Why Norwegians Can Afford a Second Home—If You’re Willing to Ski to the Toilet

Before we came to Norway, Gavin and I used Duolingo to learn a little Norwegian. One thing I immediately noticed was the prominence of the word hytte (plural = hytter), or cabin. It was introduced as one of the first 50 words. Cabin life was a recurring theme in the language lessons, which struck me as an odd focus.

It does turn out to be a useful word – for example, there are new apartments going up in the middle of the city, which are advertised as “a home for the hytte owner.”

The hytte plays a prominent role in Norwegian culture; it is far more than a vacation home—it is associated with friluftsliv, family, and national identity. It serves as a base camp for an active lifestyle. Rather than staying indoors, cabin life is built around embracing the elements, whether that means cross-country skiing in winter, hiking in summer, or simply spending time outside regardless of the weather.

Many hytter remain in the same family for generations, serving as meeting places where traditions accumulate alongside the firewood and aging furniture. Because the same cabin may be used by grandparents, adult children, cousins, and grandchildren, it is not always understood as an individual luxury purchase. It can be a shared family asset—and sometimes a shared family obligation.

Nearly half of Norwegians have access to a family hytte, compared with a much smaller share of Americans who own or have access to a vacation home. This initially surprised me because Americans tend to think of a second home as a marker of considerable wealth. In Norway, access to a cabin is much closer to a mainstream experience.

Norway is an expensive country, and owning two homes sounds like a luxury. But the economics of a Norwegian hytte are not quite the economics of an American vacation home.

This seems to have something to do with cost. The chart below breaks down the hytte market by price. The median price is approximately $230,000, with nearly two-thirds of sales below $300,000.

As a point of comparison, below is a bar chart of the price of a vacation home in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a convenient and popular destination for people in the Annapolis area. About 50% of home sales are for $400,000 or more, with more than 20% coming in above $600,000. While there are clearly people who can afford these homes, that market is out of reach for most.

This is not a perfect comparison: Harpers Ferry is an accessible vacation market near the Washington region, while the whole point of a hytte is to NOT be near people and the trappings of society. But, if hytter are such an important part of Norwegian life, and demand is so high, what makes them so affordable?

First is the availability of land and and Norway’s unusually abundant waterfront. Norway’s extraordinarily long, fragmented coastline—formed by fjords, islands, and inlets—creates far more waterfront than its modest population would suggest. Depending on how all those islands and fjords are measured, Norway has enough coastline to wrap around the equator more than twice.

The image below of the Trondheim region illustrates this nicely. There is plenty of waterfront real estate—whether directly facing the ocean or overlooking the fjord—within a two-and-a-half hour drive from the city.

If you want an inland hytte, the story is much the same. At 38 people per square mile (vs 99 per square mile in the US), there are vast stretches of sparsely populated land—even if much of it is unsuitable for development. Below is a map of hytte plots available today for less than $30,000. Many of these are in prime skiing locations.

Second, there are substantial differences between the building requirements for a primary residence and those applicable to a hytte. Norwegian rules allow many recreational buildings—particularly smaller cabins—to be built to different standards than permanent residences. Depending on a cabin’s size, location, age, and local regulations, it may lack features Americans would normally expect in a house, including indoor running water, a conventional sewer connection, accessible entrances, or year-round road access. Many older cabins are also built on pillars rather than full foundations. Collectively, these differences can substantially reduce the cost of construction.

The contrast is difficult to make nationally because American building regulation is largely state and local. In many desirable US vacation markets, however, buyers still expect—and local rules may require—a second home to function much like an ordinary year-round residence. A Norwegian cabin can remain desirable even if reaching it requires a long walk and using the bathroom involves fire.

The third reason is cultural. While a vacation home in the United States often denotes status, traditional Norwegian cabin culture tends to deemphasize it. In a society that values modest living and frowns upon ostentation, people may be more willing to accept a modest hytte even if they have the means for something grander. At least in its traditional form, cabin culture temporarily softens some of the usual signals of social standing. Everyone wears the same wool layers, chops the same wood, and navigates the same weather. It’s more of a shared national experience than an exclusive privilege for the elite.

Of course, Norway also has spectacular luxury cabins, and location, architecture, and amenities can signal wealth just as they do anywhere else. But even high-end hytter tend to be designed around the landscape and outdoor life rather than simply maximizing size.

