Prefab(ulous) homes… coming to a lawn near you. This week Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia unveiled his newest venture, Samara, which plans to sell small homes for backyards. Samara’s accessory dwelling units (aka: ADUs) start at $289K for studios and $329K for one-bedrooms. Samara hopes homeowners will use its little abodes not just as rental properties but as extra space for themselves.
- Guest-house vibes: Each ADU has a spacious bathroom, kitchen, and washer/dryer. You can even splurge $10K for solar panels.
- FYI: The mini homes will first be available in California, where new laws have made it easier for residents to build on their lots. But Samara has plans to expand.
Back to WFMH… work from mom’s home. More Americans might start turning garages into guest houses as sky-high prices box out would-be buyers (average home sale price = $542K). As of July, more than half of young adults (age 18 to 24) were living with their parents. And last year nearly a fifth of Americans were living in multigenerational homes. As US housing affordability hits its lowest level since 2012, mini homes are gaining popularity:
- CA issued nearly 20K ADU building permits last year, up 58% from 2019. The US tiny-home market is expected to grow at a record pace this year.
- Mobile homes are hot too: From 2016 to 2021, the median price of trailers surged 34%.
If you build it, they could come… Experts say there’s a nationwide housing shortage of up to 6M new homes. By one estimate, there’s room for 1.5M backyard homes in CA, which could help ease some of the state’s crunch. But with rising interest rates and inflation cutting into homeowner budgets, it could be a while before they become mainstream.