The search for affordable housing continues to be an uphill battle for homeowners nationwide. Around half of Americans now say affordable housing is a problem where they live &#; a ten percent increase since , according to the Pew Research Center. It&#;s a trend that has only been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely delayed new-build construction rates and brought the world&#;s supply chains to a halt. Today, there&#;s simply not enough homes available to meet demand, resulting in record-high prices and a press for change.
With competitive price and timely delivery, Xindian Construction sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
Even if prospective buyers can find homes that fall within their budget (and don&#;t fall victim to bidding wars), it&#;s likely to eat up a major chunk of their income. The United States Census Bureau reported that 23 percent of Americans spent over half of their monthly income on housing in . And while salaries have gone up, so have home prices &#; at about 24 times the rate.
In short: people need more reliable, affordable housing &#; and quickly.
So, it&#;s no wonder that both personal and commercial home builders are looking beyond traditional building options to satisfy demand. Enter the shipping container home: an economical &#; and more sustainable &#; alternative to traditional home construction. Shipping containers have proven such a viable option for quick and affordable housing, they&#;ve even been transformed into accommodation for people experiencing homelessness as part of humanitarian projects across the country.
A growing movement
Shipping containers have been transformed into tiny homes, office spaces, and retail pop-ups for years. Long considered a niche market, shipping containers are picking up momentum mainstream as the push for more imaginative solutions to current housing challenges continues. More recently, the movement has sparked a flurry of popular interest, spurring blogs, television shows, and influencers who have built their reputations on constructing, decorating, or living in container spaces.
It&#;s no surprise why they&#;ve become so popular. Shipping containers are completely customizable, more sustainable, and quicker to construct than traditional homes. They can also be much more affordable, depending on the homebuyer&#;s preferred size, location, and how they choose to modify the home.
Affordable housing, shipped wherever you like
One way in which shipping containers are disrupting traditional homebuilding is their ability to drastically cut development times and costs. This is in part fueled by their immediate availability, with more entering the market every day. There are about six to eight million containers set to be retired from commercial use in -. Once retired, these containers will be available for purchase by commercial home builders and ready to be delivered to the location of their choice. Boxhub is democratizing access to both new (or &#;one-trip&#;) and retired shipping containers, taking care of sourcing, inspection, and delivery on behalf of homebuilders nationwide.
Easy-to-build, modular masterpieces
Another element that makes shipping containers easier to work with for home construction is that they come in standardized sizes, specs, and load-bearing capacity. Home builders can choose from a simple range of options, with the most popular sizes being 20- and 40-foot containers. Each is built the same way out of the same materials. This uniformity makes shipping containers easy to combine, stack, and configure as needed throughout the home design and development process.
The predictability of container home construction also cuts development times down substantially for both single-family and multi-family dwellings. Because of their modularity, shipping containers can be configured to create homes as large and complex as clients like &#; or as simple and compact as a single container.
Adaptable to any location, preferences, or budget
Another aspect that makes shipping container homes a desirable alternative to traditional homes is that they can be customized to fit any buyer&#;s needs or budget. You can keep costs at a minimum with standardized prefab units, or you can explore a world of customizations and embellishments depending on your clients&#; locations or personal preferences.
From a financial standpoint, shipping container homes can be far more affordable than building a traditional home. They require less new construction materials in order to be made livable, reducing expenses even further. In fact, with the right knowledge and resources, a basic, single-family shipping container home can be built for as little as $25,000. For a more luxurious, fully kitted space, a 320-square-foot container apartment averages around $80,000, including all appliances and fixtures. What&#;s more, these prices are predicted to decrease sharply over the next couple of years, as more modular housing companies enter the market and materials become more readily available. &#;
For a list of the sources used in this article, please contact the editor.
