The Honest Truth about Container Home Affordability

Much of the attraction to and buzz around shipping container homes is related to price.  Some of it is fair, some of it is not.  In many cases, shipping containers can be built quite cheaply, perhaps even cheaper than an equivalent house made with traditional construction techniques.

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While there are a huge number of variables that influence cost (geography, size, design, interior finish-out, etc), we generally find that container homes do offer some cost savings for most owners.  And, if you&#;re interested in doing some of the work yourself while being resourceful with some of the other expenses, the savings can be more significant.

This doesn&#;t necessarily mean container homes are inexpensive overall (though they sometimes can be). Instead, it means when comparing a container home to a similar equipped traditional home, you may see lower costs. Calculating exactly how much less requires getting really specific on details.

Importance of Cost

To start, it&#;s important to frame the subject of affordability in terms of why cost is an important consideration.

Housing Expenses

No matter if you&#;re a fixed-income retiree, a Silicon Valley millionaire, or a middle-aged middle manager, we all have a housing budget. And as with all budget line items, if you can spend less while still adequately meeting your needs, that free up funds for other purposes.

A common rule of thumb says that you should aim to spend no more than 30% of your income on housing. Survey data from the US Government&#;s Bureau of Labor and Statistics below shows that most families, regardless of income, achieve that for the raw cost of the housing itself.

However, when factoring other housing-related expenses like utilities and maintenance, many families on the lower end of the income range exceed 30%.

In most households, housing expenses make up the largest percentage of their expenditures. Why is this relevant? Impact.

Small changes on a percentage basis can have large impacts on the bottom line. Think about the actual cost savings of reducing your mobile bill by 10% versus reducing your housing expenses by 10%.

Clearly, focusing on large expenses like housing can really help your overall financial pictures. And thus, analyzing if container homes can offer cost savings in your specific situation is an effort worth undertaking.

Frugal or Cheap: Which One Are You?

The conclusion from the previous section is clear, right? Spend as little as possible on housing, and reap the benefits of the saved cash. Well, that&#;s actually not exactly what we&#;re saying at all!

Before going forward, it&#;s important to understand the difference between being frugal and being cheap. The two terms seem almost synonymous, but they actually have very different meanings in your day to life.

Cheapness generally equates to paying the lowest price for something, period. It&#;s a short-sighted view that truly does lead to cost savings up-front, but not necessarily over a longer period of time.

Frugality, on the other hand, is about prioritizing spending to ensure your limited resources are allocated to the things you most care about.

When you&#;re frugal, you:

• Factor in the cost of your time and the pain of your future frustration when making purchasing decisions
• Think about full &#;cradle to grave&#; ownership and &#;long tail&#; costs like maintenance, disposal, and replacement
• Understand that paying less doesn&#;t necessarily mean you&#;re saving anything overall
• Understand that paying more doesn&#;t necessarily mean you&#;re getting a better value
• Look for opportunities to save that don&#;t require you to give up anything in return, or to only give up things you don&#;t really care about anyway
• Know the difference between needs and wants, and work to get the best prices on true needs instead of trying to do without them

We hope we&#;ve convinced you that having frugality mindset is not only a helpful way to live in general but also a great way to approach the decision of using shipping containers for your next project.

Let&#;s talk about some of the choices you can make to generate cost savings.

Container-Specific Cost Cutting

The first area of savings are those due specifically to using a shipping container. These are somewhat &#;passive&#; savings as they don&#;t require any other real adjustments to your design or lifestyle and just take advantage of the positive properties of containers.

When compared to traditional types of housing, container houses have different line item costs. However, these do vary somewhat depending on your design.

A few of the common areas of savings are:

• Roof: Containers include a flat metal roof that is sufficient to protect against the elements. 
• Exterior Walls: A container&#;s corrugated metal skin is durable enough to endure the elements as-is. No need to have additional exterior walls unless you just want them for aesthetic or insulative purposes.
• Foundation: Shipping containers have a strong metal frame that only needs to be supported on the four corners, meaning you can cover a lot more floor area with less foundation work than a conventional home.
• Flooring: With a cheap coating of epoxy, you can seal your container&#;s existing plywood floor and have one less thing to worry about.

