented on the extravagant consumption habits of the professional middle class. It is also often pointed out that the suburban lifestyle of the American professional middle class is a major reason for its record consumption. The increasing materialism, even among such a highly educated class, is also often claimed to be connected to the notion of rugged individualism which gained popularity among the ranks of the professional middle class in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dennis Gilbert, 2002

William Thompson & Joseph Hickey, 2005

Leonard Beeghley, 2004

Class

Typical characteristics

Class

Typical characteristics

Class

Typical characteristics

Capitalist class (1%)

Top-level executives, high-rung politicians, heirs. Ivy League education common.

Upper class (1%)

Top-level executives, celebrities, heirs; income of $500,000+ common. Ivy league education common.

The super-rich (0.9%)

Multi-millionaires whose incomes commonly exceed $3.5 million or more; includes celebrities and powerful executives/politicians. Ivy League education common.

Highly-educated (often with graduate degrees), most commonly salaried, professionals and middle management with large work autonomy.

Highly-educated (often with graduate degrees) professionals & managers with household incomes varying from the high 5-figure range to commonly above $100,000.

The rich (5%)

Households with net worth of $1 million or more; largely in the form of home equity. Generally have college degrees.

Middle class (plurality/
majority?; ca. 46%)

College-educated workers with considerably higher-than-average incomes and compensation; a man making $57,000 and a woman making $40,000 may be typical.

Lower middle class (30%)

Semi-professionals and craftsmen with a roughly average standard of living. Most have some college education and are white-collar.

Lower middle class (32%)

Semi-professionals and craftsmen with some work autonomy; household incomes commonly range from $35,000 to $75,000. Typically, some college education.

Working class (30%)

Clerical and most blue-collar workers whose work is highly routinized. Standard of living varies depending on number of income earners, but is commonly just adequate. High school education.

Working class (32%)

Clerical, pink- and blue-collar workers with often low job security; common household incomes range from $16,000 to $30,000. High school education.

Working class
(ca. 40-45%)

Blue-collar workers and those whose jobs are highly routinized with low economic security; a man making $40,000 and a woman making $26,000 may be typical. High school education.

Working poor (13%)

Service, low-rung clerical and some blue-collar workers. High economic insecurity and risk of poverty. Some high school education.

Lower class (ca. 14-20%)

Those who occupy poorly-paid positions or rely on government transfers. Some high school education.

Underclass (12%)

Those with limited or no participation in the labor force. Reliant on government transfers. Some high school education.

The poor (ca. 12%)

Those living below the poverty line with limited to no participation in the labor force; a household income of $18,000 may be typical. Some high school education.

References: Gilbert, D. (2002) The American Class Structure: In An Age of Growing Inequality. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, ISBN 0534541100. (see also Gilbert Model);

Thompson, W. & Hickey, J. (2005). Society in Focus. Boston, MA: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon; Beeghley, L. (2004). The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States. Boston, MA: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon.

The upper middle class may also be referred to as "Professional class" Ehrenreich, B. (1989). The Inner Life of the Middle Class. NY, NY: Harper-Collins.

When middle-class workers lose their jobs, they tend to be rehired but for a lower rate of pay. More often than not, people seek out temporary employment to make ends meet. About 4 percent of workforce, 11.4 million workers, a year are temporary workers.[citation needed ]

According to Christopher B. Doob, outsourcing is companies' subcontracting of services to other companies instead of continuing to provide those services themselves. This practice takes away jobs offered in the United States and shifts them to other countries with lower average wages. Consequently, it becomes more difficult to receive and maintain employment. Outsourcing raises the unemployment rate,which has been steadily increasing since the 1990s. Some examples of companies which utilize outsourcing are Apple and Nike. These companies outsource jobs overseas in order to preserve or increase their profit margins, without raising the prices of their products.

The deliberate reduction of permanent employees in an effort to provide an organization more efficient operations and to cut costs. Large firms like IBM, AT&T, and GM are reducing their heavily middle class workforce by 10 to 20 percent because of the advancement of technology and the closing of work facilities. Downsizing has grown significantly in the States, as rising debt has forced companies to downsize so they can remain open. According to Doob, between 2005 and 2007, 3.6 million workers with three or more years on the job lost their positions because of companies closing down, relocating, having insufficient work, or due to the elimination of their positions.

