TinyFest brings 40 tiny homes, 30 van conversions to Costa Mesa

At the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, TinyFest put 40 tiny homes and 30 professionally converted vans side by side, turning a hobby expo into a serious comparison shop for Southern California buyers weighing towable homes, ADUs, van conversions, and bus builds. The event at 88 Fair Drive also folded in a Simple Living Marketplace, speakers, and panelists, so visitors could move from floor plans to materials to mobility choices without leaving the grounds.

The lineup made the distinction between a lifestyle purchase and a housing decision harder to ignore. Builders including Clever Tiny Homes, Pacifica Tiny Homes, and Irontown Modular were part of a field that ranged from compact dwellings on wheels to foundation-ready options meant for backyard use. For anyone trying to decide whether a small-space build is meant for weekend travel or for a permanent address, TinyFest offered the clearest kind of side-by-side test.

The legal question mattered just as much as the design one. California’s Department of Housing and Community Development says accessory dwelling units are an effective way to add much-needed housing, and its updated ADU Handbook includes an addendum reflecting state-law changes that took effect January 1, 2026. In the handbook, the maximum ADU size is 800 square feet under the conditions summarized there, while a junior accessory dwelling unit can be up to 500 square feet and must be entirely within a single-family residence. That makes the answer to the most important question here, “Can you actually live in this here?”, a qualified yes when the build fits the ADU framework and local rules.

The show landed in a county where the pressure is easy to measure. An Orange County affordable housing report says 121,434 low-income renter households do not have access to an affordable home, and 81% of extremely low-income households are paying more than half their income on housing costs. Against that backdrop, TinyFest was not just a browsing event for design fans. It was a place where people could measure whether a tiny home, an ADU, or a van conversion might actually solve a housing problem.

TinyFest organizers called the Costa Mesa gathering their 16th TinyFest event in California, building on TinyFest 2025 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, where more than two dozen tiny homes and even more professionally converted camper vans were on display. The move to the OC Fair & Event Center also underscored the show’s size. The venue hosts about 150 year-round events, and for a weekend it became a place where the tiny-house market looked less like a niche and more like a live housing decision with wheels, foundations, and regulations all in the same conversation.