California has some of the highest housing costs in the United States. Fortunately, there are several relatively widely used yet unorthodox building methods and home types that are both environmentally friendly and lower cost including straw bale and cob, as well as others such as tiny homes and yurts. One of the biggest hurdles in building some of these homes, however, is proving that these structures meet building codes and determining the legality of full time living in certain home types depending on your county and/or municipality.
Cob construction offers the benefit of creating your home in shapes that would otherwise be very difficult to do, such as curved walls and odd shaped windows. Cob acts as an incredible thermal mass, storing heat and releasing it throughout the day, leaving your home cool when it is hot outside and warm when it is cold outside.
Straw bale construction is a very user friendly building material as it comes in preformed blocks that can effectively be stacked to create walls. These homes can use traditional style wood frames or not, depending on your needs and abilities. Straw bales also offer incredible insulation qualities.
Shipping container homes are incredibly sturdy, relatively cheap and abundant, and can be stacked or placed into endless combinations of layouts. Outside paneling can be used to create a finished look or the exposed steel can remain if that is your preferred aesthetic.
California’s housing costs have been skyrocketing over the past several decades with no end in sight. Below are the average prices for single family detached homes in California each decade since 1990 from the California Association of Realtors. Source: https://www.car.org/marketdata/data/housingdata
| Median Home Price in California | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | |
| Price | $193,096 | $241,778 | $305,631 | $630,408 | |
Below are links to more resources and content to help in alternative home construction.