Inequality and poverty rates are not always correlated. Poverty rates increased early in the 1980s until late in the 1990s when they started to go back down. From 2000-2010, the percentage of all people living in poverty rose from 11.3% to 15.1%. This statistical measure of the poverty rate takes into account only a household's current yearly income, while ignoring the net worth of the household.

Inflation adjusted percentage increase in after-tax household income for the top 1% and four of the five quintiles, between 1979 and 2005 (gains by top 1% are reflected by bottom bar; bottom quintile by top bar)[42]

Income data indicate that the middle class, including the upper middle class, have seen far slower income growth than the top 1% since 1980. While its income increased as fast as that of the rich in the years following World War II, it has since experienced far slower income gains than the top. According to economist Janet Yellen "the growth [in real income] was heavily concentrated at the very tip of the top, that is, the top 1 percent". Between 1979 and 2005, the mean after-tax income of the top 1% increased by an inflation adjusted 176% versus 69% for the top 20% overall. The fourth quintile saw its mean net income increase by 29%, the middle income quintile by 21%, the second quintile by 17% and the bottom quintile by 6%, respectively.

The share of gross annual household income of the top 1% has increased to 19.4%, the largest share since the late 1920s. As the U.S. is home to a progressive tax structure the share of net-income received by the top 1% is smaller, and the share of the middle class consequently larger, than their shares of gross pre-tax income. In 2004, the top percentile's share of net income was 14%, 27.8% less than its share of gross income, but nonetheless nearly twice as large as in 1979, when it was clocked at 7.5%.

The reduced size of the share of aggregate share of income, both before and after tax, of the middle class has been attributed to the reduced bargaining power of wage earning employees, caused by the decline of unions; a lessening of government redistribution; and technological changes which have created opportunities for certain people to accumulate far greater relative wealth very quickly (including larger markets due to globalization and Information Age technologies allowing faster and wider distribution of work product).

In 2006 households that earn between $25,000 and $75,000 represent approximately the middle half of the income distribution tables provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Over the past two decades, the number of households in those brackets decreased by 3.9%, from 48.2% to 44.3%. During the same time period, the number of households with incomes below $25,000 decreased 3.5%, from 28.7% to 25.2%, while the number of households with incomes above $75,000 increased over 7%, from 23.2% to 30.4%. A possible explanation for the increase in the higher earnings categories is that more households now have two wage earners. However, a closer analysis reveals all of the 7% increase can be found in households who earn over $100,000.

A study by Brookings Institution in June 2006 revealed that Middle-income neighborhoods as a proportion of all metropolitan neighborhoods declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000. As housing costs increase, the middle class is squeezed and forced to live in less desirable areas making upward mobility more difficult. Safety, school systems, and even jobs are all linked to neighborhood types.

The statistics used to track the share of income going to the top 1% have been criticized by Alan Reynolds. He points out that the Tax Reform Act of 1986 changed the way that income is defined on tax returns, which is the primary source of data utilized to compile income shares. Among these changes includes the fact that beginning in the 1980s, many C-Corporations switched to S-Corporations, which changed the way that their income is reported on income tax returns. S-Corporations report all income on the individual income tax returns of the owners, while C-Corporations file a separate tax return and corporate profits are not allocated to any individuals. Prior to 1986, approximately one fourth of all American corporations were S-Corporations, but by 1997 this share had risen to more than half. In addition, by 2001 S-Corporations were responsible for about 25% of before-tax profits.

This shift to S-Corporations means that income previously not included on personal income tax returns appeared there during this change, as S-Corporation investors directly pay taxes on corporate profit regardless of whether it is distributed or not. Furthermore, Reynolds points out in the same literature that tax-deferred savings accounts grew substantially from the 1980s onward, so that investment income to these accounts was not included as personal income in the years which it accrued. The CBO noted that at the end of 2002, $10.1 trillion was in tax-deferred retirement plans, and that $9 trillion of that was taxable upon withdrawal. These numbers amount to potentially large amounts of investment income to middle-class families that are no longer reported on tax returns each year, but were reported prior to the widespread growth of tax-deferred retirement plans.

