But no landowner can build a house of more than 17,000 square feet without a variance.

A house of 7,000 square feet can cost $30,000.

Beacon Crest will have 60 houses of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet set on half-acre lots for $499,000 to $600,000.

A house of 225 square feet is way down the scale, at the homeless level.

And big houses are the proven thing, especially in Texas, where houses of more than 4,000 square feet are common.

A $70 rental equals about $12,000 a month for office quarters similar in size to a typical three-bedroom house of 2,000 square feet.

Thus only 1% of home buyers acquire houses of 1,000 square feet or less.

Construction will soon begin on a second house of 3,945 square feet.

Tim Bryan builds illusions, designing million-dollar houses of at least 4,500 square feet.

There are to be 15 floor plans for houses of 1,000 to 2,800 square feet, priced in the $90,000 to high-$200,000 range but averaging about $140,000.