However, there can also be some areas where containers may end up costing you more money, such as:

• Offloading: One container can be slid off the back of a tilt-bed trailer, though exact positioning with this method isn&#;t possible. Other delivery and offloading techniques will likely require renting heavy machinery or a crane for a few hours.
• Insulation: Most people insulate inside the container, so the exterior maintains its look. But given the narrow width, you&#;ll probably need high-performance insulation that costs a bit more than what you&#;d otherwise use.

The table below from the National Association of Home Builders shows what percentage of an average single-family home&#;s cost goes to different construction line items. While every home is different, this table can help give you a rough idea of where you might be able to save with a container home, depending on your choices with some of the items above.

Understand the costs in the above table are inclusive of material and labor, though often paid through subcontractors. If you&#;re doing some of these tasks yourself, you can expect the cost to be lower (your labor is free), which will, in turn, change how the percentages flow together.

Again, don&#;t treat this information as the gospel, as it is based on averages taken across a huge variety of home types, sizes and locations. Rather, just use it to get a rough idea of how much different construction tasks cost in comparison to others.

Armed with this information, you can decide if the container home you&#;re envisioning may offer cost savings just by being made from containers. Then, you have the choice of a cheaper house of the same size or a larger house for the same price.

However, looking for these container-based cost savings isn&#;t the only way to keep some money in your pocket. Read on to find out some other options you have available.

Shrink the Building Size

How and Why Home Sizes have Changed

A second way to reduce the cost of your container building is quite logical: reduce its size. 

Let&#;s start with some data. The following charts were created based on data compiled by this site, which itself is based mostly on US Census data with some other sources used for earlier years.

The first chart shows two trends that are seemingly at odds with each other. The average household size has been going down over time, while the average house size has been going up. What this intuitively means is that average square footage of a house, per person, has been going up even more. That can be seen in the 3rd line on the graph.

However, given the different axes and starting points, it&#;s a bit hard to compare the changes in each measure to each other. So, we&#;ve normalized all the numbers in the next chart based on what they were in . This highlights the growth (or shrinkage) over time for all measures.

These are pretty surprising statistics! The average household size has almost been cut in half from to , presumably a function of fewer multi-generational households and fewer children per household.

But look at the square footage numbers. The average house size has increased a little over 2.5x, while the average house size per person has increased almost 4.5x.

We get it, that was a lot of numbers, but what do they mean? Let&#;s start with a question.

When you look back on old family photo albums, newspaper clippings, or even movies from the early 20th century, what do you see? Are people sad and feeling hopeless about their small house?

Or are they strangely happy? Maybe, even happier than a lot of us seem today? In most cases, they generally seem to be doing pretty well, right?

The takeaway then is that despite having 4.5 times as much room in a house now than they did back in , people don&#;t really seem 4.5 times more fulfilled. Yes, it&#;s 4.5 times as much space to spread out and impress your neighbors with. But it&#;s also 4.5 times as much space to clean, heat, cool, and furnish.

Of course, while the numbers are scientific, the sentiment behind them is just our opinion. And maybe you disagree, which is completely ok.

Regardless, we&#;d urge you to stop and thoughtfully consider what is driving the size of your house. Think about if you could still be happy with a bit less.

We&#;re not talking about living like the below picture shows! Instead, what size home would your grandparents or great-grandparents have probably thought was normal when they were your age?

This idea of living small isn&#;t for everyone, and if you have the means and desire to build a large house, we fully support that as well. We only ask you to challenge your assumptions about why before committing to such a large purchase. 

Perhaps being frugal on your house size might free up resources for other things that are more important. That could be higher furniture quality, a better neighborhood, or even a nicer family vacation.

Let&#;s say you&#;re on board with this idea of &#;less is more&#; and practical minimalism. How do you start?

Recalibrating Your Mind on Home Size

Media exposure and societal pressure have conditioned almost all of us to believe that &#;bigger is better&#;. And in some cases, that&#;s definitely true. But not for everyone. To find a better way, you need to ask yourself the right questions.

Let&#;s say you have a consultation with a financial advisor about the idea of purchasing a home. One of the first things they&#;ll try to calculate is how much home you can afford. But that&#;s the wrong question.

Have you ever heard of bottom-up and top-down thinking? The above case is an example of a top-down approach.

It&#;s kind of like going to the market and getting the biggest basket you can find, then filling it full of bread. But what if you don&#;t actually need that much bread and some of what you bought ends up moldy and stale because you couldn&#;t eat it all?

Using a bottom-up approach would start with your needs. How many bedrooms do you need, and what size should they be? Do you need a bathroom for every bedroom, and if so, how big do they need to be?

