This story is the third in a four-part series. Read part one here and part two here.

As the precipitous rise in housing costs over the past decade has put buying a traditional home out of reach for many Americans, a growing number are turning to nontraditional alternatives.

Some are repurposing old commercial buildings or buying land and prefabricated homes, while others are choosing to share homes with strangers to cut down on costs.

Here are three nontraditional ways Americans are housing themselves:

Tiny Houses

When Elisa Boots and her husband Rick moved from New York City to Seattle 10 years ago, they arrived just as the city was experiencing the biggest population boom in its 174-year history. Thanks to a surge in tech jobs coupled with a growing city economy, Seattle gained about 60,000 new residents between 2010 and 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

That boom increased the demand for housing, which in turn caused the price of homes to skyrocket in the city. Six months after they arrived, the couple discovered that they couldn’t afford to buy a home in Seattle or its suburbs.

They eventually began to investigate other options and came across the tiny house movement.

Tiny houses are exactly what they sound like: Small dwellings typically no bigger than 500 square feet, often designed to look like miniature versions of suburban-style homes. They come with all the usual amenities included in larger homes like bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms and sometimes even garages. Tiny houses can be built on a foundation or have wheels so that their owners can pick up and go whenever they like.

After the Great Recession hit in 2008, Americans' interest in downsizing spiked and tiny homes became more popular. By 2014, a small

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