Panel data that track the same individuals over time are much more informative than statistical categories that do not correspond to specific people. The Treasury did a study in 2007 that tracked the same individual taxpayers over the age of 25 from 1996 to 2005 and found differing results from what the graph above shows. The results showed that during those years, half of taxpayers moved to a different income quintile, with half of those in the bottom quintile moving to a higher one. About 60% of taxpayers in the top 1% in 1996 no longer stayed in that category by 2005.

On an absolute scale, the lowest incomes saw the greatest gains in percentage terms and the highest incomes actually declined. Half of those in the bottom 20% in 1996 saw their incomes at least double during these years, while the median income of the top 1% declined by 25.8%. The reason that the results are so inconsistent with household income statistics is that household statistics do not track the same people over time; it is important to specify how many of the households in the top 1% in a given year were still there when looking at that category years later and gauging income gains.

2008 and after

After the financial crisis of 2007-2008, inequality between social classes has further increased. As William Lazonick puts it:

Five years after the official end of the Great Recession, corporate profits are high, and the stock markets are booming. Yet most Americans are not sharing in the recovery. While the top 0.1% of income recipients-which include most of the highest-ranking corporate executives-reap almost all the income gains, good jobs keep disappearing, and new employment opportunities tend to be insecure and underpaid.

1. ^ Dante Chinni (May 10, 2005). "One more social security quibble: Who is Middle Class?". The Christian Science Monitor.

2. Gilbert, Dennis (1998). The American Class Structure. New York: Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 0-534-50520-1.

3. ^ John Steele Gordon Archived April 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine "10 Moments That Made American Business", American Heritage, February/March 2007.

4. Dante Chinni, "One more Social Security quibble: Who is middle class?" ^ Christian Science Monitor MAY 10, 2005

5. Griff Witte (September 20, 2004). "As Income Gap Widens, Uncertainty Spreads". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 27, 2005.

6. ^ Gilbert, Dennis (1997). American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality. Wadsworth. ISBN 978-0-534-50520-2.

7. ^ "Education resource information center, Effects of Social Class and Interactive Setting on Maternal Speech".

8. ^ Semega, Jessica; Chen, Frances; Kollar, Melissa; Shrider, Emily A. "Income and Poverty in the United States: 2021" (PDF). US CENSUS BUREAU.

9. Doob, Christopher B. ^ Social Inequality and Social Stratification in U.S. Society

10. ^ "Johnston, D. (5 June 2005). Richest Are Leaving Even the Richest Far Behind. The New York Times". Archived from the original on July 14, 2007.

11. Saez, E. & Piketty, T. (2003). ^ Income inequality in the United States: 1913-1998. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 1-39.

12. ^ "Saez, E. (October, 2007). Table A1: Top fractiles income shares (excluding capital gains) in the U.S., 1913-2005".

13. Weeks, J. (2007). Inequality Trends in Some Developed OECD countries. In J. K. S. & J. Baudot (Ed.), ^ Flat World, Big Gaps (159-174). New York: ZED Books (published in association with the United Nations).

14. ^ Bernstein, Aaron (February 26, 1996). "Is America Becoming More of a Class Society?". BusinessWeek.

15. ^ Reynolds, Alan. Income and Wealth. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. 73-108. Print.

16. ^ Alan J. Auerbach, "Who Bears the Corporate Tax?" NBER Working Paper 11686 (October 2005), p. 4.

17. Congressional Budget Office, Tax-Deferred Retirement Savings in Long-Term Revenue Projections (May 2004), p. 8. ^ http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5418andsequence=0.

18. Department of Treasury. "Income Mobility in the U.S. from 1996 to 2005". November 13, 2007. Web. <^ http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/Documents/incomemobilitystudy03-08revise.pdf> Archived May 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.

