Biden’s New Housing Plan: Fire Up the House Factories
The White House blueprint for boosting affordable housing calls for reviving production of mobile homes, backyard flats and other manufactured units.
A mobile home community in Del Valle, Texas, in 2021.
Photographer: Sergio Flores/BloombergCalifornia is enjoying a backyard revolution. Permits for casitas, granny flats, additions and other accessory dwelling units (or ADUs) shot up ten fold after state lawmakers passed bills in 2016 and 2017 legalizing them across the state. Oregon, Connecticut and several cities have similar laws on the books.
The upshot of the state laws is that local governments can’t forbid property owners from building an ADU. As a result, companies in California have emerged to offer factory-built secondary apartments, a low-cost option to add another home to a property. For a state facing a severe shortage of new housing, it’s a start.