Tiny House vs Apartment: Which One Is Better?

I have lived in apartments for a significant portion of my life. I was born in Maryland and lived in a house (that was a parsonage owned by the church that my dad was the pastor of at the time) until about the age of 7.

Around age 7, we moved to Moscow, Russia, and my dad partnered with other Baptist missionaries to start a church there in 1995. Since you didn't really "own" a home in Moscow at the time (especially not as a foreigner), that was the beginning of my connection with apartment life. Tall, towering skyscraper apartment buildings sprawled all across the city, forming enclaves of communities that were distinctly separate yet uniformly the same.

While I was homeschooled during our years living in Russia, at one point, our apartment windows from the 16th floor (many more floors were stacked on top of us) overlooked the local public school grounds in our apartment enclave.

That's where I learned the street version of Russian from other kids my age while playing soccer (futbol) on the school grounds, well after the sun had gone down. The only things illuminating the streets and school fields were the lights from the nearby apartment towers, and sparsely scattered street lights cast a dim yellow hue onto the ground below.

It was not entirely uncommon for various members of my family, myself included, to be trapped in elevators (some for longer than others) that got stuck traversing up and down the 20+ story buildings we generally lived in.

Needless to say, as I look back in time, my introduction to apartment life was rather fascinating and unconventional for the average American.

After returning to the United States, we lived in a single-story home in New Jersey and a two-story home (with a basement) in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a few years later. After graduating, I moved to Virginia for a short stay with some of my siblings; I lived in a two-story house before moving to Houston, TX, where I was reacquainted with apartment life.

For the next 10+ years, I would become increasingly familiar with apartment life in America. As fate would have it, I landed (entirely unexpectedly, I might add) in the rental management industry, ultimately becoming a regional manager and overseeing the acquisition and renovation of hundreds of rental properties throughout Texas.

Since 2019, I have lived in a tiny house on 5 acres of land with my wife and three kids; I am still heavily involved in the rental management industry. In fact, we're in the process of building our own rental business in the tiny house industry (we'll talk more about that later).

Given my experiences of having lived in (and managing) many types of apartments and houses across multiple spectrums (international and national, among others) and now a tiny house, I believe that I am uniquely positioned to speak with authority on the topic of all things apartment life and tiny home living.

So, which is better? Apartments or tiny homes?

Well, that's a very black-and-white question, but it's more of a gray answer. Here's a thoughtful breakdown for anybody who is living in an apartment (or considering renting an apartment) and who might also be considering purchasing a tiny house.

Average Size of Apartments In The USA

Depending on the city in which you live, the average apartment size probably ranges from 350 square foot studios to as large as 2,000 square foot 3-4 bedroom apartments.

But, the average size of an apartment in 2022-2023 is 887 square feet. In 2021, the average square footage of a rental apartment in the US was 917 square feet (according to a study done by RentCafe), so the average apartment size has actually dropped by 30 square feet in just one year.

Believe it or not, the average size of apartments has actually been shrinking almost every year for the past decade.

Suppose you consider that a tiny house is typically anything under 400 square feet (though many would argue that a tiny home can be more broadly defined). In that case, that means that a tiny house is really only half the size of the average apartment in the US 🤷.

The Downside Of Apartment Living

But that doesn't negate the downsides of living in an apartment that you generally won't have to deal with when you purchase a tiny house. Since apartments are built with shared walls with other apartments in the same building, you likely have to deal with things like:

1. Noise

If you share walls with someone, chances are, you're going to hear noise. If someone lives above you (or even below you), chances are, you're going to hear noise. If you live in an apartment, it's typically in a dense, urban area, and you're going to hear noise.

I've lived in apartments where all of those scenarios were true.

When we lived above someone, we always tried to make sure our kids didn't get too rowdy and bounce around on the floor too much. And when we had people living above us who were heavy-footed or who weren't proactive with preventing their kids from bouncing around - it could get frustrating at times.

That was especially true if the noise extended well into the evening when most people expect some level of peace and quiet in their space.

But that's apartment life. You deal with noise.

2. Shared Building Odors

Cooking odors, painting odors, resurfacing odors, cleaning odors, and any other kind of odor you can think of. If one apartment smells, chances are, nearby apartments are going to smell it, too. If you share a wall with another space, you'll inevitably smell whatever's floating in from the other side of the wall.

3. Pest Control Issues

With most rental leases, you cannot handle your own pest control. That's especially true in apartment buildings. The management company typically uses its own pest control company, and they don't want tenants using chemicals that might interact negatively with what the pest control company is using.

