LA Times piece on micro apartments

[oldhat]

A little odd that this article (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/18/nation/la-na-tiny-houses-20120913), which is mostly about New York City, would appear in the LAT, but an interesting read nevertheless...

[Gregg]

I love the micro spaces. It probably makes sense that the article from LA would focus on NY. LA spreads out so far that overall land is not at the premium it is in NY, and especially in Manhattan.

[BayouGirl]

I love the micro spaces as well as the tiny houses. I have my own tiny wood frame house (196 sq ft) that I lived in happily and quite comfortably. It was like a cozy little cocoon for me. Now I live in a slightly bigger (600 sq ft) house with BayouBoy and we are well pleased with the size and all of the benefits that you get from a small home (saving money, less upkeep, lower utilities, less stress, etc).

In reading this article, I was rather taken aback at how much these small places will rent for. I know that it is because of their location but still!!! A thousand or two thousand for such a small space each month is astounding to me. To me, one of the benefits of a small place is the savings, which translates into more free time since you don't have to work so hard to pay your bills each month.

I have the same qualms about the "Tiny Tumbleweed" houses which are marvelous little beauties. They are indeed well built and well planned but they come at such a high price that you could buy a traditional house (with land included) for as much as they cost. I know my own tiny house is not as beautiful as a Tumbleweed home but I also didn't pay tens of thousands of dollars for it.

My own little 196 sq ft house cost a total of $1200 to buy it. Our 600 sq ft house cost about $4500 (we had to move it ourselves, which is why it cost so little). While I understand that we got lucky with both of these purchases and that not everyone will come across such a deal, I can't help but think that such exorbitant prices for such small spaces, kinda negates a major part of going smaller and living simpler.

So many people are looking to downsize today (whether by choice or economic necessity). I just hate to see such little spaces priced so high because they kind of defeats the purpose of a simple life. Imagine a person on a limited income looking at these apartments or at a Tiny Tumbleweed house and concluding "wow, I just can't afford to downsize and live simpler".