Maximilian Birner
www.boxhub.com
Maximilian Birner is Co-Founder & CEO of Boxhub, a leading e-commerce and logistics platform enabling the seamless purchase, delivery, and repurposing of shipping containers. Founded in , the marketplace has become a trusted partner for thousands of buyers across the United States
5 min read
Does it seem strange that you can order your very own tiny house on Amazon just like you can order your groceries or a pair of wireless headphones? If history shows us anything, the pre-fab house being sold direct-to-consumer is not a new, outlandish idea.
Are you interested in learning more about Expandable Container House Manufacturers? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
Just look at the Sears Roebuck catalogs of the early s &#; DIY home kits were a bestseller. There are at least 75,000 Sears homes across the country, and according to a piece in CBS News, &#;Sears would mail it to you in 30,000 pieces. The kit included 750 pounds of nails, 27 gallons of paint and varnish, 10 pounds of wood putty, 460 pounds of window weight, 27 windows, 25 doors and a 75-page instruction book.&#;
I&#;m not certain this was the easiest way to go about making a home for oneself, but I do know that these order-by-mail homes created access for many people who otherwise might not have been able to achieve the great American Dream of homeownership.
The same is true today with the tiny house movement, especially as it relates to shipping containers. These homes are made to order, relatively cheap to produce and completely customizable. In a world consumed by social media and modern amenities, we are returning to a movement that was essentially started by our grandparents and great grandparents.
I was curious to find out why the tiny house movement is gaining such traction. Is it a direct reformation of the McMansion movement? Is it a conservation issue? Or, is this just a passing fad?
Here are four reasons why I think the shipping container house movement is here to stay:
Combat Against Rising Costs
In the United States, the median sales price for an existing home is $245,100, according to the National Association of Realtors. Buying a new home is even more expensive, with an average sales price of $385,200, according to the Census Bureau. That&#;s a pretty expensive prospect for most people, especially now that banks have tightened lending restrictions.
Shipping container homes, for example, offer a much cheaper solution. Depending on the size, a shipping container in good condition costs anywhere from $1,400 to $4,500. There are also a growing number of manufacturers that are designing prefabricated shipping container houses for $15,000 and up.
That&#;s a pretty large price gap, and with the tiny shipping container homes, you can add as many bells and whistles as you would like, at cost. But that&#;s likely far less expensive than renovating, reinventing or even tearing down a home.
It&#;s Cool To Conserve
Tiny homes are intended to be minimalist. You must decide what&#;s important to you in order to make the space work. In the past decade, we saw the emergence of the McMansion &#; a fully customizable cookie-cutter palace that was created for maximum space and ornate finishes. While tiny homes can be customized in much the same way, albeit on a smaller scale, they require far less maintenance and are less taxing on the environment. There are no massive spaces to heat or cool, no gargantuan rooms that must be powered by electricity. Tiny homes are function over fashion, but they can be quite aesthetically innovative. With the conservation movement growing among the world&#;s wealthy (think Tesla), the notion that bigger is better is waning. Being ostentatious is no longer the status symbol it once was.
Mobility
As the world gets increasingly interconnected, people find themselves on the move for reasons like work, family, and change of scenery. A shipping container home can essentially ship itself since its primary function is transport. The ability to pack up your home and move on a moment&#;s notice is becoming increasingly attractive to people in today&#;s fast-paced market.
Choice Is Everything
When you buy a home already on the market, you are buying someone else&#;s vision. With a tiny, customizable home, you are calling the shots. You can add as many built-ins or solar panels as you want from the start. You have the freedom to move a shipping container to any part of the country so long as you abide by local housing codes. This is 100% your baby. The freedom to choose is a really powerful selling point.
At the heart of the matter &#; and why I think the tiny house movement is here to stay &#; is that it&#;s the very embodiment of what it means to be an American. Freedom to choose, freedom to build, freedom to move, freedom to live. The fact that you can build your dream house through the click of a button online is an amazing prospect. As I mentioned previously, the idea of fast access to your dream home isn&#;t a new idea. But today&#;s technology has made it easier than ever to build your version of the American dream; the next challenge &#; will we be able to order with free two-day shipping?
Want more information on Z Folding Packing Container House? Feel free to contact us.