A Northern Virginia county is looking at whether tiny houses of less than 800 square feet could be a way for residents to become homeowners at a reasonable price.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors assigned a committee to prepare a report on the potential of this type of housing to assist both renters and owners. This week, the supervisors heard the results of the report, which suggested the county take advantage of the land it already owns to lower the cost of building tiny homes.
With housing costs elevated in much of the U.S., more local governments are considering tiny houses as an affordable housing option. Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati, set aside $1 million earlier this year to study their feasibility, and a major homebuilder, Lennar, is marketing them within a new subdivision in Princeton, Texas, in Collin County, north of Dallas and Plano.
Loudoun County’s average sales price so far in 2025 for a one-bedroom unit is nearly $349,000, according to the report, which cited data from Bright MLS. For a two-bedroom home, the average is more than $464,000.
What qualifies as a tiny house can vary
What makes a house tiny is its size; 800 square feet is considered the upper end of the range, according to the report by Loudoun County’s Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board. A provision of the International Residential Code, which many localities in Virginia follow, defines a tiny house as one that is 400 square feet or less, excluding loft space. The ones in the Texas subdivision are 661 square feet in size.
Tiny houses can be delivered to a house site on wheels or can be installed on a permanent foundation, according to the report. Though the report doesn’t take a position on which is better, it notes that a tiny house on a foundation is subject to the state building code, much like any single-family home. If they’re on wheels, by contrast, tiny houses are regulated like recreational vehicles, and there are few places where they can park legally for an extended period.
In terms of cost, tiny houses can range from $10,000 to $250,000, the report stated, adding that to be viable for homeownership, these houses would ideally be between 500 and 600 square feet.
“Tiny homes may be more appropriate for single adults or couples as opposed to families,” the report said.
If land were available at no cost, a private developer could make a tiny house neighborhood financially viable in Loudoun, the report said. As an example of a location where this might work, the report cited a forthcoming mix of apartments and for-sale townhouses planned on a former park-and-ride lot in the Ashburn area. The county is leasing the site, which is about a 45-minute drive from central Washington, D.C., to a developer. In an alternative scenario, the report said, a developer could fit about 45 tiny houses on the same property, each with one bedroom and 416 square feet. The units could be priced at around $155,000, given today’s market conditions.
The report suggested that building all of the tiny houses in a development on a single lot, rather than each house having its own property lines, would help reduce costs. One option would be a community land trust, according to the report, in which individuals or households own their homes, but they lease the land under them from a government or nonprofit entity.