Will California’s New ADU Laws Create a Backyard Building Boom?

Time will tell if new state laws allowing Californians to build a small apartment in their backyard and convert the garage into an accessory dwelling unit will trigger a building boom of ADUs,

“We have only scratched the surface of much of a dent ADUs can make in the housing market,” says Kol Peterson, a Portland-based ADU expert and author of Backdoor Revolution, a guide to ADU development. “Single family properties still dominate major American metropolitan centers, but there’s theoretical potential to double or triple the housing capacity of those properties as more jurisdictions allow not just one ADU, but two”.

Permits in California grew nearly 50 percent between 2017 and 2018, and roughly 7,000 ADUs were permitted across the state last year, according to figures gathered by Abodu, a San Jose-based ADU construction firm. If cities act quickly on new state legislation, there’s no reason Californians can’t build 10,000 ADUs statewide in 2020, according to Abodu. And there’s room to grow. Abodu predicts San Jose alone could support 120,000 ADUs, while the entire Bay Area has one million lots that could build an additional unit.

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