Tiny houses entice budget-conscious

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pennsylvania - In a country that nearly always believes bigger is better - think supersize fries, giant cars and 10-gallon hats - more and more people in the United States are downsizing their living quarters.

Welcome to the world of tiny homes, most of them less than 37 square meters (400 square feet), which savvy buyers are snapping up for their minimalist appeal and smaller carbon footprints.

The tiny homes revolution, which includes those on foundations and those on wheels, began a few decades ago, but the financial crisis of 2008 and the coming-of-age of millennials gave it a new impetus.