When it comes to housing, most people would want to make the decision to choose between a house or apartment. The big decision a man makes in his life is between renting and buying. Buying anything involves a very long term commitment and a lot of capital while renting means that you don't contribute anything towards owning an asset.
As a minimalist with no wife or children, I always think about the cheapest form of housing available. For a lot of my generation, that would mean renting a room. A single room would only cost a few hundred dollars a year. To really extreme ends, a man could go wander around America like a vagrant and carry a tent around at all times. I've also heard that there are communities of people that will live in cars or vans.
Lately, I've had the crazy idea of buying a small plot of land and plopping down a shipping container on it. This is an option I've not heard about or considered since the last year or so.
America has a population of over 320 million people but there is a lot of space in America. Lots of spaces in Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico are undeveloped. People do not live there because there are no houses, jobs, Wal-Marts, or McDonald's. To get an idea of how cheap this land can be, a quick google search of cheap land brought me to a website named landcentury. Here, it looks like you can get an acre of land in some remote area for as cheap as $1000. Add in the cost of some paper work and the land itself would cost about $1500.
Surprisingly, the land costs the same amount as a steel shipping container. A shipping container will cost around $1500. The cost of delivery will most likely cost a few hundred bucks as well. With the container and land costing about $3000 to $5000, I'm sure that another $5000 could be spent on renovating the container to make it more comfortable. Buy building a house this way, I'm confident that a steel container house could be as cheap as $10,000.
As the economy keeps going down the tubes, I am convinced that steel container homes will become more common and more population will move towards the midwest. In the future, the demand for these containers would increase while would drive up prices.
I've added some links below to articles about steel container houses.
Article from buzzfeed
Popular Mechanics
TinCabin
Sustainable Personal Finance
This living situation would be ideal for single men that have saved up a few thousand dollars and would enjoy a life of leisure.
There's a lot of build out required on a shipping container. I suggest a used RV.
ReplyDeleteI have to say it is only recently, I have heard about these containers, being used for living. All of the pictures I have seen have convinced me, that people can be very comfortable living in one, all whilst saving a lot of money. I agree with you, that these will become a lot more popular.
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