A lot of people have jumped on the tiny home trend, whether it’s a rejection of modern consumerist culture or a way for many to deal with the rising cost of living.
The Census Bureau says that the average price of a new home sold in the US this year has been around $412,300.
First-time buyers are having a much harder time in the market because prices and mortgage rates are almost three times what they were a few years ago.
Still, some people are looking at a part of the market where prices are, on the whole, much lower. In May 2023, the average price of a manufactured home was $121,000.
This shows that these houses are a more affordable choice for people who want to stop renting.
The average price has gone up by 54% since May 2019, showing that these are investments whose value goes up and down like regular homes.
There are other choices for some Americans, like prefabricated units, which can be bought for tens of thousands of dollars on Amazon and in stores like Walmart.
Walmart’s website has a lot of models, but many of them look like sheds or other small buildings that would be built on a land and not stand alone as homes.
The tiny home now available at Walmart
Before this year, Jeff Bryant’s TikTok video about buying a tiny house on Amazon for just $26,000 went popular. Bryant showed people around the unit, which the video says was put together by five people in 27 minutes.
You can get that house at Walmart for as little as $15,900 now. The Chery Industrial prefab home is 19 feet by 20 feet and can be expanded. The store’s website says it comes on a trailer truck and needs to be unloaded with a forklift.
Even though this house is a lot cheaper than the national average, there are still costs to think about, such as the land that was used to build it, the forklifts that were needed to unload it, and the tools that were put in. For extra support, the site also suggests pouring concrete over the legs.