House or Home: Comparing Reasons for Living Tiny

Abstract

Little academic literature exists as to why people want to live in tiny houses (Ford & Gomez‐Lanier, 2017; Mangold, Willoughby, Hing, Collins, & Zschau, Forthcoming). Even less is known about who the people are that want to reside in tiny houses all year as opposed to those that want them for different reasons (e.g. second home, investment opportunity etc.). To provide a first insight into this issue, surveys were conducted at four regional tiny house festivals and posted in tiny house internet groups resulting in a total 446 responses. The questionnaire tapped into a range of different constructs such as financial considerations, interest in community, importance to individual identity, and means of creative expression. Using a partially matched sample (n=212), the data was analyzed in IBM SPSS v24.0 using parametric and non-parametric tests (e.g. T-Tests and Mann-Whitney U tests). The findings suggest that individuals who are interested in tiny houses as a primary residence (TH Primary Group) differ from those interested in tiny houses for other reasons (TH Non-Primary Group). Those in the TH Primary Group are more likely to (1) reject notions of consumerist culture, (2) have lower levels of income, (3) see tiny houses as more central to their identity and thus (4) are more likely to be willing to spend more on a tiny house. Implications of these findings will be discussed.

Key words: Tiny house, motivations, community, alternative lifestyle, consumerist culture

Ford, J., & Gomez‐Lanier, L. (2017). Are tiny homes here to stay? A review of literature on the tiny house movement. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 45(4), 394-405.

Mangold, S., Willoughby, C., Hing, D., Collins, C., & Zschau, T. (Forthcoming). Why Live Tiny? A New Multi-dimensional Model. Sociological Spectrum.