Unfortunately, if you have neighbors in your apartment building with serious pest issues, then their problem can easily become your problem. And if your property management company isn't proactive about it, it can get out of control quickly.

Those issues can range from roaches to fleas and even bed bugs. UGH!

4. Rental Increases

Due to supply and demand, inflation, increasing taxes, rising operating costs, and a bunch of other common factors that influence real estate pricing, chances are, your rent is going to increase every year.

In general, those increases might only be 3% - 7%, which is considered normal. But they add up over time. And some years, like 2020 - 2022, the renewal increases were not normal. In some markets, people saw increases of 100% or more.

And the thing is... it's entirely out of your control. It's completely up to the owner and the property management company to project their costs and other factors when they determine what the rental rates will be the following year.

After all, it's a business. If the owner can't pay their taxes, mortgage, operating costs, etc., well, then they don't have a rental property, and you don't have a home.

So, if you're finding yourself already struggling with rental increases year after year, then it might be worth looking into a living arrangement that allows you to hedge against that and protect your budget.

5. You'll Never Own It

When you're renting an apartment, you never own the building you're paying to live in. You'll have to pay the property management company every month in order to stay there.

If you fail to pay, you get evicted. Whether you've leased there for ten years or ten months, it doesn't matter. If the money isn't paid at the time indicated in the lease - you'll get the eviction notice.

Why? Because there's an owner who needs to pay their mortgage note on the building, along with property expenses such as maintenance, general utilities, property management fees, insurance, taxes, etc.

But renting an apartment isn't all negative. There are upsides, too.

The Upsides To Apartment Living

There are a lot of upsides to apartment living that many people find attractive. If these things aren't significant to you, then perhaps apartment living isn't for you.

1. No Pest Control Responsibilities

Typically, the property management company handles this for you. Just hope they're proactive and responsive when issues arise!

2. No Upkeep or Maintenance

As long as it's normal wear and tear, the rental management company handles repairs and upkeep for you.

3. Community Amenities

Unless you live in a tiny home community with special amenities, or you live on land and have the funds to build your own, the average tiny homeowner doesn't have access to the amenities (e.g., dog parks, pools, saunas, fitness centers, event spaces, theater rooms, tennis courts, etc.) that you'll find readily available at most modern apartment communities that are being built today.

4. Location

It's rare to be able to park your tiny home or build a tiny house inside city limits. But that's where apartments tend to be built. So, location tends to be more favorable for apartments, especially if you prefer the city lifestyle.

5. Relocation

Renting an apartment makes it relatively easy to simply end your lease and move to a different apartment anywhere in the world, really. However, if you build a permanent tiny house (not a THOW) on a piece of land, relocating may be considerably more difficult than simply renting an apartment.

If you own a THOW (Tiny House on Wheels) but do not own land, it can also be difficult to find a new plot of land to rent elsewhere. That is getting increasingly easier as time goes on as tiny home lot rentals and tiny home parks are becoming more common, but it's still not as simple as ending your lease for your apartment and moving to a different rental property.

6. Community Life

If you want to have some type of community life when you live in a tiny house, it really requires you to be intentional about it. Even people who live in subdivisions with houses practically stacked on top of each other rarely socialize with their neighbors, let alone have any kind of community bonding.

If you end up living in a tiny home community, that may be a lot easier to do, but if you live out in a rural area that's largely separated from the rest of the outside world - that can be more challenging.

Whereas in an apartment community - it's much easier. In fact, there are organizations (e.g., Apartment Life) that property management companies hire to come live onsite, host community events, and foster and encourage a community lifestyle. Their entire mission is to bring people in the apartment community together.

Not to mention, it's just easier to connect with other people in apartment communities at the pool, at the clubhouse, at the grills, etc. You share a number of common areas, and you tend to bump into each other all the time, so it helps make connections more natural.

7. No Property Taxes

If you live in a rental property, you're still paying property taxes, but you probably don't realize it. Every year, you probably see a rental increase, and the property owner is increasing your rent, partly because their property taxes likely went up.

But as a renter, you would just see it as an annual rent increase.

But if you own land where you have a tiny house on that land, that's a different story. Each year, your county's tax assessor office will review your property and determine if the taxes will be going up or not. In many cases, the answer is yes, they will. Then, if you disagree with the increase, you have to go through an entire process of appealing the increase, presenting evidence to dispute it, etc.

So, if you'd prefer not to have to deal with the county's real estate tax office each year over real estate tax increases, then apartment life probably suits you just fine.

The Downsides To Tiny Home Living

Now, to break down the downsides to tiny home living, and then in the following (and final) section, we'll discuss the upsides to tiny home life.

Let's jump in.

