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title: ""we have spent decades making it really hard to build smaller houses,…"
date: 2022-12-30
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
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# "we have spent decades making it really hard to build smaller houses,…

*December 30, 2022 · Facebook*

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[https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/10/21/we-used-to-just-call-these-houses](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/10/21/we-used-to-just-call-these-houses){target="_blank"}
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[https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/10/21/we-used-to-just-call-these-houses](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/10/21/we-used-to-just-call-these-houses){target="_blank"}\
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\"we have spent decades making it really hard to build smaller houses, and making it really cheap to build big ones by pushing much of the cost off into the future.\
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Minimum lot sizes are pervasive in suburbia and even many central cities. Research finds these rules actively require residential lots to be bigger than they would otherwise be. A large minimum lot size means you\'re paying for more infrastructure (more linear feet of sewer main and asphalt street, built by the developer of your subdivision and bundled into the price of a new home). It often makes no economic sense for a home builder to put a modest home, which would appeal to a modest-income buyer, on a large lot; so homes get supersized to match their yards.\
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Parking mandates are another culprit. A lot of \"tiny houses,\" if you added an attached garage, wouldn\'t look a whole lot smaller than a typical 1950s home. Attached garages balloon the footprint of homes, but they also screw with the development economics so that more modest, affordable housing types don\'t make sense to build. The Sightline Institute recently published an eye-opening case study explaining how this works in Portland. The parking is expensive to build but isn\'t directly bringing in income, so the developer has to compensate with a bigger, pricier home.\"
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