It’s fun to look at what’s out there! Here are some examples of available hytter at different price points.

$82,000: The House at 35 Degrees

This house sits at a 35-degree slope overlooking the Bæverfjord, about two hours southwest of Trondheim. The location seems to sum up what hytte life should be: exposure to the elements in exchange for a stunning location.

This hytte is representative of a style that Gavin’s especially likes, where the living space is spread over multiple buildings. The bathroom is only connected to the main house via covered walkway. It features a “Cinderella toilet,” a waterless, incinerating toilet popular for off-grid cabins.

It has another common hytte feature: a separate sleeping “annex.” My theory is that annexes are so popular because Norwegians famously love their personal space.

At this price point, there are going to be some trade-offs (in addition to the need to incinerate poop). While it does have electricity, it does not have piped running water. Water is carried in or pumped manually from a nearby stream. If you’re wondering what to do when the water freezes, don’t worry: the cabin itself is not accessible during the winter months.

$147,000: I Could Overlook the Lack of Plumbing

This house was built in 2007 using a prefabricated kit specifically for off-grid use. The listing says the road is open during the summer, allowing vehicle access to a shared gravel parking area 100 to 200 meters from the cabin. During the winter, the road is closed, and the property can only be accessed on foot.

And “accessed on foot” in the winter depends on your hardiness. Google Maps indicates that the walk is about an hour and a half with 1,500 feet of climbing.

However, it seems well worth it when you get there. The enormous windows overlook the mountains, and the isolation that makes the cabin difficult to reach is also what makes the setting so spectacular. Apparently, plumbing and accessibility are both easier to overlook when the view is this good.

$230,000 to $250,000: Ski In-Ski Out

At $243,000, this one is representative of what you’ll find at the median price point. You’ll notice the skis and poles sticking out of the snow in front—the residents are home. The second picture shows the proximity of the hytte to the groomed ski trail, so the owners are able to clip into skis right outside their front door. The ad notes that in the winter you have to park 800 meters away, so you should make sure you bring your skis to and from the city—rather than leaving them at the hytte—for easier access.

This hytte has electricity, running water, three bedrooms, and enough comfort to feel like a genuine second home—but winter access still requires an 800-meter journey from the nearest parking space. At this price point, you can buy plumbing or convenience. Apparently, you cannot always buy both.

For another take on the same theme, this $234,000 “micro cabin” from 2017 has high-end kitchen and bathroom amenities, three bedrooms, and a location near Sjusjøen, one of Norway’s premier cross-country skiing destinations. By contrast, a vacation home in one of America’s top ski towns like Aspen, Breckenridge, or Vail, Colorado, will typically set you back well over $1 million—and often considerably more.

Unlike the secluded hytter we’ve seen so far, this one is located in a “cabin park,” where clustered development makes modern utilities and road access easier to provide.

$678,000: The Splurge

Norway is well-known for its modern, spectacular home design, and this house is a good example of that.

Traditional cabin culture prizes simplicity, but modern Norway has also perfected the luxury hytte: enormous windows, clean lines, dark timber, and interiors designed to make the weather feel dramatic rather than inconvenient. This one offers expansive living spaces, high-end finishes, modern plumbing, and the sort of view that makes an ordinary wall seem like a tragic waste of space.

The higher price buys more than architecture. It also compensates for many of the inconveniences that keep other cabins affordable: difficult access, primitive utilities, cramped rooms, and the possibility of hauling water uphill. The house is still oriented toward the landscape and outdoor life, but no one is pumping drinking water from a frozen stream.

After spending an unreasonable amount of time studying these listings, I understand the appeal. A hytte offers something increasingly difficult to find: a permanent family gathering place embedded in a landscape that encourages a set of rituals. It also helps that the Norwegian version of a second home does not always come with American expectations about square footage, plumbing, road access, and remaining perpendicular to its lot.

Are we going to buy one? Probably not anytime soon. We are not yet Norwegian enough to regard these hardships as restorative. We also want to use our time off to visit friends and family rather than maintaining a second home in a remote location.

But I have learned enough to understand why Norwegians love their hytter—and I am absolutely hardy enough to keep browsing from the sofa.