1. You ARE Pest Control

When you live in a tiny house, you ARE pest control. Sure, you don't have to deal with pest control issues from neighboring apartments that you share walls with, but you will probably still have to do preventative pest control treatments.

And if an issue does arise, then you'll have to take care of it. For example, at our tiny house, we've had to address issues with armadillos, skunks, carpenter ants, bee nests, and scorpions.

When that happens, you either need to pay a pest control company or you have to learn how to address the issues yourself.

2. Maintenance Costs

If your tiny home is new, maintenance and upkeep hopefully won't be an issue for several years. But, eventually, maintenance costs will be a thing regardless of how new your build is.

The good news is since a tiny house is so small, the cost of maintenance is almost always significantly less than that of a traditional home.

3. Limited Space

Tiny homes are just that... tiny. This means space is limited, and privacy is often non-existent. So, if you're someone who enjoys their space and privacy, then you'll either need to be incredibly intentional in how you design and build your tiny home, or you might just want to stick with apartment life.

4. Resale & Financing

If someone truly wants to go tiny, I highly encourage it. But, just know that the real estate market for tiny homes is not as prolific as the traditional real estate market for standard-size homes.

That means that if there comes a time when you want to sell your tiny home, it may not be as easy or as quick as selling a traditional home. That being said, the market is changing every year as the demand for tiny homes continues to grow, but it's still a much slower real estate market than the traditional one.

Likewise, if you want to finance a tiny home, you will need to shop around for the best tiny home finance companies. Who you can finance with will largely depend on what type of tiny house you're trying to build or buy.

5. Home Insurance

This is becoming less and less of an issue, but it may still be an issue in your particular market or for your specific location.

Our problem where we live is not that we live in a tiny house but rather because we live so far out in the country that the closest fire hydrant is a mile from our house, and the closest local fire department is roughly 10 miles from where we live.

So, our options for insurance are few and far between, and the insurance companies that will insure our tiny house are incredibly expensive.

Keep that in mind when considering living in a tiny home, especially if the land you'll be living on is far away from a fire hydrant and/or fire department.

Last year, we had several fires in our area, and one of them burnt down one of our neighbor's RV's and their chicken coop. The flames came dangerously close to our shed and tiny home, but thankfully, the fire department made it in time to stop the fire from advancing any closer.

6. Zoning & Building Codes

Last but not least, zoning and building codes are still significant obstacles in some states, counties, and cities across the US. Thankfully, many organizations have formed across the country to lobby for change in this area, but there's much work to be still done.

Before you decide to go all in with the tiny home lifestyle, you'll want to make sure that you can find land where you can actually build/park your tiny house and not encounter any issues down the road.

I've read many horror stories where people "thought" that they were in the clear, only to discover (after buying/building a tiny house or land for one) that they were, in fact, NOT in the clear, and then they had to battle with local governing authorities.

While many states like Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas are largely tiny-home friendly (especially in rural counties outside of city limits), there are still plenty of places where that is not the case. So, proceed with proper due diligence.

The Upsides To Tiny Home Living

Oh, the upsides to tiny home living. I will list many of the positive elements of tiny home living in the sections below as best as I can, but just know that many of the positives are intangible benefits that are hard to define for each person.

For some, it might just be the aspect of owning land, seeing the stars at night because you don't live in a light-polluted city, planting a garden, building what you want to build where you want to build it, not having neighbors closer than 100 yards away, seeing wildlife that city-life simply does not offer, and much, much more.

But if you're looking for some more common upsides to tiny living that are applicable to pretty much everybody, then allow me to break down some of those for you.

1. No Noise

When I say "No Noise," I don't mean that there's literally no noise. In fact, if I go outside right now, there are probably roosters crowing, dogs barking in the distance, the wind blowing through the prairie grass, a light hum coming from the septic tank, the sound of a vehicle slowly rolling down the dirt road nearby, or maybe the kids playing outside.

But those are all pleasant sounds. They're primarily natural sounds - things that you'd expect to hear living out in the semi-rural countryside.

What I don't hear is neighbors arguing, heavy-footed people constantly walking on the second-floor apartment above me, maintenance teams doing make-readies on rentals to prepare for a new renter who's moving in within a few days, my neighbor's shower turning on and the toilet flushing down the pipes within the shared walls, someone's music or TV turned on too loud, heavily trafficked streets with horns blaring, ambulance or police sirens, etc.

Compared to apartment life... it's silent.

2. No Shared Building Odors

No shared walls = no shared building odors. If you live in a tiny house, you control the odors, not your neighbors or the apartment community.

