Thanks to stupid high rent, Coloradans are trading up mansions for micros.

Coloradans: how much did you pay for rent last month?

Twelve billion million dollars?

Same.

There's no denying that Colorado's explosive housing market has made our humble need for shelter completely unaffordable, but there's one (literally) small consolation to make us feel better: astronomical rents and real estate prices are piquing Coloradans' interest in the tiny house movement.

In fact, we're so into tiny houses that Colorado Springs has just been named the "Tiny House Capital of America."

That's because Colorado Springs is home to Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., the country's largest tiny house manufacturer. Tumbleweed is infamous for making microscopic, 180 square-foot luxury homes that sit atop trailers so you can haul your house off to wherever you want home to be. Thanks to their affordable prices and progressive design, they're quickly becoming the epicenter of the national movement that allows for more financial freedom through the smaller price tags that accompany these tiny homes.

How small are those price tags, you ask? That all depends on the level of customization and furnishing you chose, but the average cost of a tiny house is around $8,000 for something simple, and $23,000 for a more luxurious micro-box. Rent-wise, that's between $666-$1,900 per month. Considering the average rental cost of a 2-bedroom that you don't own in Denver is $1,760, the cost of a tiny home you do own is significantly lower … and it gives you a chance to be your own negligent landlord!

“What the tiny houses do, they are mimicking a culture desire to get back to simplicity and quality of life,” said Justin Hall, human resources manager for Tumbleweed, which produces about 125 tiny houses a year out. “It’s a natural fit that Colorado Springs becomes the tiny house capital of America.”

Colorado Springs also hosted the 2015 national Tiny House Jamboree, which brought 40,000 visitors interested in cramming everything they own into a shoebox to the area. They'll host it again Aug. 5-7 at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, so you can do some productive tiny home lurking then if you're interested in trading up space for cost.

Need more motivation? Here are some tricked out tiny houses that cost less than a nose job to make.