Accessory Dwelling Units are a brilliant way to create new living spaces. ADUs, an unattached Ohana, or Casita can be built in several variations including a conversion of a section of an existing home, addition to an existing house, conversion of an existing garage or the construction of completely new building.
At Catalyst, our Portland ADU Builders are experts in building homes, small homes, Casitas and Accessory Dwelling Units. Trust Catalyst Construction and Remodel to bring experience and high performance to build out your new attached or unattached ADU. We bring true potential, function and value.
The Benefits of Building an ADU For Your Home
Since the beginning of the housing crisis in the United States, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU), have provided the rental market with a much-needed boost in housing supply. They are one of the best ways for new housing to come to market because a typical ADU costs a lot less than a traditional home to build and takes less time for the house to be finished.
The undeniable advantages of an ADU or Casita include several benefits to homeowners and communities not just in Portland, but nationwide.
Urban Planners Love ADU’s
The obvious problem with housing supply in the United States today is that more homes cannot be easily built in cities that have a lack of supply of available land. With ADU’s though, these housing units are much smaller than the traditional 1,200 square foot home and they can even be built in the back yards of most of the homes in cities like Portland, Oregon or elsewhere in the United States.
Urban planners love Accessory Dwelling Units because they solve an immediate problem of providing housing to areas where it’s needed badly. In California, many cities, including Los Angeles, are making it easier for ADU’s to be built because city planners see them as a necessary solution for solving the housing crisis.
In Portland OR, since 2016, the city has been doing everything possible to make it easy for homeowners to build ADU’s on their properties. The city works closely with homeowners to encourage them to build or develop alley-facing and energy efficient ADU’s so that Portland can stay true to its commitment to their 2012 Climate Action Plan while helping to solve the housing problem at the same time.
Portland isn’t the only city to encourage the construction of ADU’s, in Mendocino County, the county recently published a set of free architectural plans so that anyone who wants to build an ADU but doesn’t have plans can download the plans from their website.
Besides helping to solve the housing crisis in a small way, ADU’s are also excellent for families with aging parents or relatives because they enable families to create an extra space on their properties where their parents, in-laws or family can live and have their own “homes”, without having to actually be a part of the main house.
Economic Benefits
Yes, ADU’s offer a ton of benefits to their owners, and the cities where they are built, but they also offer other economic benefits as well including the benefit of increasing the local community tax base without increasing urban sprawl.
Most major cities across the United States have been growing rapidly since the 1970s and with population growth comes the need for more roads, bridges, and dwellings for those new residents to live. With Accessory Dwelling Units, cities don’t have to increase the urban sprawl because they can add housing to properties where there’s already an existing housing “footprint”.
What’s even better is that ADU’s also help vacant homes sell quicker because a buyer may be more inclined to purchase a property if they know that they can offset their mortgage by renting out the ADU that’s on their land.
Families Helping Families
As we mentioned earlier, a huge benefit that a homeowner will receive when they build an ADU on their land is that they will be able to provide a “home” for their aging parents or relatives to live in since many people in today’s world are living longer than ever before.
Besides helping aging parents and relatives, ADU’s also help parents provide a home for their children to live in since recent studies have shown that more adult children in their 30’s are still living at home with their parents.
Building an Accessory Dwelling Unit on their property like a Casita gives a parent the ability to offer their adult child the ability to have their own “home” while offering them an affordable or rent-free alternative to the housing in their area.
Types of Accessory Dwelling Units
In 2019, when most people think of accessory dwelling units they think of cottages or tiny homes that can easily be rolled onto any property but they can also take other forms as well. An ADU can range from garage apartments, casitas, ohanas in Hawaii, tiny homes to micro-apartments.
There are also of benefits that a homeowner can enjoy from having an ADU on their property but another benefit that should be discussed is the benefit that an Accessory Dwelling Unit offers a homeowner as a rental property.
Use them as Airbnb’s or long-term rentals, Accessory Dwelling Units can help homeowners to earn extra income, especially retired homeowners, who have found their income declining since the 2008 recession.
With an ADU on their property, a homeowner can enjoy the benefit of having their rental right there, compared to other traditional rental properties where the owner may have to drive across town in order to solve problems or work on the property themselves.
Since the ADU is on their land, the homeowner can easily manage the Accessory Dwelling Unit themselves without the traditional hassle that most owners face when they manage their rentals themselves.
What Do ADU’s Cost to Build?
Depending on the type of Accessory Dwelling Unit that you want to build, an ADU can cost as little as $20,000 to $100,000 or more.
Thanks to a recent article from Money Crashers, we know that the median cost to build an ADU in the Portland area is about $90,000. Before building an ADU, a homeowner should fully research all of the costs involved and hire a contractor such as Catalyst Construction who has year's of experience building Accessory Dwelling Units.
Once a homeowner chooses a house plan and an ADU builder to construct an ADU on their property they should also be prepared to play the waiting game since depending on the city or jurisdiction where the ADU will be located, it can take up to 36 weeks for an Accessory Dwelling Unit to be finished.
As we move forward into the 2020s and beyond, it’s likely that we will see more ADU’s in backyards of homes across the United States since they are a very affordable way to bring more housing to market while offering a wide variety of benefits to homeowners and communities alike.
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