Here's another type of home for consideration that's under $70,000 and requires no assembly.
We've been seriously thinking of buying one for my Mother-In -Law, whom I now realize will be with us for the duration.
We live on four acres , so I could put this house for her 3+ acres away.
I've been intrigued by affordable/alternative housing for quite some time.
One interesting venture was based on dome-shaped silo tops, which are relatively inexpensive because they're commercially produced in quantity. The company offered coupling kits to expand, window and door inserts, etc. Provide your own concrete pad, plumbing, wiring, etc.
Another option, long on labor and short on cost, involves a bulldozer to cut away part of a hillside (or build a hillside), so that you have a dirt dome. Spray it in concrete, cut open access door, and dig out the dirt from inside.
I was intrigued by metal pre-fab Lustron houses, after seeing a number of them in our city, including a street with maybe 6 of them in a 2-block stretch.. A post-World-War II adjustment to the need for affordable housing for returning vets, they were assembled on site.
https://timeline.com/lustron-homes-federal-homeowners-281eca7e3cac
I've talked to a few owners of Lustron houses, and they were/are not as bad as the linked article makes them sound-- the residents all enjoyed them, with the quirks of not being easy to remodel . An especially interesting possibility to me is that the houses can also be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere. The US Military had a bunch of them for on-base housing, and a few years ago had a lottery for a chance to buy one from housing units/bases being phased out. I put in my name, but no joy.
Geodesic domes and earth-berm housing is also intriguing. I spent some extended stays in an earth-berm.
With the exception of the Lustron, many city zoning codes make most of these non-starters. Out in the country, a much better chance.
Also, Quonset DIY Homes are pretty inexpensive.
This article explains it better than I can since there are so many variable depending on what you want to store:
I didn't know such fully-assembled houses were available. Thanks for sharing!
How about a fifth-wheel instead of the Tumbleweed? I just read that - "The average price of a new fifth wheel is about $35,000. Low-cost fifth wheels can be had for as little as $20,000 while more expensive fifth wheels will cost up to $50,000."
So many possibilities!
KentE - Thank you for your comment. Very interesting! You may like this affordable home. https://www.fastcompany.com/3056129/this-house-costs-just-20000-but-its-nicer-than-yours
Thanks, peterquinn! That link is really interesting. I'm going to look for more info, and try to remember to watch out for the instruction set! (Just as a quick look, probably better situated for a moderate climate, since it's open underneath & would be hard to heat in colder areas-- unless they have a ground-skirt kit of some type. But this type of issue exists for many alternative housing designs. As an example metal construction like a quonset hut can be problematic in desert areas.)
Interesting house. I wonder what it would cost to add 3 bedrooms and other rooms ECT.
Probably no permit here with the earthquakes.
I read this article Top 20 Shipping Container Home Designs and their Costs in 2022
The problem is the costs spiral up.
There must be a way to build cheaper homes. Maybe we should look at how cheap homes are built in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mongolia (yurts) or other resource-constrained countries?
I always found the stories about buying houses from Sears kinda cool.
And now for an abrupt shift in gears:
It does have a window facing the street.
NYC rental prices have otherwise dropped considerably since the beginning of the pandemic.
Examples:
More videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/CashJordan/videos
Not sure how affordable, but I read about barndominiums somewhere on my Google News feed or Apple News
See e.g., https://www.pinterest.com/janemakuch/barndominium/
Love when details like this from the working days of the structure are retained.
It would have been so easy to find an excuse to get rid of that ramp.
Too bad it is attached to a monster that seems way out if scale.
http://www.dsparker.com/residential/new-england-carriage-house/
I got an answer from someone I have known all my life and who lives on the Navajo reservation in a hogan. He said it shouldn't take more than a few thousand dollars to build a simple home with a small kitchenette and a bathroom. He is a handyman.
The thing is if I e-mail him back, he probably won't reply for a year. That's how he is. He used to be a friend of my grandpa when grandpa was alive, so he's really old too.
A simple home with a kitchenette and bathroom for a few thousand dollars?
Teepees and hogans, some with bathrooms and kitchenettes.
Download these pictures I have been collecting off https://easyupload.io/n41ky3
Approximately how much would that home on page 13 cost to build? I have seen homes like that with a bathroom and kitchenette. easyupload.io/n41ky3
I had stayed at this hotel one weekend. https://easyupload.io/c2890m
Each cabin had two queen beds, a full-sized bathroom and a kitchenette. The owner told me each cabin had cost him only $10,000. This was about 5 years ago.
Where can I find cabins like that for 10k?