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Tiny houses are displayed in Sonoma County, Calif. (Daily Camera photo)

It makes sense for Colorado communities to look at adjusting their building codes to allow “tiny houses” that might be illegal under minimum square-footage and other requirements, as explained in a recent story by The Denver Post’s Bruce Finley. Consumer demand should rule, not outdated codes.

But outside of true aficionados, is there really significant pent-up demand for tiny houses that can be 100 square feet or less?

We’ll see, but if so it would certainly mark a major reversal of decades during which Americans sought more space, not less.

In 1950, the average house was less than 1,000 square feet — and families were significantly larger.

By 1973, the average home reached 1,660 square feet, and by 2013 it had grown to 2,679, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute. Perry points out that living space per person actually doubled over those 40 years, given smaller household size.

You can see this phenomenon still at work in the scrape-offs around Denver where small old houses are replaced with big new ones. The tiny-house movement may be growing, but the big-house movement is still going strong.
