Making Portland ADUs More Affordable

Portland is building a lot of ADUs. A startup called Dweller wants to help property owners who might not be able to afford to build get in on the market. "Despite Portland's brisk ADU development market, the bulk of them are being built in inner-eastside neighborhoods where homeowners can tap large home-equity loans or have access to loads of cash," Steve Law reports for the Portland Tribune.

Dweller will sell units to homeowners, or "it won't charge the homeowner a thing, retaining ownership of the ADU, managing it as a rental, and handing over 30 percent of the rent to the homeowner. After 25 years, the homeowner owns the ADU outright for no cash," Law writes.

It doesn't take a huge property to accommodate one of these units, "A unit built off-site can be plopped into the typical 50-by-100-foot Portland lot without jutting into the setbacks and without requiring city design review. The only thing the city has to do is OK the site plan and foundation and utility hookups," Law writes. If this project is successful in Portland, many around the country will be interested in following suit.