ArcaMax

We have a true crisis unfolding here in the USA. It’s very difficult for a young person or couple in their mid-20s to buy a home. My youngest daughter, who is 33, is facing this grim reality.

My other two children own a piece of the rock. I helped my oldest child, also a daughter, build her own home. She designed and drew the plans for the simple two-story home. My middle child, a son, was fortunate to purchase a new modest two-bedroom home three years ago. I’ve been working with him the past year on weekends to convert his massive basement into 1,200 square feet of finished living space, including a full bathroom.

I’m bound and determined to help my youngest daughter experience the joy of stepping across the threshold of her first home. In the process, I believe I can help you or your children do the same thing.

My college degree is in geology. One of the founding fathers of Earth science was James Hutton. He lived in the 1700s. He is credited with the profound statement, “The present is the key to the past.” I feel the opposite is the key to unlocking our current starter-home crisis. The past is the key to the future.

I grew up in Cincinnati. My parents purchased a very small two-bedroom home when I was 2 years old. They paid $16,000 for it, and the mortgage payment was a staggering $60 a month. My mother told me she was stressed that they couldn’t afford it. I’m sure you have a similar story to share about your childhood home.

This house was on a lot 40 feet wide by 150 feet deep. The two-story house was 22 feet wide and 22 feet deep. It had a full basement, one half of which was a one-car garage. Remove the thickness of the solid masonry exterior walls, and you only have about 950 square feet of living space.

This home had one tiny 5-foot by 7-foot bathroom. The first floor consisted of a living room, dining room and kitchen. The living room and the stairwell to the second floor occupied the left half of the first floor. The dining room and kitchen comprised the second half. The second story included two bedrooms, a bathroom, a hallway and four closets. The furnace, washer, dryer and a small, dank storage room could be found in the basement, located on the other side of the wall from the garage. My mom, dad, sister and I lived here and thought everything was hunky dory.

New homes always cost more per square foot than an existing home. Twelve years ago, I was a member of a writers group at our local library. A divorced woman in this group purchased a tiny one-bedroom hobbit house in my town for less than $70,000 at that time. It had no garage, no basement, and was perfect for a single person. I think the house had less than 600 square feet of finished living space.

Entire neighborhoods in the suburbs surrounding Cincinnati are filled with tiny homes that were built for all the GIs coming back from the Great World War II. Silverton, Golf Manor and Westwood are filled with these tiny two-bedroom homes like mine that look just like the green plastic homes in the Monopoly board game.

Last week I sold a power tool to a small independent builder who lives in a nearby town. We were sharing tales, and he told me how he was helping his son build his home.

“We’re already at $600,000 in cost, and that’s not counting all of my free labor,” he told me. I then discovered this house is quite large and filled with all sorts of very nice finishes, including granite countertops and top-of-the-line windows and doors.

I then shared what I’ve written just above. I talked about how if I were still building full-time, I’d be building small houses similar to the ones I was surrounded by in my childhood. This man asked me to draw the floor plan of my childhood home.

His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw my drawing. He instantly connected the dots. I shared how everything in a new home like this would be bare bones. The new starter homes would feature plastic laminate countertops, basic cabinets, windows and doors that barely meet current energy codes, and the least expensive flooring available, which should have a service life of at least 10 years.

I guarantee you he’ll be building a test home within the next year to see what happens. I know he’ll sell it before it’s completed. It will be so much cheaper than renting.

My youngest daughter just moved back from California to my New Hampshire home. She told me the rent for her two-bedroom two-bath apartment was $3,200 a month. I almost choked on my lemon-lime ice water.

I went online and discovered that in today’s mortgage market, one can procure a 30-year loan for $250,000 and have a monthly payment just under $1,600.00. The building costs for a bare-bones house in a Midwest market can be done for just under $200 a square foot in 2025 dollars. You need to add the lot cost, utilities and permits to get to a final figure. In the end, it’s all about reducing the square footage in a new starter home.

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©2025 Tim Carter. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.