We made a catastrophic mistake in the name of “protecting property values.” We did it too well! Over the last 50+ years or so we’ve slowly and unintentionally made it illegal to live somewhere other than in large single family homes or in luxury apartments.
During that time period we have created entire zoning ordinances that require minimum square footage homes on minimum sized lots with minimum setbacks from neighbors and streets. We’ve prohibited generational living such as building a mother-in-law suite and guest homes are prohibited from having someone occupy them full time. We’ve let HOA’s and municipalities put ordinances in place that restrict our ability to let our aging parents live in a small apartment in our backyard. How crazy!!?!?!
We did all of this just so we could “protect our investment” into our single family neighborhoods by keeping out any other development (and people) that doesn’t look exactly like our own. God forbid someone might allow a newlywed couple to live in an over the garage carriage house while they save for a down payment! The world may literally end if our single family home sits adjacent to a really beautiful duplex where a family owns one unit and rents out the other unit to help offset the cost of their mortgage! I think the sky may actually fall if a quadplex even shares the same air as a Country Club neighborhood.
We have protected property values so well that we now have increasingly expensive single family neighborhoods all over the country. We’ve refused to build anything near those single family homes that doesn’t meet some subjective standard of quality that changes over time. And they’re now getting to the point where homes are flat out of reach for a new generation of homebuyers.
If real estate is one of the best ways to build generational wealth, to break generational poverty, and provide financial stability for families… which I believe it does… then EVERYONE DESERVES THAT OPPORTUNITY!
Accessory Dwelling Units help to solve this home affordability crisis by providing new options for renters and property owners.
An ADU is simply a secondary dwelling unit that is built on a single family lot and occupied/rented by someone else. They’re sometimes called carriage homes, garage apartments, granny flats, mother in law suites, backyard cottages. Sometimes they’re attached to the single family house or even a finished out basement. Other times they’re a detached structure on the side or in the backyard. 150 years ago it was uncommon that anyone but the extremely wealthy could afford a single family home without putting the land to use. It was a sign of extreme wealth to have a front lawn that’s only purpose was to grow grass that had to be mowed every week. The average family had to utilize as much of their land as they could to help financially pay for their home.
ADU’s help average property owners build wealth, but they also provide an affordable home option for a variety of people that live in a community. Maybe your aging parents need a little assistance from time to time and want to maintain their independence without owning their own single family home. Perhaps your college graduate just moved back home while they’re starting out in their first career and can’t quite afford the rent at one of the luxury apartments in town, but wants to be out living on their own. The recent high school graduate that’s working full time in the restaurant around the corner while they figure out what’s next in life likely can’t afford the rent at an apartment complex with tons of amenities, but they also need to be out living on their own instead of with family for whatever reason.
Building Accessory Dwelling Units on your single family property creates unique housing options within your community to address home affordability options while also creating wealth building opportunities for you. It’s literally a win-win scenario.
Yet for the vast majority of single family property owners that live in the United States, they are illegal to build. The zoning in your community most likely doesn’t allow for them. And if the zoning does allow for them and you live in an HOA, then your HOA likely prohibits them.
We could almost overnight change this home affordability conversation. We could create opportunities for you and your neighbors to build a she-shed in the backyard and rent it out for a few hundred dollars each month to someone needing a different housing option. It’d generate income for you as well as help you grow your equity in your property. It’d give someone else in a different life stage than you a housing option other than splitting luxury apartment rent with 3 other people. It’d let new homeowners find ways to generate extra income to help offset the rising mortgage costs.
We can solve this problem. It just takes your local governing body to quit making it illegal for you to build a small apartment for your kids grandmother to live in your backyard.