Downsized: Family lives mortgage-free in 320-square-foot home
 

Downsized: Family lives mortgage-free in 320-square-foot home

.....It’s being called the ultimate downsize.

http://bestplaces.nydailynews.com/si...use%20copy.jpg

Two years ago, Gary and Debra Jordan were living in a spacious 2000-square-foot home. When Gary lost his job as a construction manager, they struggled to make their mortgage payments. Both took on odd jobs, working long hours and spending less time together just to stay afloat.

So they downsized.

The Arkansas couple found a local builder on Craigslist who custom-built them a new shotgun-style home — for less than $20,000.

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Black Blade: Another "tiny house" article. A good example of a family living within their means during hard times.

MotherEarthNews carrys storys and plans for stuff like that.I need to checkout
the last few issues from my local library.Country boy will servive.:headbang:

out here there are plenty of large and medium sized homes for sale cheap.

$20K will buy a nice sized older home in ground zero.

jobs that actually pay money are VERY scarce!

Houses like this were common in the Detroit suburbs after WW11 & Korea. They were called " Doll houses".

I've seen a couple of what appear to be 10x12 or so garden sheds fitted out as houses in rural Arkansas.

I did some figuring and it looks like you could get one for a lot cheaper than a mobile home, and since it would be a "house" you wouldn't have the insurance problems a mobile home brings.

The savings on utilities can also be sizeable, as well as taxes in places that tax by the square foot or by the room.

All you need to rid yourself of insurance problems on a mobile home is to set it on and properly secure it to a normal house foundation.

Once my insurance company verified I had done so, my premium dropped dramatically. It was as secure (more so, actually) as any stick-built home. You DO lose the mobile part of the home, it's quite difficult to move compared to a mobile home as it basically becomes a regular house that's more or less permanently secured to the foundation.

In the process, it also lost the need for yearly registration as the State no longer considered it a mobile home!

I won't mind having a house that small, but the garage/work shop would be five times that size.
Hmm maybe build a 4-6 car garage with a living space above it :D

Damn I don't think I could do that. That's smaller than my Muesum/ reloading building, that's 576sq ft. , my damn garage is 1600 sq ft just to house my 3 hot rods and my ATVS and tool boxs, boats and other toys. I guess I don't have much to cry about then,I just have to many toys I guess. Here in Vt it's not as bad as other places I've only got 550 month payments with taxs on all that and a 1800sq ft house on a couple acres. I only had 1 year left to pay before the divorce, back to about 11 more now. Maybe when I get to be an older codaular it might work, but not for now, I'm just a spoiled old fart I guess or just lucky to have what I've got. I guess I'd better count my blessings and stop crying. I think you'll see a lot more people doing this if "yomamma" stays in much longer though. Times are getting harder all the time.

my parents purchased a 24 ft travel trailer to travel in after i left home, but dad got sick and they found themselves having to live in it for 11 years and it was under 200 sq ft. believe me it can be done.

You're using logic. This is politics.

It varies by locality. Here, it's a "mobile home" forever.