Max ADU

Hat tip to Jakob who left this in the comment section but it deserves full exposure. If you live within a half-mile of a transit station in the City of San Diego, this type of ADU construction is permissible.

Hi Jim, here’s one of these ADU complexes for sale. They bought the 1,385sf house for $1.1m two years ago (it was listed for $899,000). Then built 10 1br ADUs in the back and converted the garage to another 1br. For sale now as a 12-unit for $5.5m.

https://www.remax.com/ca/san-diego/home-details/4674-firestone-st-78-san-diego-ca-92117/14772870136230071167/M00000092/240021206

Lot Splitter & Builder

These guys are advertising on sports-talk radio and at first I thought it was just another ADU builder.

The problem with SB9 is being able to sell the newly-built ADU.

In order to obtain regular financing and title insurance, either the property would need to be condo-ized to sell the homes separately, or the lot would need to be officially split.

You can process the lot split yourself, if you have the time and patience.

How much are you willing to pay for convenience?

If you wanted to build an ADU for your own use and had no plans to ever sell it separately, then carry on. But if you have a larger lot and didn’t mind selling off part of it just to watch a new home be built and sold there, then take a look.

Here is their web page to determine if your lot qualifies for an ADU: https://www.myhomestead.com/lot-search

https://yardsworth.com/

I don’t know anything about these guys – I only heard their ad on the radio.

SB 450

Building ADUs is one thing – being able to sell them separately would be a game-changer. To sell them, either the group needs to be condo-ized or the lot needs to be officially split. This new law says that if the governing entity doesn’t approve your plan within 60 days, the lot split is automatically approved. All it will take is for a surge of applications to bog down the approval process and there could be lot splits happening that shouldn’t be. It was also noted in the article’s comments that Toni’s spouse is a developer.

As the state Legislature wrapped up its regular session, lawmakers passed legislation authored by Sen. Toni Atkins of San Diego to close loopholes in Senate Bill 9 to encourage new housing in single-family neighborhoods.

The two-year-old SB 9 allows property owners to split their lots and build up to four units on a single-family parcel. It has faced pushback from many localities, and Atkins’ new Senate Bill 450 attempts to circumvent that.

“Since the passage of SB 9, we have seen local jurisdictions impose overly-burdensome requirements on homeowners seeking to construct more housing in their communities with SB 9 duplexes and lot splits,” said Atkins, who is president pro tempore emeritus of the state Senate.

“SB 450 will ensure that homeowners have the tools they need to build additional housing on their property, creating intergenerational wealth and providing access to more rental and ownership opportunities for Californians,” she said on Thursday.

The updates to the original law include:

  • Requiring local governments to either approve or deny an application for a new SB 9 unit or lot split within 60 days.
  • Requiring a local government to provide homeowners with a reason and remedies if their application is denied.
  • Deleting unnecessary and redundant language relating to the demolition of a property and maintaining key tenant protections.
  • Requiring consistency in local zoning, subdivision, and design standards to prevent governments from imposing overly burdensome requirements.

The legislation now to goes Gov. Gavin Newsom for his consideration.

https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2024/09/01/lawmakers-close-loopholes-in-sb-9-to-encourage-new-housing-in-single-family-neighborhoods/

Tiny Fest 2024

I keep hoping there will be a cool, high-quality tiny house at any price – even the ones over $200,000 here weren’t that spectacular (including the 3D-printed house made of recycled plastic bottles (65%) and fiberglass (35%) that cost $220/sf):

ADU Update

An interview with California state assembly member Phil Ting, the author of the $40,000 ADU grants, and the sponsor of many ADU bills in California. He authored AB 1033, which clarifies that anyone who wants to sell their ADU must file a condo map with the state. Turning your house + granny flat into a 2-unit condo will be the only way to get regular mortgages and title insurance so they can be sold separately, but it’s a major undertaking – how many people will process with a condo map?

Hat tip to Jorge for sending this in!

AB 1033 ADUs

AB 1033 is the latest state law designed to develop a market for ADUs, and thus lessen California’s grinding housing crisis. However, past legislative attempts have not met with much success.

In 2021, the legislature passed SB 9, which allowed homeowners to split their single-family parcel into two lots and build up to two units on each lot. It went into effect in January 2022.

Earlier this year, UC Berkeley’s Terner Center, a housing policy research group, released a study following the progress of ADU development after the passage of SB 9. It looked at 13 cities where developing ADUs seemed to make the most financial sense for property owners and “found that SB 9 activity is limited or non-existent in these 13 cities.”

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1033

This is a nightmare for title insurance. If you want to get a clear and marketable title, the property would need to be officially subdivided, or turn into condos – which the new law did address:

(10) In addition to the requirement that a local agency allow the separate sale or conveyance of an accessory dwelling unit pursuant to Section 65852.26, a local agency may also adopt a local ordinance to allow the separate conveyance of the primary dwelling unit and accessory dwelling unit or units as condominiums. Any such ordinance shall include all of the following requirements:

(A) The condominiums shall be created pursuant to the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act (Part 5 (commencing with Section 4000) of Division 4 of the Civil Code).

(B) The condominiums shall be created in conformance with all applicable objective requirements of the Subdivision Map Act (Division 2 (commencing with Section 66410)) and all objective requirements of a local subdivision ordinance.

(C) Before recordation of the condominium plan, a safety inspection of the accessory dwelling unit shall be conducted as evidenced either through a certificate of occupancy from the local agency or a housing quality standards report from a building inspector certified by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

(D) (i) Neither a subdivision map nor a condominium plan shall be recorded with the county recorder in the county where the real property is located without each lienholder’s consent.

Lenders aren’t going to give their consent, so in order to sell off an ADU, all you have to do is have a property with no mortgages, and file a condo map with the state and work it through the process for a few years!

Tiny-House Kits

Hat tip to ‘just some guy’ for sending in this ADU update – an excerpt:

For Millstone, making her ADU feel like part of the community was key. Small touches, such as tiling, hark back to the area’s Latino roots, while native California plants and materials are showcased. Although the ADU occupies a relatively small footprint of 650 square feet, high ceilings and carved terra cotta breeze blocks give it a roomy look and allow for airflow. She shares the space with her two little dogs, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

Millstone hasn’t yet rented out the main house on her property. But she estimates that when she does put it on the market for full rental value she can easily pull in around $5,000 per month.

The ADU is separated from the main house by a small driveway and some bushes, making it feel like a separate residence. “It’s ideal,” Millstone said.

Link to Full Article

The article says it takes $300,000 to build an ADU, and I haven’t heard of any being built around here for under $100,000. But now you can buy an ADU kit for less than $40,000:

https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/trends/g14530560/tiny-houses-amazon/

Tiny Fest 2023

I still think that there would be high demand for decent-quality tiny homes around $50,000. Of course, all of these guys have options at $100,000+, but I caught a few lower-priced models today:

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