They sold off huge quantities of homes in 2013 and captured serious appreciation gains. 

If I call you and say "hey I'm interested in obtaining a quote on replacement of my bathroom towel bar and I live 30 minutes away from your office"No guarantee of a job and a tiny job at that and it's taking an hour drive time and that's with 0 interaction with the consumer. 

We settled on 450 with him keeping one acre to build a tiny home.

One can compare certain zip codes to tiny Toledo but not a fair market to market match. 

If you think "well, prices will come down" go ask a home builder, find out how much those prices will go down because fact is in most areas we home builders are operating on tiny profit margins, there just isn't anywhere to drop prices significantly.   

I then see a tiny 1 appear on top of the 2 and then I see the a 7 appear along side the 5.

Then the structural engineering, any requirements such as solar, fire sprinklers, that is required  per code, and possibly  earthquake standards, (depending on location), and all the sudden that circular tiny home is a million dollar project.  

I want to build a 300 unit college dorm style building, with tiny rooms and communal bathrooms, as an affordable rental for millennials instead of moving back in with their parents. 

Much lower insurance and very tiny HOA payment. 

If you look at it the sample size is tiny.