Baritz, Loren. The Good Life: The Meaning of Success for the American Middle Class (1989)

Beckert, Sven, and Julia B. Rosenbaum, eds. The American Bourgeoisie: Distinction and Identity in the Nineteenth Century (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 284 pages; Scholarly studies on the habits, manners, networks, institutions, and public roles of the American middle class with a focus on cities in the North.

Blau, Peter & Duncan Otis D.; The American Occupational Structure (1967) classic study of structure and mobility

Curwood, Anastasia C. ed. Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages Between the Two World Wars (University of North Carolina Press; 2011) 240 pages; explores the public and private views of upwardly mobile African-Americans between 1918 and 1942.

Fussell, Paul; Class (a painfully accurate guide through the American status system), (1983) (ISBN 0-345-31816-1)

Grusky, David B. ed.; Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective (2001) scholarly articles

Hart, Emma, "Work, Family, and the Eighteenth-Century History of a Middle Class in the American South," Journal of Southern History, 78 (2012), 551-78.

Hazelrigg, Lawrence E. & Lopreato, Joseph; Class, Conflict, and Mobility: Theories and Studies of Class Structure (1972).

Hoberek, Andrew. The Twilight of the Middle Class: Post-World War II American Fiction and White-Collar Work (2005)

Huffington, Arianna. Third World America: How our politicians are abandoning the middle class and betraying the American dream (Broadway Books, 2011).

Hyman, Louis. Borrow: The American way of debt (Vintage, 2012); argues that personal credit created the American Middle Class and almost bankrupted the nation.

Hymowitz, Kay; Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age (2006) ISBN 1-56663-709-0

Jackson, Brenda K. Domesticating the West: The Re-creation of the Nineteenth-century American Middle Class (U of Nebraska Press, 2005).

Lamont, Michèle. Money, morals, and manners: The culture of the French and the American upper-middle class (U of Chicago Press, 1992).

McComb, Mary C. Great Depression and the Middle Class: Experts, Collegiate Youth and Business Ideology, 1929-1941 (Routledge, 2013).

Mills, C. Wright. White Collar: the American Middle Classes, (Oxford University Press, 1956).

Newman, Katherine S. Falling from grace: The experience of downward mobility in the American middle class (Free Press, 1988).

Pearson, Joseph W. The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay (University Press of Kentucky, 2020).

Quart, Alissa (2018). Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America. Ecco Press. ISBN 978-0062412256.

Reeves, Richard V. Dream hoarders: How the American upper middle class is leaving everyone else in the dust, why that is a problem, and what to do about it (Brookings Institution Press, 2018) online.

Temin, Peter (2017). The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262036160.

Ware, Leland, and Theodore J. Davis, "Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Time: The Black Middle-Class in the Age of Obama," Howard Law Journal, 55 (Winter 2012), 533-74.

Webb, Sheila. "The Consumer-Citizen: 'Life' Magazine's Construction of a Middle-Class Lifestyle Through Consumption Scenarios." Studies in Popular Culture 34.2 (2012): 23-47. online

Whitaker, Jan. Service and style: How the American department store fashioned the middle class (Macmillan, 2006).

Whyte, William H. The Organization Man (1956), a famous classic

Zussman, Robert. Mechanics of the middle class (U of California Press, 2020).

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Though the American middle class does not have a definitive definition, contemporary social scientists have put forward several ostensibly congruent theories on it. Depending on the class model used, the middle class constitutes anywhere from 25% to 75% of households.

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Average earning for an individual in 2015 is $52,876

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Freedom of Information Act | Privacy & Security Statement

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Are Tiny Homes providing a vehicle to shifting people to the middle class of living?

What are the finiancial impacts of Tiny Homes on people and communities?

What Financial gains do Tiny Homes provide to individuals and communities?
-What are the financial cost required to purchase and maintain a Tiny Home?
-What are the Financial effects of individuals on communities that live in Tiny Homes?

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Nelson Tiny Houses Double Decker V House

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Peter and Shannon show off their innovative tiny house design and talk about their experiences with building it and living in it so far. See our one year update with the baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr5LPYisxCM Some notes: The tiny house was built and furnished for less than $20,000. The size is 8.5' wide by 20' long.

