Zillow: 82% of Adults Support Building More Housing in Neighborhoods to Address Affordability

(Courtesy Zillow, Seattle.)

Zillow, Seattle, found 82% of adults support building at least one type of multifamily housing in their neighborhood to address problems with home affordability.

Zillow’s survey, covering more than 14,000 respondents across 29 metro areas, found the strongest support for accessory dwelling units, duplexes or triplexes in neighborhoods. Most respondents also supported apartment buildings of all sizes if built under certain conditions, such as near parks and transit services.

This survey comes amid a shortfall of 1.35 million new homes, Zillow stated. Monthly mortgage costs have nearly doubled during the pandemic, with rental prices pushed up as well. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to the survey were concerned about the cost of housing in their neighborhood, and 70% believed adding duplexes and triplexes would help address the issue.

Allowing the addition of ADUs, duplexes and triplexes to areas that were previously restricted to single-family homes is often called “modest densification” and is purported to create a “missing middle” between stand-alone houses and apartment buildings.

“More and more people understand that the key to stopping runaway housing costs is to build more homes,” said Manny Garcia, Senior Population Scientist at Zillow. “There is majority support among renters and homeowners, higher and lower wage earners, suburban and urban households, who all say we need more housing and support it in their neighborhoods.”

While a diverse range of respondents all supported some level of modest densification, younger residents, renters, people of color and LGBTQ+ respondents were most likely to support all types of such efforts in their communities.