Perhaps there are rooms you think you need, but you&#;re just holding on to old habits. For instance, if you only use a formal dining room two or three times a year, would you be better off renting out a restaurant or park pavilion for those times instead? Think about the thousands of dollars of construction, maintenance, utility, and furniture costs you&#;ll pay over the years for that under-utilized room. 

Questions like this will help you determine the combined square footage you actually require to meet your needs.

It&#;s more like figuring out how much bread you actually want to eat and only buying that amount, regardless of how big your basket is. No bread is wasted, and now you have room to buy some fruit!

Remember this: what you can afford and what you need are two different things. Both are important, and there is nothing inherently wrong with buying more than you need. Everyone likes to splurge now and then. If you do so, just make sure that&#;s a conscious choice, and that you clearly understand the difference between what you need and what you can afford in your mind.

Ease up on the Extravagance

Another way you can affect the price of your home is by adjusting the level of extravagance.

Container homes have been built across the entire spectrum of luxuriousness. Some of them are barely one step above camping. Others almost seem to be built to five-star resort standards.

Remember that you start with a roof, floor, and walls in your container. You&#;re completely in control of what you add (and what you spend) after that.

Material and Labor Quality

Quality can be important across a couple of different measures. Think about the difference between high-quality materials vs high-quality craftsmanship.

A skilled artist can make some beautiful items out of trash. But some people may never get over the fact that it&#;s still trash.

A novice artisan can have access to the finest tropical hardwoods and the most beautiful granite. But their work may not look very good because they don&#;t have the skills and experience to shape the materials into something beautiful.

Some materials may look nice, but are fragile or wear easily. Some craftsmanship is very exacting and yet is almost impossible to notice without a trained eye.

Of course, most things exist somewhere in the middle of all these qualities. But you need to find where on the spectrum you want to be for both materials and craftsmanship.

Your container building will present hundreds of choices for you. What type of floors, what type of appliances, what type of handles on the cabinets.

Almost every item will have multiple options at various price points. Ask yourself how you want it to look and perform, how long you want it to ask, and what type of maintenance it will require.

Remember what we talked about in the section above on Frugality and pick the characteristics that you most value.

Being conscious about these choices can enable you to save money on your container home while still getting quality in the specific areas that matter to you.

Condition and Price

Would you rather have a Ferrari with a few scratches on it or a flawless Hyundai sedan? The answer is different for everyone.

Some people would go crazy having to look at those scratches every day and the Ferrari wouldn&#;t be worth it to them. Others would be happy that they have the experience of driving a Ferrari every day, even though it&#;s aesthetically less pleasing.

There isn&#;t a right or wrong answer. As we keep saying, you have to pick what you value.

Quality and condition are two different things, though they are often confused with each other. Keep them separate in your mind and you might find some great deals.

Oftentimes, the stores you buy materials from will have slightly damaged materials for sale. Maybe something happened during the trip from the factory, or maybe an employee at the store accidentally damaged it. Occasionally, the damage is so minor you have trouble even spotting it.

A lot of container homeowners have also had success with used or surplus materials. Sometimes they source materials from specialty stores that deal in second-hand building materials. In other cases, materials are found a piece at a time from owners doing renovations and selling the old stuff on a local marketplace or website.

You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Hongyu Dinghao.

Finding used or worn materials like this is not only economically advantageous, it&#;s ecologically beneficial as well. You&#;re keeping trash out of a landfill and saving yourself money. Win-win!

Lower the Land Cost

The final area we&#;ll highlight for cost savings is the cost of land. Most people focus on the container home itself while failing to recognize that using containers presents some opportunities to use different types of land than you might otherwise be able to with traditional construction.

Given the strength containers and their minimal foundation requirements, you could build on land that might be unsuitable for traditional construction without extensive (and therefore expensive) site work. If the land is full of rocks and low spots, just bridge over the problem areas. Land that&#;s in a floodplain would scare a lot of people away, but it&#;s easy to build off the ground with containers.

Or, think about a building lot that&#;s full of trees. Your city may even have regulations about how many and what type of trees you can cut down. This can make it really hard to find a large, clear area for a suitable home. But containers are long and skinny, so you can route around and between trees as needed.

What about land that&#;s strangely shaped? Maybe it&#;s long and skinny, or wedge-shaped, or has the appearance of an &#;L&#;. Arrange your containers in a way that works with the boundaries and offsets of the land is comparatively easy. 