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What are tiny houses? The tiny house movement? Tiny living?

Simply put, it is a social movement where people are choosing to downsize the space they live in. The typical American home is around 2,600 square feet, whereas the typical small or tiny house is between 100 and 400 square feet. Tiny houses come in all shapes, sizes, and forms, but they enable simpler living in a smaller, more efficient space.

People are joining this movement for many reasons, but the most popular reasons include environmental concerns, financial concerns, and the desire for more time and freedom. For most Americans 1/3 to 1/2 of their income is dedicated to the roof over their heads; this translates to 15 years of working over your lifetime just to pay for it, and because of it 76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

So what is the alternative? One solution might be to live smaller. While we don't think tiny houses are for everyone, there are lessons to be learned and applied in order to escape the cycle of debt in which almost 70% of Americans are trapped.

This is a growing movement, that is for sure! With international attention on CNN, AP, Guardian, Huffington Post, NBC, Oprah, PBS and so many more, the tiny house movement has helped people learn about another way to live their lives. Every month I have thousands and thousands of readers come to my site and I know other sites experience the same.

This site focuses on tiny living or living The Tiny Life. Tiny houses are the focal point in a broader system to address issues, concerns and problems of the current day.

Below are some videos that will help you gain a better idea of what this movement is all about. So Enjoy!

Related Posts

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What Is The Tiny House Movement? Why Tiny Houses? | The Tiny Life

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What are tiny houses? The tiny house movement? Tiny living? Simply put, it is a social movement where people are choosing to downsize the space they live in. The typical American home is around 2,600 square feet, whereas the typical small or tiny house is between 100 and 400 square feet.

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Follow up on the timeline for this bill. Find out the parts that are holding this bill up.

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Washington State Representative Brian Blake is sponsoring House Bill 1123, a micro housing bill. "We're just trying to create some flexibility so folks who may want to build smaller structures that are more energy efficient are able to," Blake said.

The bill would prevent counties and cities with fewer than 125,000 people from setting minimum dimensions for single-family home - unless needed for fire and safety.
News article House Bill 1123, State of Washington
Update 11/04/2015: the bill is "retained in present status" (=not yet passed) and the house is in recess: https://legiscan.com/WA/bill/HB1123/2015

Update 02/26/2016: This bill has been placed in the "X file" - it is no longer eligible for consideration and has been removed from calendars and the status sheet: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1123

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Micro Housing Bill Proposed in Washington State

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Washington State Representative Brian Blake is sponsoring House Bill 1123, a micro housing bill. "We're just trying to create some flexibility so folks who may want to build smaller structures that are more energy efficient are able to," Blake said.

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Tiny houses may be the darlings of the green-living set-with their own , TV shows and documentaries and cottage industry of builders, planners, and consultants.

But they're usually illegal.

Across Cascadia, to pass legal muster, residential structures must comply with one of three sets of rules: building codes, manufactured home codes, or recreational vehicle certification. They also must comply with zoning codes, which dictate not how they're built but where they may stand and how they may be used. In most places, tiny houses run afoul of every one of these sets of rules, and often in several ways. The net effect is to make tiny-house dwellers a band of outlaws.

Removing the legal strictures could quickly provide affordable, sustainable housing choices to thousands of people across Cascadia and beyond, at no cost to public treasuries, in neighborhoods already provided with urban infrastructure and well served by transit, schools, community centers, libraries, and parks. And some cities, such as Portland, are already working towards policy solutions that will bring tiny houses in from the cold.

Tiny houses on foundations: Size matters

In Oregon and Washington local laws specify that permanent homes must be built to one of two standards: the locally or state-adopted building code, typically adapted from the International Residential Code (IRC) , or the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's national standards for manufactured homes . Tiny houses have a terribly hard time fitting these regulations, not so much because of the safety and fire protection provisions, as because of things like minimum size and height rules. , for example, requires that habitable rooms have at least 70 square feet of floor space, and not be less than 7 feet wide and tall. This rules out many tiny home designs.