3. No Shared Pest Issues

When we lived in apartments, it didn't matter how clean we kept our space; it seemed like we consistently experienced an issue with things like ants or roaches at some point or another.

When I got into the property management field, I quickly realized that is because many times, it could be that a single tenant wasn't reporting an infestation in their apartment that was causing issues in nearby rentals. Sometimes, an entire building could have an issue because of a lack of preventative pest control policies. And if a property management company isn't proactive with pest control inspections and treatments, it can quickly get out of hand and affect even the most spotless apartment in the building.

In a tiny house, we manage our own pest control, and it's not influenced by a neighbor next door or by the overall condition of the building (because we take care of the building ourselves). If we encounter an issue (e.g., carpenter ants, bees, scorpions, etc.) out in the country... we promptly and efficiently address the issue. And we're usually pretty pro-active with preventative treatments, so we generally don't have any issues at all.

In fact, in three years of tiny home living, we have not once experienced an issue with ants or roaches.

4. You'll Own It Outright

Not only will you eventually own it outright - you'll likely own it much quicker and still have equity, too. Thankfully, we paid off our tiny house the year after we moved in, so we do not have a mortgage.

Not that it will work out that way for everyone - we were incredibly blessed to be able to do so. But even if you finance a tiny house, chances are, it's not a 30-year mortgage, and the payments are significantly lower than a traditional home, and you'll probably have it paid off in a similar time frame as one might pay off a new auto loan.

5. No Rental Increases

Even if you finance a tiny house purchase or build, the rate should be set in stone, which means your monthly payments won't fluctuate or increase each year as your rental payment might.

If you're paying $500/mo this year, that means that you should only be paying $500/mo next year, too, until the tiny home is paid off.

6. Tiny Home Taxes Are Likely Marginal

Depending on the state, county, or city in which you live and the type of tiny house you own, your taxes are likely marginal.

For example, some locations around the county view Tiny Homes on Wheels (THOWs) as an RV (Recreational Vehicle). So, if you're legally living in an RV (re: tiny house on wheels) on your land, your property is typically not going to be taxed like it would if you had a home built on a foundation on that same property.

Why? Because that THOW might be there today, but it might not be there tomorrow. So, it's nearly impossible to say that the property's value has improved as a result of the THOW being present.

Granted, some local governments across the country are starting to adapt real estate laws and ordinances to accommodate the tiny home lifestyle (and make sure they rake in taxpayer money from tiny home people), so that will undoubtedly change in the future.

But for now, that's still the case in most areas around the country.

Even if you build a tiny house on a foundation, your tiny home will not be appraised at the same value as a 1,500-square-foot home in your neighborhood. That alone means that your annual property taxes will be significantly reduced.

THE END

As we wrap up this article on our comparison of apartment living vs tiny home living, hopefully, you've found this information informative and educational.

If you have any questions about apartment life or the tiny home lifestyle, please don't hesitate to comment below. I'd love to try to answer any questions you may have about either lifestyle.

Frequently Asked Questions: Apartment vs. Tiny Home Lifestyle

Q: Is it really cheaper to live in a tiny house?
A: Generally, yes, living in a tiny house can be cheaper than a traditional home or an apartment. The initial cost of a tiny house is usually lower, and ongoing expenses like utilities, maintenance, and property taxes tend to be reduced due to the smaller living space. However, the total cost can vary based on location, materials, and lifestyle choices.

For us, the answer is a resounding YES! If we had continued to live in an apartment in our market, we would have easily been paying about $1,500/mo in rent. Because our tiny house was paid off early, we have saved roughly $54,000 in rent payments. Even if we had our tiny house payment of $600/mo, we would have still saved roughly $32,400 over the same time frame.

Q: What are the downsides of tiny houses?
A: Tiny houses come with a set of challenges, including limited space, which can affect storage options and living comfort. Zoning laws and building codes can be restrictive in some areas, affecting where you can place your tiny home. Additionally, financing and insuring a tiny home can be more difficult than traditional homes due to their unique nature.

Q: What is the lifespan of a tiny house?
A: The lifespan of a tiny house largely depends on its construction quality and maintenance. Much like a traditional home, a well-built, tiny house made from quality materials should last 50 years or longer. Regular maintenance and care are crucial to extend the life of a tiny home, just like any other residence.

Q: Can you permanently live in a tiny home?
A: Yes, many people (including us and some of our neighbors) live permanently in tiny homes. It's a viable lifestyle choice that emphasizes simplicity and downsizing. However, living permanently in a tiny home requires thoughtful planning around zoning laws, location, and personal comfort. It's also important to consider long-term needs, such as potential family expansion or lifestyle changes.