When traditional home buyers and builders see land that&#;s similar to what&#;s described above, they often skip over it. It&#;s too difficult to fix the land and too complicated to change their design. They&#;d rather have a wide-open property with plenty of room for their building.

These pieces of land can be great opportunities for prospective container homeowners though! Let the design flexibility translate into land savings.

Get in touch with a local realtor that specializes in land sales and ask what&#;s been sitting on the market for a while and hasn&#;t been selling, then find out why. Is it something you can accommodate and work around with containers? If you do this early in the planning and design process, you still have a lot of flexibility in your design to work around narrow lots, strange topography, etc.

Summary

We hope that we&#;ve convinced you not only how you can have an affordable container home, but why that might be a goal worth achieving in the first place. There may be more paths to get to cost savings that you had initially even considered!

Can you think of some other interesting ways that containers might present cost savings when compared with traditional construction methods? Let us know below in the comments section.

Building a shipping container home can cost between $15,000 to $35,000, but if you want a bigger home with more containers, the price can go over $100,000.

This article explains how to build a shipping container home, including costs for land, foundations, and insulation. It also covers the cost of buying new or used containers, and the price of pre-built options. Learn why container homes are cheaper and durable, and find out if they are the right choice for you.

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Table of Contents

How Much Does a Shipping Container Home Cost to Build?
Are Container Homes Cheaper to Build?
How Do You Build a Shipping Container Home?
How Much Do Pre-Built Shipping Container Homes Cost?
How Long Do Shipping Container Homes Last?
Is a Shipping Container Home Worth It?
Building a Shipping Container Home Cost Bottom Line

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How Much Does a Shipping Container Home Cost to Build? 

Shipping container homes cost between $15,000 to $35,000 to build, on average. However, if you plan on using multiple shipping containers to build a larger home, the price can increase dramatically to over $100,000. The exact price will vary depending on where you want to put the shipping container home, the type of foundation you use, the features you want to put inside, and the size of the shipping container you buy.

Still, it&#;s hard to make a shipping container home cost as much as a regular home, even with updated features embedded inside.

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Are Container Homes Cheaper to Build?

Yes, shipping container homes are cheaper to build than regular homes. While a single container home might cost around $30,000 to build, a house of similar size would cost you around $90,000 to build, more than 3 times the shipping container home. Shipping containers emerge as one of the cheapest types of houses to build when it comes to price.

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How Do You Build a Shipping Container Home?

1. Look Into Land

2. Set a Foundation

3. Purchase a Shipping Container

4. Install Insulation

5. Find Amenities

If you&#;re planning on building a shipping container home, it&#;s critical to understand everything that goes into the process. There are a few steps you should follow to create this space. Each has varying costs that will add to the overall expense. Familiarize yourself before diving into the creation of one of these homes.

1. Look Into Land

First, you need to look into the cost of land in the area you plan to live in. To create a shipping container home, you need to purchase a plot of land. This cost varies depending on the state. Your shipping container will have to stay in one place.

The USDA stated that the average cost of farmland in was about $3,380 per acre. This number is up from previous years. If you want to live closer to a city or popular tourist area, you can expect to pay more per acre.

The land will also vary in price depending on the type you purchase. Farmland is different from land that already has access to varying amenities.

2. Set a Foundation

Once you have land, you need to lay a foundation for your home to sit on. There are three foundations you can use.

These include:

• Trench foundations

  : A hole is dug into the ground and filled with concrete.

• Slab foundations

  : Concrete is laid on top of the first, then the shipping home container is placed on that.

• Pier foundations:

   Columns elevate the structure off the ground, keeping it safe and dry.

Any of these will keep your home protected from damaging weather and other circumstances.

The average cost of laying a foundation falls at around $4,500. The trench foundation will cost the least, while the pier foundation will cost you the most.

3. Purchase a Shipping Container

You can purchase a new or used shipping container to build your home. The used will always be cheaper. Typically, a used container will have been in service before it arrives at your land. A new container is only used by you.

A new shipping container typically costs between $2,000 to $5,000. Some larger more expensive shipping containers can be as expensive as $8,000. Used containers will vary in price depending on the company and the damage they&#;ve sustained.

4. Install Insulation

Once you have your container on your foundation, insulation is the next piece in the puzzle. Insulation will keep the interior of your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It&#;s necessary if you want comfort yearly.

