But, on a per-square foot basis, they’re some of the most expensive housing around: The smallest model, 70 square feet and $34,997, costs just about $500 per square foot. At this per-square-foot price, a typical new house would then cost about $1.25 million to build. Given that a lot in any semi-desirable suburb will add maybe $100,000 to $300,000, an average “eco-friendly” family house would cost about $1.5 million at that price. (Builders, however, will tell you that the per-square-foot cost almost always declines as a house gets larger.) I’m not clear, furthermore, what makes these houses so costly a per-square-foot basis–they don’t even have ovens, dishwashers, or freezers.

What bothers me a bit is that some of the owners of these shacks really consider themselves more virtuous than the average person because they live in these fancy shacks. (Watch this really annoying woman drive her house into a subdivision for an example.)

Given that there are pretty nice looking three bedroom mobile homes for less than these tiny houses, I tend to think that their main market is, well, basically, rich people who want to live in shacks.