Support for ‘Missing Middle Housing’ Strongest Among Young People

“The results of a comprehensive new Zillow survey gauging the views of 12,000 adult residents in 26 major metro areas on the topic of neighborhood-densifying housing options show that a resounding majority of those polled support allowing forms of missing middle housing such as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and duplexes/triplexes in their own figurative, and perhaps literal, backyards.”

Matt Hickman describes the survey results, noting that “Support for missing middle housing was strongest among younger age groups with 86 percent of Gen Zers (ages 18–27) and Millennials (ages 28–42) backing ADUs or duplexes/triplexes.” However, the majority of older respondents also supported lightly increased density. Meanwhile, “Support for missing middle housing in residential neighborhoods was strongest from those polled who identify as renters,” who can suffer most from volatile housing costs.

Younger people were also more likely to favor housing over parking. “Within the youngest Gen-Z age category, 72 percent of residents agreed that affordable housing is more important than free parking while in the oldest age group, boomers and the Silent Generation, slightly less than half of respondents were in agreement.”

In an all-too-common paradox, “While most respondents agreed that multi-family projects would prove beneficial by boosting the number of affordable housing options in their respective neighborhoods (68 percent), fewer overall (57 percent) indicated that they would actually support such a building being constructed.”