Lets propose two options.
Option 1: You buy a 60 year old 1,200sq/ft traditional house, lets say it is $150,000 in some suburb and has a shitty single vehicle garage. Your property taxes are about $1,500 each year, along with the average utilities cost of $3,600 per year. After say 50 years of living in this home, you have paid the $150,000 + (50 x $5,100) = $405,000 to own this property for 50 years, about 1/3rd possibly in equity.
Option 2: You buy a brand new 300sq/ft tiny house, the nicest options are $80,000 after everything, and you buy 1 acre of land for $20,000 with the hookups for your appliances etc. Your property taxes would be about $1,200 per year, along with the average utilities cost of $1,200 each year. After say 50 years of living in this home, you have paid the $100,000 + (50 x $2,400) = $220,000 to own this property for 50 years, almost half possibly in equity.
These are real numbers that I have done some research compiling. Assuming your homes become worthless immediately/you don't ever plan on selling it, you are spending ~double to buy and live in a traditional house. Having the real house would be nice, and it is possible that your tiny house would depreciate like a traditional trailer home would. A tiny house is literally a house that is small enough to put onto a trailer and tow, so they aren't built like trailers but true houses, so that may be incorrect.
What are your thoughts on this shit? Think about getting out of the rat race in your early 20s with less than $200,000 and it's not even some hippy dippy living in a tent out in the woods bullshit. It's a very small house, put up a car port with some gravel for a driveway, have a garden or whatever - what is the difference between this and a larger house? Houses less than ~$150,000 are typically are in a shitty area or have problems and you wouldn't want to live there for a long time anyway.
