Defeat NIMBYs By Literally Building In Your Backyard

YIMBYs are fighting back against NIMBYs by literally building in their backyards. Kriston Capps at Bloomberg writes about this backyard revolution…(Bloomberg)

California 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.

As Capps points out, this is just a start. One thing the Biden administration is hoping to accomplish has to do with financing…

Most buyers looking to finance a manufactured home must rely on personal property loans known as chattel loans. The ostensible thinking here was clear enough: Manufactured homes placed on rented land are more like property than real estate, even if they never move. But these chattel loans have worse interest rates and shorter repayment terms for borrowers than traditional mortgages do, making them more expensive. The White House announced that Freddie Mac will consider the feasibility of purchasing these loans..

Making manufactured homes more affordable is an important step in reviving a part of the housing market that actually dominated the U.S. housing market during the 1960s