Take a look at the house in the photograph. It's a manufactured home and it represents the future of home ownership for many Americans. Pictures of its interior may be found here.
This house is part of a project by the Seaside Institute of Seaside, Florida but tiny houses could be placed anywhere if zoning codes were changed to allow it.
Tiny houses cost less to build, less to heat, less to cool and less to maintain than larger houses. Presumably they would cost less to buy making them perfect as starter homes for young families-- the people Greensboro leaders claim to want to attract to Greensboro.
Tiny homes require less space which means more space for vegetable gardens and shops for work at home artists, inventors and craftspeople-- more of the creative class Greensboro claims to want to attract. And with Greensboro being the 3rd hungriest city in America I would think our leaders would be thinking long and hard about more vegetable gardens.
Tiny houses could also be used to more easily house the elderly in independent living communities. If you think there's not a market for tiny houses you're just not thinking it through. The only thing standing in the way are city imposed building codes that set too big a minimum size for most homes in most neighborhoods.
And before someone tell you of a state uniform building code-- it was the City of Greensboro that led the way in pushing the state uniform building code through the state house and senate a few years back so I've no doubt the City of Greensboro knows how to change it.
A tiny house factory on the never before used 500 acres of the White Street Landfill could be powered by landfill gas and downdraft wood gas generators as designed by FEMA, proven to work for almost 100 years and already approved by the EPA. Doing so would bring good paying jobs to east Greensboro and economic development to the entire city.
So what's the resale value of a tiny house? Like other houses location has a lot to do with it. In Seaside, Florida you can expect to pay about $2 Million for a tiny house.
Continue reading Part 9 to learn of more ways to put these unused assets to work for Greensboro.
