MARKETS & TRENDS
ECO-FRIENDLY
A New Housing Development: Container Home Villages UPCYCLED HOMES OFFER AN ECONOMIC SOLUTION TO THE HOUSING CRISIS AND TO THE ENVIRONMENT
by Kirk P. Taylor
ommunities in Central Appalachia and the rural Midwest are quietly facing a crisis when it comes
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to cost-effective living. Currently, the choice that the families have in the region is to either live in substan- dard housing or leave the region. Furthermore, the lack of investment in the region has left a massive void in the supply of rental units and home builders are not rushing into the regions for a number of reasons, including the challenging terrain, repair costs of the existing home supply, and loan restrictions based on the condition of those existing homes. Appalachia creates unique topography and custom- er demands. In a region covered mostly with trees and mountainous terrain, there is very little open and flat land to create traditional apartment homes and just about the only flat land is former coal mining sites, which bring on another challenging aspect of dealing with very wealthy landowners that have very little desire to support any- thing but money in their pockets. Even if there was an ability to create a robust supply of apartment buildings, individualism and love of nature runs deep in the region and there is a low desire to live in a shared-wall envi- ronment. These, among others, are the reasons most traditional multifamily development firms have passed over this region. Is that fair to the young family who desires to live in the same town in which they were raised? The community deserves a solution that is built based on the desire, ter- rain, and need of the community. The solution has to be durable, energy-efficient, terrain-supported and afford - able. The solution is upcycled container living, outfitted as luxury single-family rental units. While there is low desire to share walls, there is a huge desire to be a part
of a community. By utilizing the upcycled luxury container homes in a village format, residents get the best of both worlds, the freedom of their own home and the camara- derie of a village. Container homes bring innovation not yet seen on this scale. There is already wide acceptance to the size of a container home as over 20 percent of the current housing stock is manufactured homes, which are equivalent in size but not in quality. Container homes are extremely en- ergy efficient whereby manufactured homes are anything but, resulting in energy bills as high as $600 per month for a two- bedroom trailer. When combined with solar options, the energy cost for a container home village can be brought to near $0 with a negative carbon impact. The overall monthly savings of container-based living can
94 | think realty magazine :: september 2020
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