Though 70 square feet is still a rigid requirement for habitable rooms, it's actually a step in the right direction. In 2015, the International Code Council reduced this requirement from 120 square feet , making building tiny to code much more feasible. Continuing to adapt existing building codes to tiny abodes, or creating a new certification process specific to tiny homes, would be a big step toward unbanning a housing form that's as old as the sheepherder's wagon .

Tiny homes on wheels: You can park it, but don't live there

Many tiny home builders construct these houses on wheel beds, making them more mobile. Dee Williams , a tiny house advocate in Portland, Oregon, and co-founder of Portland Alternative Dwellings , parked her tiny house on wheels (THOW) in a friend's backyard in Olympia and enjoyed not only lower living costs, but also closer connection with her neighbors.

But these wheels present another challenge to legalizing tiny houses, placing them in a regulatory gray zone between standard houses and vehicles. The wheels often lead cities to classify them as recreational vehicles (RVs) rather than houses, which moves them from the frying pan of IRC and HUD into the fire of RV certification- a different fire, as it turns out in each state .

One hurdle this creates for tiny housers is the problem of parking, since it's illegal to live in an RV full-time outside of an official RV park. This is the case in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Cities are not teeming with RV parks, and what parks do exist are often far from amenities like public transportation and commercial services. For example, inside city limits, Seattle has only two mobile-home parks where you can live full-time in an RV or camper.

This paucity of legal parking places leads many THOW dwellers to take their chances and defy regulation . THOWs parked in the backyards of friends or family members, or even on property by themselves, likely stay there without official permission. Many tiny housers accept this precarious living situation, relying on the fact that these codes are not typically proactively enforced. Online tiny house advocacy groups encourage prospective tenants to get to know their neighbors and make sure they're happy, because code enforcers are unlikely to knock on the door unless they receive a complaint. Regardless of these precautions, sooner or later, many tiny houses are forced to move or lose their wheels and find a foundation.

Tiny houses on wheels: Permitting predicaments

Tiny houses on wheels have developed a big do-it-yourself culture, with tiny house hopefuls wanting to take a major hand in the design and construction of their future dwellings. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to get RV certification without a professional dealer, something inaccessible to most DIYers.

In a step forward, Oregon and Washington (see Washington's official self-certification code here) have both instituted certification processes for self-built RVs, making permitting for DIY THOWs a possibility. The American Tiny House Association has also created construction guidelines to assist DIYers in building their homes to recreational vehicle codes, but even these don't guarantee certification as an RV.

In Portland, Eli Spevak of Orange Splot is working to use the city's property maintenance code to create a broader legal path for THOWs. The code applies to existing structures, allowing them to be considered habitable even if they don't meet current building codes. Spevak argues that since THOWs meet performance standards outlined in local building, zoning, property maintenance, and landlord-tenant rules, they should be permissible so long as they undergo annual inspection.

In 2015, Fresno, California, became the first large city in the United States to define and allow tiny houses, including those on wheels, in its local codes, making it a model for other communities looking to create paths for tiny houses on wheels. Still, Fresno's rules are quite prescriptive. A tiny house on wheels must:

be built to RV standards,

be highway legal,

be capable of being towed,

be unable to move under its own power,

look like a conventional house,

have at least 100, but no more than 440, square feet, including a

kitchen,

bathroom, and

sleeping space, and

comply with owner-occupancy restrictions.

Though most of these code requirements accommodate THOWs as they are now typically built, they could limit future innovation.

Zoning out tiny, by lot, by style, or by occupancy limit

Although the fact that most cities call THOWs campers is probably the single largest barrier to tiny living, local zoning ordinances also clamp down on tiny. Assuming you've built a tiny house to building code and want to set it on a foundation in the backyard of an existing single-family home to save on land costs, your next challenge would be zoning codes. Your best bet would be to find a city that allows Detached Accessory Dwelling Units (DADUs), or laneway houses, as they are called in Canada. DADU regulations allow a second unit on a single lot, something often prohibited.

