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In California, you can now sell your ADU

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Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#101

Post by yftsui »

eslaught wrote: post #29
brvsft wrote: post #21

ADUs seem like a bandaid solution for lack of housing supply in desirable areas. Not that I think they shouldn't be legal, but we're talking about paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for what amounts to a shed in someone else's backyard just because you want to live in Seattle, SF, etc. It's so bizarre, and if this solution is taken to its logical end, you literally have cities full of single-family homes with a…

We already have townhouses (that share a wall but own their own land) and condos (which share land and the building). There are also well-established legal precedents for things like easements (e.g., for access, water, sewer, see [1]). I'm not saying this is a good idea, but is it really that different? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easement

Zoning is probably the difference.

In Seattle, ADU/DADU are built in Single Family House zone, you can tear down a single family house, build 1 main + 1 ADU + 1 DADU which is total of 3 without zoning change, then you can sell all 3 of them as Condos, require buyers share something like water bill.

Townhouse has to be build on the areas that are up zoned by the city.

Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#102

Post by c22 »

bugglebeetle wrote: post #37
c22 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know at least two properties with ADUs larger than their primary residences.

But that’s atypical, so it’s irrelevant. Most ADUs in California cities are things like converted garages and similar sized units.

ADUs are atypical to begin with, so the entire subject matter is irrelevant!

Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#103

Post by screye »

Solvency wrote: post #92
Izikiel43 wrote: post #62

The problem with San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver (BC), and other cities with housing issues is simple, Americans seem to hate apartments, everyone wants houses, so most of the cities are zoned for SFH (Seattle and Vancouver for sure). If you built 10 floor buildings everywhere, with 2/3 bedroom apartments, even at 1 apartment per floor, housing stops being an issue in 5 years. However, go to Seattle, San Franci…

"Housing" might be a "solved issue" in "Asia" but that's absurdly reductionist. Quality of life is not solved. Breathing your neighbors vape and cigarette smoke is not solved. Hearing pounding bass through every adjacent wall is not solved. Lack of your own yard is not solved. There are thousands of human problems that arise in condensed compressed living.

No, these totally are solved problems. What apartments are you living in ?

Why is your neighbors smoke entering your house ? In my country, everyone cooks highly aromatic food, and even then I can't tell what my neighbors are cooking....let alone smell their vape or cigarettes.

Why can you hear pounding bass from our neighbor ? Sound isolation is a solved problem. The thin-walls problem is one I've experienced only after I arrived in the US.

Not sure why lack of a yard is a problem at all. What is a yard, except empty green grass ? If it is a communal space to host events, then lots of condo towers have common downstairs areas that can be reserved for free. If it is a garden, then you can easily have patio gardens. Hell, I've seen more gardens in apartments back home (since home cooking is the norm), than I have in yard in the US. If is a backyard, ie. ourdoors private space, then large patios facilitate the exact same outdoors privacy. If it is a playground, then you'll be pleased to know that most apartment complexes in Asia have playgrounds. And guess what? It comes with the community you need to actually form a team to use the playground.

It would be one thing if every time I visited the suburbs, if I saw yards being a communal source of activity, happiness and personality that people claim they are. On the contrary, I find that it is miles upon miles on completely empty plots with consistent green grass that has not been stepped on for days.

My current apartment in downtown US city has a massive common lounge area and a massive rooftop with a view of the city. We have a large enough patio and I have never heard sounds from my neighbors because it uses bricks rather than dry-wall. (And I live in the THE SPOT for young rich spoiled 20-something). It does everything you get from an SFH, but better. (assuming similar capital investment)

Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#104

Post by red-iron-pine »

Izikiel43 wrote: post #95
Solvency wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Housing" might be a "solved issue" in "Asia" but that's absurdly reductionist. Quality of life is not solved. Breathing your neighbors vape and cigarette smoke is not solved. Hearing pounding bass through every adjacent wall is not solved. Lack of your own yard is not solved. There are thousands of human problems that arise in condensed compressed living.

