Nicely renovated one-story 3br home with attached guest house in very private setting located near everything – all for $999,000!
Hardwood floors, stainless kitchen, massive walk-in closets, two fireplaces, central A/C, and it’s tucked away in a culdesac-like spot off the beaten path. No HOA, & no power lines. On the map it looks close to El Camino Real, but it is remarkably quiet. Master br down, & master up (in guest house). Great for multi-gen, work-at-home, distance learning, etc.
Granny flats will be an answer to providing more reasonably-priced housing – maybe the only answer?
One of the trends in attempts to provide more affordable housing is the growth of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) such as granny flats, garage apartments, or in-law suites.
These aren’t a new thing – Fonzie occupied an above-garage apartment at the Cunningham home – but they have been somewhat invisible, and often illegal.
The invisibility was often linked to their illegality. Zoning laws passed during the postwar rise of suburbs often limited construction of high-density housing and because so many ADUs were built against city ordinances, without required permits, little research literature was published. Freddie Mac could account for only three or four papers in the 1980s and 1990s and they were mostly small in scale and based on limited data.
The data for the new paper was gathered from property descriptions on Multiple Listing Service (MLS) boards. It looks at the growth of these units, the various structural types of ADUs in use (both permitted and illegal) and discusses the measurable benefits of having ADUs in our communities.
San Diego’s rapid increase in granny flat construction since 2018 may accelerate even further thanks to a series of new state laws that loosen a variety of regulations, city officials said this week.
The state has eliminated sewer and water fees for most granny flats — saving homeowners thousands of dollars — and it shrank approval timelines in half and waived requirements that parking spots be replaced if a garage or carport is demolished to make way for a granny flat.
The new laws also force single-family neighborhoods to lift rules prohibiting granny flats, create a five-year grace period for code violations, and expand the size of the multifamily properties that can construct granny flats on site.
In addition, the state softened regulations on “junior granny flats,” which can’t be free-standing and must be located within an existing structure. Junior units can now be built in garages, and a property owner can now have both a granny flat and a junior granny flat on the same site.
Hat tip just some guy for sending in this article on smaller but cheaper alternatives:
With modern looks and efficient construction, prefab continues to be an alluring option for building a new home. But if you already have a house, adding a backyard structure made from components produced off-site can be an easy and practical way to make the most of your property.
Compact prefab sheds often won’t require a permit to install and their potential uses can go way beyond simple storage or workshop space—think a home office, yoga studio, writing retreat, guest house, music room, and so on.
Below, we’ve rounded up five rad prefab shed lines that you can order from right now. The estimated price ranges do not include costs associated with any permits, shipping, foundation, and installation, unless otherwise noted.
We’ve been long-time supporters of the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit legal organization that defends Americans’ liberties when threatened by government overreach and abuse. My brother worked there after he and the PLF Executive Vice President, John Groen went to school at Claremont Men’s College (the three of us played on the rugby team for two seasons!). Our good friend Larry Salzman is their director of litigation, and I appreciate him passing along the latest links to the ADU laws below.
AB68 is the state law that overrides local building and zoning codes, requiring ADUs to be permitted throughout the state subject to various conditions about health, safety, and nuisance. It allows for one attached, and one detached ADU be added to every SFR property. Here is the law:
The was augmented last year by AB 670, which prohibits homeowner’s associations from unreasonably withholding their permission to allow their members to develop ADUs in HOA-run communities.
PLF just petitioned this case to the California Supreme Court, asking it to decide whether all power to restrict ADUs is preempted by state law or whether local governments retain some discretion to deny the permit applications that meet state law standards.
The city of San Marino adopted building code restrictions that forbid homeowner Cordelia Donnelly from adding an ADU over her garage. Because state law dealing with ADUs fully preempts local restrictions, Cordelia has asked the California Supreme Court to recognize her right to create more housing. Story here:
A two-year-old, Culver City, California-based startup calledUnited Dwellingaims to tackle the affordable housing problem using data, creativity, and underutilized garages and backyards.
United Dwelling plans to eventually build thousands of Accessory Dwelling Units, which are basically 369-square-foot studio homes. The company said its units benefit homeowners who are looking for ways to supplement their income as well as tenants looking for low-cost housing options.
United Dwelling uses data to identify potential lots that would be suitable for its units. It targets mostly low-and middle-income neighborhoods, with some exceptions for workforce housing. The company at first was going to just remodel garages but discovered quickly it’s much easier to tear down old ones and start fresh. So that’s what it does. It replaces those garages with small, affordable and zero net carbon homes in low-density neighborhoods with no out-of-pocket costs to property owners.
It then sets a rental price for the newly built unit and manages the property on the homeowner’s behalf, keeping a share of the rental income. Upon completion of construction, United Dwelling gives the homeowner the option to buy the unit back from the company for just under $88,000. To keep the costs of construction down, United Dwelling aims to build at least five units within a two-mile radius in the same time frame. Its initial focus is on the Los Angeles region with plans to eventually expand to the Bay Area and other locations once its solidifies its process, according to Dietz.
Specifically, the company plans to build over 150 of its detached studio homes in Southern California in 2020 and over 1,500 in 2021 (assuming construction can continue moving forward as an essential function per Los Angeles COVID-19 policy).
“Affordable housing is one of the most daunting challenges facing California and other parts of the county that is both entirely man-made and completely solvable,” Dietz said. “Here, we can do something that’s incredibly relevant. The opportunity is truly immense. Affordable housing is pretty easy. All you need is inexpensive land and construction, and capital.”
Here is a relatively-neutral look at the unaffordability problem in America’s bigger cities, and implementing the idea of upzoning to fix it. Backyard accessory homes could really help out here:
It always seemed to me that if ADUs were selling for $50,000 or less, there would be lots of interest. Literally the first one I ran into (below) at the Tiny Fest was priced at $50,000, and people were standing in line to experience this 8.5 ft x 30 ft home with kitchen and full bath (seen in right window).
This 3,000-square-foot home in Phoenix is made up of stackedshippingcontainers, but you’d never know it once you walked inside. It’s modern, open designed interiors matches the style and spaciousness of any other single-family home today.
Homes constructed ofshippingcontainers are drawing more attention in the building industry. These homes are flood and fire-proof, eco-friendly, energy efficient, and there’s certainly no shortage of them to transform. Worldwide, an estimated 24 million emptyshippingcontainers are retired, just waiting to find a new purpose. Could real estate be it?
Some housing experts predict shipping containers to make up a bigger footprint of homes and buildings in the future. One shipping container can be transformed into a tiny home, several molded together could form a standard-sized single-family home, and hundreds stacked together in a Lego-like way could make for an apartment complex. Shipping containers can also be transformed as add-ons to existing homes, such as a garage.
But can ashippingcontainer be stylish? Shara Terry, a real estate pro with Berkshire Hathway HomeServices Arizona Properties in Phoenix, certainly thinks so. She’s listing a three-bedroom, four-bath single-family, shippingcontainer home for $610,000. The home, which is a hybrid of two stacked containers on its east side and two stacked on its west side, is designed byengineer Jorge Salcedo and Colombian architect Gregorio Baquero.
“A lot of people who’ve visited it have been curious, and they can’t believe it used to be a shipping container once they step inside and they see how open and seamless it is inside,” Terry says. “There really are only two subtle reminders in the interior that show a portion of the red container,” but even those have been blended into the overall decor. The exterior includes some writing on the containers that were preserved for character, including a stamp in Vietnamese showing its former location.