Even then, many tiny houses may not find relief in DADU-friendly neighborhoods. Vancouver, British Columbia, has some of the most forward-thinking and flexible DADU regulations in Cascadia. But there, too, city regulations require laneway homes be at least 280 square feet, which is larger than most tiny houses.

Other zoning restrictions also hamper tiny houses in single-family neighborhoods. Many communities require DADUs to match the exterior design of the single-family home where they are sited. This means matching things like roof pitch, window style, and exterior material, all requirements that add to the cost of building tiny without improving functionality or safety. Portland made tiny home progress recently by relaxing its design standards for DADUs less than 15 feet tall.

Finally, occupancy limits restrict the number of unrelated individuals who can live in one house, no matter how large it is. In Vancouver, BC, only five unrelated people may legally share a home, six in Portland, and eight in Seattle. While Vancouver allows ADUs their own occupancy limit, Portland and Seattle require that the maximum occupancy be shared between the primary house and DADU.

Tiny home communities, where multiple tiny homes share a lot, bump up against several of these zoning restrictions, as existing categories have yet to accommodate this new way of living. Single-family zones that allow DADUs usually only allow one such additional unit per lot, outlawing community living. Conversely, multi-family-zoned properties typically come with minimum density requirements as they anticipate apartments, not a handful of tiny houses. As a result, these communities rest in their own legal gray zone, waiting for outdated zoning definitions to catch up.

Lina Menard, a tiny house dweller in Portland's Simply Home tiny cohousing community, experienced firsthand how occupancy and zoning requirements could quash her community. After Lina and her neighbors bought property in Portland, they went to the City to figure out how to live legally on their new land. The residential lot has an approximately 1,400 square foot single-family home, a garage, and three tiny houses on wheels in the backyard. The City's zoning department worked with the community to clarify what was happening on the Simply Home Community lot. The community describes its permitting interaction with the City on its FAQ page:

"Let me get this straight. You have 6 unrelated people who share a big house and some of them park their vehicles on the property?" And when we said, "Well, sort of..." They winked and said, "Right?!" And we said, "Yes, that's exactly what we're doing!" So with a wink and a nod, they helped us figure out that we are basically sharing a house and a yard. Which we are.

Though Portland's willingness to find a work-around for the Simply Home residents is laudable, it cannot be anticipated in other communities. Further, many potential tiny home dwellers may find a wink and a nod an uncomfortable resolution when they are seeking long-term housing security. Until cities amend their zoning codes to clearly allow tiny homes of all sorts in residential communities, including communal living situations, living tiny will remain an uncertain proposition.

A future for tiny?

Cities in Cascadia can embrace tiny living as one small piece of our housing future.

Cascadia is teeming with single-family houses. Portland and Seattle's residential zoning is predominantly single-family, with 42 () and of each city covered by single-family residential zoning, respectively. Statewide, Oregon and Washington's housing stock is over two-thirds single-family houses. In British Columbia, nearly half of all homes are single-family.

All three jurisdictions would benefit from more housing variety, including multifamily apartments, townhouses, and mixed-use buildings. They would also gain from integrating more housing into the existing single-family neighborhoods that dominate the region's cities and towns. These small dwellings can increase density in existing neighborhoods without changing the look and feel of the community.

A growing community of tiny house enthusiasts is devoting itself to taking on tiny house challenges. Advocates such as Eli Spevak and Dee Williams are working to find new legal pathways for tiny houses. And organizations such as the American Tiny House Association provide educational resources for tiny house hopefuls.

Whatever the path, cities in Cascadia can embrace tiny living as one small piece of our housing future.
Like what you're reading? See even more tiny homes here.

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US Department of Housing and Urban Development

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Tiny houses may be the darlings of the green-living set-with their own , TV shows and documentaries and cottage industry of builders, planners, and consultants. But they're usually illegal. Across Cascadia, to pass legal muster, residential structures must comply with one of three sets of rules: building codes, manufactured home codes, or recreational vehicle certification.

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Spur Texas is a classic west Texas town on the wide open prairie. Our population is around 1,000 and we are one of two towns in Dickens County, a 900 square mile wonderland of canyons, cotton fields and an abundance of wildlife. The population of Dickens county is about 2,500 . We're ranchers, farmers and townsfolk who love our freedom and the endless blue sky.

