All Forum Posts by: Genny Li

Nathan as for the new ADU rules Portland is the poster child for this as well as most of Oregon.. I can do an ADU here in Lake Oswego and if I put a covenant on it that its a true granny unit direct relative going to live in it then NO permit fee's If I am going to rent it permit for a ADU is about 50k in our market so thats before you put a spade in the ground. Portland Metro has very high density rules and has had for years so its already here.. I built 3 homes in city of Portland in 2019/2020 it was a 40X100 lot and I put 3 SFR's on it 2 were attached and one was free standing.. zoning did NOT ALLOW for any off road parking.. I wanted to go under and have parking below but that was not allowed the city planners want people to take metro and ride bikes .. so yes you look at the street and its a mess when those 3 units bring 3 to 6 cars with them and no place to park .. the laws are changing now to get even more density in these areas of SFR.. Every lot now can have a duplex.. So you can imagine in areas were you have stately 1 to 3 million dollar homes and someone all of a sudden wants to build a duplex LOL.. not popular.. I just sold one in the Historic district close to downtown and the investors is putting ADU in Basement building a garage with ADU above then on the side lot another ADU.. and that house was basically a tear down I sold for 700k.. so to make the math work he is going to be in this 1.2 at least and now you have the main house an adu above garage an Adu in basement and the other adu.. so rents will all be well over 2k per door to make that work.. so affordable Na planners and city fathers puff their chest out about how great they are doing proving additional housing YA..

@Nathan G.

This is why we pay urban planners!

@Max T., After having seen the first wave of ADU's coming online near me, I'm convinced it's not anything that's going to make a dent on the housing problem in the Bay Area. ADU's are being used to get around local FAR/zoning rules and they're mostly being used to house family members or for offices. Not to mention I'm still wary about what will happen to your property value here if you start treating an SFR as a duplex.

I think the ADU law was passed because there is no political will to eliminate single family residential zoning even though that's really what housing advocates want to do. I've also been thinking about how this idea of the "missing middle" housing is also misguided in how it's being implemented. The missing middle policies should address 2-4 units AND all those 5-20 unit apartment buildings that developers used to be incentivized to build. But a lot of those areas have been down zoned in favor of huge apartment complexes downtown.

Zoning and Land use policy is (and should always be) regulated at the State and/or local level, the Fed would at best simply be incentivising States to implement ADU legislation. These decisions should be local, not federal. Even here in CA they've made it a State decision and there are many cities residents that are opposed, and rightly shouldn't have this shoved onto them. And I say that as someone that does think the ability to add density with ADUs is a great start, just like they commonly did in the late 1800s and early 1900s in every city that experienced major growth.

Overall the solution to housing affordability is 15 years out. It is places that get built today and eventually 'age' into a more affordable tranche of renters. It costs what it costs to build and you can't 'wish' that it is any other way. If you look at just about any area and find the most affordable rentals they have to offer, and then explore the replacement cost I can almost guarantee that every time  it is cheaper to buy existing than to build new. 

This is an aside, but there was a scene in the show 'West Wing' about the economy etc. The context was politicians trying to 'fix whatever problem was coming:

President Bartlet: Okay, let's get on coming up with a language plan for talking more realistically about the economy. That session this morning with the advisors; everybody's got a magic lever they want you to push. I studied economics all my life but in this job only a fool is ever certain. You don't push any one lever; you wanna push a little on them all.

There's no magic bullet...just a general shift in perspective by pushing a little bit on all the levers that can help resolve the issue over time. 

Oregon passed these ADU laws a long time ago. and you see basements converted and some new builds ( we have done it) but its not affordable housing.. its housing for those that can afford 1500 to 2500 a month for a one bed room in a great neighborhoods.

Manufactured homes are the #1 solution to the affordable housing issue, but government won't allow anyone to build more manufactured home parks. It's already extremely difficult to find a place to park one, especially a nice one.

More four-plexes for "black and brown people"? Guess which investors are most likely to be hurt by government policies? I think the majority of mom-and-pop Landlords that are losing their shirts due to the eviction moratorium are minorities. 

I didn't read the whole thing but I can tell you this: there is a major disconnect between what they put on paper and what happens in reality. I wouldn't bet on any helpful changes in the near future.

 By 'weekend plumber' you do mean a licensed one, right....? Not an employee doing illegal side-work.....? :-)

I think I'd rather use a licensed hvac contractor. This is natural gas and if not done right could be dangerous. On the other hand installing a electric water heater is not as complicated but also has to be done right. That's why I used a licensed electrician to put in the line and a licensed plumber to install the new electric water heater. I have used the plumber before and they are not cheap but they do good work for the most part.