Page 98 - Southern Oregon Magazine Fall 2018

welcome home | build

exactly what you want—just on a smaller scale. Plus,” he adds
with a laugh, “you can move your home when it gets smoky.”

Moroni’s experience has been that “the [tiny house] market is
younger because of the high cost of living,” whether that be as
a first-time home option, or as a transitional home during a larger
construction project.

Interestingly, Miller has seen more interest in an older demographic.
“Seventy percent of my clients are single women over sixty,” shares
Miller. “They want their own place or are thinking of retiring, but are
choosing not to maintain property or land.” A tiny home’s combination
of independent living with low maintenance costs lets them be close to
family but flexible about where exactly that will be.

Miller has watched the journey of tiny homes not just through public
opinion but through more official channels too. From the very first tiny
home in Oregon that Miller presented to the Department of Business
and Consumer Services over a decade ago, tiny homes were classed
and inspected as RVs. That changed in 2016 when state recognition of
the RVIA certification program was pulled. “Oregon currently does
not allow full-time living in a tiny home,” reminds Miller, although
they are still popular as vacation homes or rentals.

“Being an architect, I respect their fire and life-safety concerns,” says
Miller, but also sees in tiny homes a compelling way to address hous-
ing issues nationwide. “It’s a changing environment in the tiny house
movement,” says Miller, as other industries also begin to trend towards
more compact living.

“It’s potentially the wave of the future,” agrees Moroni. Especially for
first-time homeowners, the relatively low expense of building and
running a tiny home are becoming more compelling as the housing
market continues to inflate.

96 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | fall 2018