Getting a home in places like San Francisco and New York City will surely be expensive but in East Portland's small-home community, one can get a house even he is just earning $15 an hour.
Sales for 450-square-foot “detached condos” with a price that starts at $175,000 is rocketing. Because of the huge number of sales, the city is ranked as one of the 30 hottest real estate markets with a median sale price of $285,000, according to Realtor.com data.
It is no wonder that the home sales of these tiny residences are increasing because house prices have increased by 8% a year ago and the small homes have low prices. But these tiny homes aren't built yet.
“We’re hoping we have the units done by August. We’d like to have half of them presold. I think we’ll make that easily,” listing agent John Miller said.
According to Miller, many buyers were interested upon posting the listing especially that the $175,000 to $190,000 price for a 450- to 500-square-foot home is "pretty killer" even if the floor area is small. He added that the mortgage runs about $700 a month which is under the average rent of $1000 in the city.
The small home has one bedroom, an open floor plan, a full bathroom, full kitchen, a storage loft, vaulted ceilings, stained concrete floors, skylights, outdoor storage, garden and an on-site parking. These homes are also eco-friendly resulting into lower bills because it uses Energy Star appliances which includes a stackable washer and dryer. It has radiant floor heating as well as soy-based foam insulation, Builder Online reported.
Developer Robert Barns works on the project who has built accessory dwelling units which are rental properties on a homeowner's backyard. When Miller approached him about developing affordable housing, he was into it since it he "always wanted to do small-home communities" since he looks as this as a way of “creating an investment opportunity for the middle class.”