In the last half century, urbanization and social changes in America caused many small towns to lose residents to large cities, where better opportunities were thought to exist. Farm mechanization and consolidation also contributed to reducing the number of families in agricultural communities across the country.

But here in Spur we feel a change in the wind and in west Texas, we're pretty familiar with the wind. Big cities have raised the economic threshold necessary for the most basic living expenses to a point that is unbearable for many of their citizens. And community is becoming harder to maintain with increased economic polarization.

These developments have given rise to some exciting new strategies for coping and competing in America. The tiny house movement is one example of reducing costs and gaining freedom to operate according to your own plan, unfettered by onerous and unnecessary costs. And the internet has opened a world of opportunity to redefine where and how we work. For example, our town is wired with fiber-optics!

We propose that tiny houses in small towns yield even more freedom and offer a unique opportunity to regain a sense of community and self sufficiency.

So we're proud of our city council resolution, passed in July, 2014, that declared Spur the nations' first tiny house friendly town, where you can build or bring your dream house, no matter the size and set it on a foundation on a regular city lot and live the way you choose.

After two years, over 70 lots have been sold to folks planning to make Spur their new home.

As folks have begun moving here, various definitions of "tiny houses" have been bandied about and the city council has settled, for now, on a definition that most people consider somewhat standard in the tiny house movement.

Any tiny house that features wood or metal framing, flush toilets connected to city utilities and electrical work properly done, is welcome in Spur. All new houses must be set on a foundation that is re-enforced with some rebar and goes at least six inches below ground, (The Texas frostline). Details can be found in the city ordinance posted on the 'city proclamation' page of this website.

If you already own a tiny house on wheels that fits the above description and are looking for a permanent home, we'll be watching the horizon, waiting to welcome you! We'll get you help to remove the axles( the last set took all of fifteen minutes to remove), store them and set your house down on its new foundation.

A simple (and free) permitting process will establish that your house design meets structural safety requirements.
Purchasing Your Home Site
If you are interested in finding out about county lots for sale, contact the County Tax Collector's office at 806-623-5216 and they will email/send you a list of available lots as well as a map of Spur. You can also contact City Hall right here in Spur at 806-271-3316 as they may have additional lots for sale. Any questions regarding the new Ordinance and any permitting/coding should go to John Schmidt and you can reach him at 682-239-0973.

With all the publicity we've been getting, the city lots are disappearing fast (we are hoping that people are not just buying, holding on to these lots, thinking they will turn around and make a profit, therefore, taking away home sites from those that want/need to come right away to start their new lives). There will be more lots made available as the County's attorneys work to get clear titles on the many abandoned lots still left in Spur but things move slowly here in West Texas. To that end, we would like to see that you have your home's foundation, at least started, within one year of purchase of your land.

Also, you have the ongoing cost of maintaining the property in that you must keep it clear, clean and always mowed. Once you own it, that is really your only responsibility but there are steep penalties if you don't. And, of course, paying your taxes!
Contacting us
If after reading this whole website, especially the FAQ, About Spur and the All News pages, you have further questions, please email us at: INFO MAIL. Or fill out the Contact Us form. Someone will get back to you as soon as they can.

Please keep in mind that we are not realtors. We are only volunteers that are tiny housers that have moved here already, have been through it and want to help those coming in with the questions they have.

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Spur Texas is a classic west Texas town on the wide open prairie. Our population is around 1,000 and we are one of two towns in Dickens County, a 900 square mile wonderland of canyons, cotton fields and an abundance of wildlife. The population of Dickens county is about 2,500 .

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Round Tiny House for Hurricanes and Tornadoes

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Florida Tiny House With Removable Porch For Sale

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Tiny House Retirement Suburb (Spur Texas)

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Spur Texas welcomes tiny houses in private building plots but they also have a small tiny house community going in that is like a tiny version of any suburban neighborhood! Go find our more at http://www.spurfreedom.org In case you have any questions about how we do what we do and any products that we swear by we have listed them all below!