Low-cost homes are an idea that has come into focus more in this decade than ever in modern history. Finally, people are starting to realize that there is no earthly reason why a house should have to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A home can be quite inexpensive and still be beautiful, and meet the needs of the family it shelters.
Building low-cost homes has always been fairly easy. As with any project, an ounce of creativity can save more than its weight in cash. Thinking outside the box is the key. The only problem is that in most areas, building codes tend to keep creative people inside the box and away from unique low-cost home construction ideas.
Low-cost homes, inventively designed, are often superior in strength, durability, and safety to tract housing, but the code just isn't written to accommodate different materials than lumber or brick. Increasingly, though, building permits are being given to homes that use new ideas. Codes are becoming more flexible in light of new interest in the nontraditional home building movement. Some persistent people are successfully challenging those old ideas and getting their permits.
Tiny Houses

Tiny low-cost homes are perfect for singles, and couples who want to take on a minimalist philosophy. Some families with children even take on the tiny house concept. Smaller homes are easy on the utilities and are perfect for off-the-grid applications because they use so much less electricity.
Rural Studios Uses Common Farm Building Materials To Build Homes
"The houses are designed to appear to be sort of normative, but they're really high-performance little machines in every way. They're built more like airplanes than houses, which allows us to have them far exceed structural requirements.... We're using material much more efficiently. But the problem is your local code official doesn't understand that. They look at the documents, and the house is immediately denied a permit simply because the code officials didn't understand it."Rural Studios uses low-cost corrugated metal as siding. They build homes the old fashioned way, on pillars rather than a foundation. The homes have minimal, but well-placed windows for energy efficiency and low-cost. A typical cottage costs about $14,000 in materials, but the cost of labor can bring that price up to over $20,000.
Hajjar Gibran's Domegaia Dome Buildings Look Like Hobbit Houses
Adding to the economy is the simplicity of labor, according to Gibran, who says he is able to build one of the domes with just one helper. He can build one of his homes in Thailand for around $9,000, but conceded it might cost a bit more in the United States.
Steve Kornher's Flying Concrete Because Concrete Doesn't Have To Be Boring

"Concrete is a plastic medium and has incredible potential for creating fluid, sculptural forms. I will admit that some of the dullest structures around are made of concrete but dullness isn't a limitation inherent in the material. As the accompanying photographs demonstrate, the builder's imagination may be the greatest limitation of its use as a sculptural medium."A huge fan of low-cost homes, Steve Kornher is a really nice guy, who loves to help people get beautiful affordable homes they can be proud of. He lives south of the border in Mexico now, to avoid those pesky building codes, but he will go anywhere in the world to consult on a build for only $40 an hour. He can create virtually any structure for about $25 a square foot. He predicts that his structures will last for thousands of years.
Underground Is Really Cool

Low-cost homes, made affordable by the ingenuity of creative minds, are quite beautiful, very comfortable and designed to heat and cool economically.
[Imaage by Andrea Obzerova/Shutterstock]