And latin america, don't forget that. This comment is literally the point I was trying to make, thank you very much, I couldn't ask for a more typical american answer. If you want to live in a city, and not pay sky high rent, these are going to be some small issues you will have to work with. I say small, because the alternative is not having housing, or paying half of your salary in rent/mortgage. The bass is solved…

> thinks HOAs are a good idea

Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#105

Post by Izikiel43 »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #104
Izikiel43 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And latin america, don't forget that. This comment is literally the point I was trying to make, thank you very much, I couldn't ask for a more typical american answer. If you want to live in a city, and not pay sky high rent, these are going to be some small issues you will have to work with. I say small, because the alternative is not having housing, or paying half of your salary in rent/mortgage. The bass is solved…

> thinks HOAs are a good idea

vs being homeless? Greatest idea ever

Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#106

Post by Izikiel43 »

screye wrote: post #103
Solvency wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Housing" might be a "solved issue" in "Asia" but that's absurdly reductionist. Quality of life is not solved. Breathing your neighbors vape and cigarette smoke is not solved. Hearing pounding bass through every adjacent wall is not solved. Lack of your own yard is not solved. There are thousands of human problems that arise in condensed compressed living.

No, these totally are solved problems. What apartments are you living in ? Why is your neighbors smoke entering your house ? In my country, everyone cooks highly aromatic food, and even then I can't tell what my neighbors are cooking....let alone smell their vape or cigarettes. Why can you hear pounding bass from our neighbor ? Sound isolation is a solved problem. The thin-walls problem is one I've experienced only a…

Thanks for validating my point, in America it's more a cultural issue I think, everyone is still hung up on getting a house with the yard and the white fence with a car like the 1950s, unfortunately that was 70 years ago.

Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#107

Post by miguelazo »

epistasis wrote: post #58
miguelazo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But where does the unaffrodability come from? Hmm, maybe the type of housing being built.

Again, absolute BS. No better example of this than LA. The type of new housing being built is small condos. Previously affordable housing is becoming unaffordable. That's not because of new units, that's because of a shortage. Crappy little homes all over the city spiral up in price. Meanwhile a small number of apartments and condos are built downtown, and people publish fake studies about how there are vacancies, an…

LA is indeed a great example. Your YIMBY laws at the state level are being used to override local zoning to build McMansions in the highest fire risk areas like the San Gabriel Valley foothills, along with bulldozing existing rent-controlled affordable housing near transit to build more luxury condos. And yes, just take a drive into DTLA any night of the week and see the vacancies for yourself: 2/3 of the luxury condo units are dark, night after night after night. Good luck getting data from the parasitic real estate sector for a proper study. Those condos are bank accounts for foreign money laundering, which is probably why FINCEN recently announced that they're going to finally crack down on it.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-set-unveil-long-awaited-...

The best part of your response was this though: >how many LA pols are facing felonies now because of denying housing so that they can take bribes to let a few things through?

Huizar is the poster boy for this and he was taking bribes from the worst luxury condo developers of them all to build in downtown, razing the existing affordable rentals. Not to mention he went along with literally every big housing project that came his way for Boyle Heights (Vegas hotel/strippers/poker chips included or not), as detailed in "The Sellout".

I agree with you that there's a shortage, but the conversion of housing into a speculative commodity is a much bigger problem than a lack of construction, which is why there are well over 5 million vacant homes in this country (that we know of). AirBnB, Wall Street hedge funds purchasing single family homes, get rich quick flippers, are all driving the affordability problem.

https://therealdeal.com/national/2023/10/08/millions-of-home...

Re: In California, you can now sell your ADU

#108

Post by matchbok »

miguelazo wrote: post #107
epistasis wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, absolute BS. No better example of this than LA. The type of new housing being built is small condos. Previously affordable housing is becoming unaffordable. That's not because of new units, that's because of a shortage. Crappy little homes all over the city spiral up in price. Meanwhile a small number of apartments and condos are built downtown, and people publish fake studies about how there are vacancies, an…

LA is indeed a great example. Your YIMBY laws at the state level are being used to override local zoning to build McMansions in the highest fire risk areas like the San Gabriel Valley foothills, along with bulldozing existing rent-controlled affordable housing near transit to build more luxury condos. And yes, just take a drive into DTLA any night of the week and see the vacancies for yourself: 2/3 of the luxury cond…

Please do just a bit of thinking about vacancy. The idea that anyone would purposely let a unit they own sit empty for 10 years is ridiculous, and doesn't happen.

We need vacant units so people can move around. I guess in your perfect world there is 0% vacancy? Please, tell me, how would anyone move to a new city in that world?

yeah....

Also, rent control doesn't work. It never has. And never will.

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