If you haven't used the tool, Google trends is a great little tool to track what folks are searching for over a certain time period for a variety of search terms. It even gives you locations. It lacks giving you a real number of how many searches were performed, but you can baseline it against certain things. Check out what happens when you compare "tiny houses" with a similar and even smaller yet still elegant "teardrop trailer."
Now try going the opposite direction into a broader category like "affordable housing."
Or even broader like "mortgage."
You get the idea. What's interesting here is that these searches look cyclical -- there's been a jump in the past two Januaries and maybe even the past two Julys. Not sure what events are happening then, but my hypothesis is that a lot of the hype surrounding tiny houses has to do with HGTV's extensive lineup of shows, and perhaps their marketing campaigns.
Notice though that tiny houses are starting to break out from being buttressed by HGTV, which means they are starting to be their own thing for a larger populace. I am hoping that this is the beginning of a sleeping S-curve such that this industry is just starting to take off, ever so slowly. With real wages stagnating, housing prices still up, and millennials with student loans, there are some real economic pressures for people to flock to a means of living that has a low investment. We'll explore that later.
Cheers,
-Conrad
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