400-Square-Foot Tiny Homes Start at $100K in This Florida Community

Tiny homes are often escapist fantasies, with small footprints in larger-than-life settings. For others, they’re an opportunity at a more dignified life. But tiny home builder and developer Escape has its own big idea: that going smaller can provide a means of homeownership in a metropolitan area, even within a housing market that’s heating up.

The company opened its first tiny home village in Tampa Bay, Florida, in 2021, and now, it’s opened a second. The Oaks, as its known, is in essence a shrunken-down neighborhood set on three-and-a-half acres. Homes are positioned a football toss away from each other, with driveways and small landscaped patches creating separation. "Virtually the entire community is green space," says Escape founder Dan Dobrowolski, noting its palm trees, native grasses, and old oaks.

The units, designed by architect Kelly Davis of SALA Architects, are all less than 400 square feet, with the smaller ones starting around $100,000. On top of a mortgage payment—say, a 30-year fixed term at $830 a month after a 20 percent down payment—would-be owners are responsible for a monthly $625 lot rental fee, which covers parking and utilities. Those figures combined beat out the median cost to rent in the Tampa area, which Zillow estimates at $2,286.