Here are different types of insulation to choose from:

Spray Foam Insulation

Pros: Provides excellent thermal resistance, air sealing, and moisture barrier. It can conform to irregular shapes and is great for tight spaces.

Cons: More expensive than other types, but highly effective.

Rigid Foam Insulation

Pros: Offers high R-value per inch and is resistant to moisture. Easy to install and can be used on walls, floors, and ceilings.

Cons: Can be more expensive than traditional fiberglass but offers better performance.

Fiberglass Insulation

Pros: Common and widely available, cost-effective, and easy to install.

Cons: Needs to be properly sealed to prevent moisture accumulation and can lose effectiveness if compressed.

On average, insulation costs about $2,000 for a 2,000 sq. foot home. Measure your container to estimate how much you will need to pay for insulation.

5. Find Amenities

Finally, you can install amenities inside your shipping container home. From plumbing to electricity, there&#;s a lot to cover for the ultimate livability.

Here are some essential amenities to consider:

1. Plumbing: Functional kitchen and bathroom plumbing, including sinks, showers, toilets, and water heaters.
2. Electricity: Wiring for lighting, outlets, and major appliances such as refrigerators, ovens, and washing machines.
3. Heating and Cooling Systems: A reliable HVAC system or alternative heating and cooling solutions like mini-split systems or portable heaters and air conditioners.
4. Insulation: Adequate insulation for walls, floors, and ceilings to maintain a comfortable temperature year-round. 
5. Ventilation: Proper ventilation systems, including exhaust fans in bathrooms and kitchens, and potentially air exchangers.
6. Windows and Doors: Quality windows and doors that provide natural light, ventilation, and security.
7. Kitchen Amenities: Functional kitchen setup with cabinets, countertops, sink, stove, refrigerator, and adequate storage.
8. Bathroom Amenities: Essential bathroom fixtures like a shower or bathtub, toilet, sink, and storage.
9. Safety Features: Smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, and security systems.

Once you have everything, your shipping container will feel like a home. You can even add flooring and wallpaper to make the space homier.

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How Much Do Pre-Built Shipping Container Homes Cost?

A pre-built shipping container home typically costs cost between $25,000 to $50,000, depending on the specs you choose. Some very fancy pre-built shipping container homes can cost much more though. Most companies will have a selection of models to choose from, so you can go with a design as simple or complex as you would like. These pre-built shipping container homes come fully equipped with what you need to survive. You can select a home that fits inside your budget, simplifying the process significantly. 

It&#;s vital to remember that not every pre-made choice will be ideal for your life. Ensure you set some money aside to upgrade and decorate the home to fit your dreams. Customization is a big part of shipping container homes! 

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How Long Do Shipping Container Homes Last?

On average, shipping home containers can survive for about twenty-five years. They&#;re inexpensive and durable against all types of weather, making them environmentally friendly. Shipping containers can last for a long time!

If you don&#;t maintain your home, it will likely last closer to fifteen years. For maximum life expectancy, ensure you keep up with any damage to the house. Being proactive will help the structure last longer.

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Is a Shipping Container Home Worth It?

We&#;ve talked a lot about shipping container homes and the costs that go into them. Is a shipping container worth it? Should you put money and energy into creating a shipping container home for yourself?

Shipping container homes are cost-effective, durable, and fun to experiment with during your spare time. If you&#;re living by yourself or with a small family, they provide plenty of room to live comfortably. In a market big on experimental homes, it&#;s also simple to sell the space if you decide you want to move. Shipping container homes are worth it for the right consumer.

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Building a Shipping Container Home Cost Bottom Line

While building a shipping container home costs less than building a stick-built home of a similar size, you'll still need to save up and budget accordingly to make sure you can afford it. To make your shipping container home comfy, focus on basics like plumbing, electricity, heating, and cooling. Add insulation and ventilation for the right temperature all year. Don't forget a good kitchen, bathroom, internet, and safety stuff like alarms. With these, your container will feel like a cozy home sweet home.

As a general rule, the minimum cost for a small shipping container home will be $15,000, while something larger that uses multiple containers will be much more expensive. And if building a shipping container home sounds like a lot of work, or you don&#;t want to put the effort into building your shipping container home, you can always purchase a pre-built shipping container home as an alternative.

The company is the world’s best Expandable Container House supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.