10 Simple Hacks to Cheaper Housing
The rent is eating first and well! Every year it seems, housing costs rise faster than wages or inflation. Here are some age-old and newer strategies for reducing your housing costs and maybe for helping to lower them for all.
1. Move: Housing prices vary dramatically within and across cities, so sometimes small moves can make a big difference. Even within some relatively small cities, like Miami Beach, rents for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartments can range from $1,800 to over $30,000 per month (Zillow.com). And of course, prices can fall even more dramatically if you are willing to move to somewhere else more affordable. For example, one could leave Miami beach but stay in Florida and rent this $850/month two bedroom in potentially charming Leesberg, Florida. With so much work from home, such moves might be a real possibility.
2. Downsize: Since real estate is very predictably priced by the square foot, reducing your space requirements will open up possibilities. And you may need less space than you think. In 1950, living space came in at 290 square feet per person, by 2010 this number had reached 927 square feet. While a lot goes into explaining that change (households were getting smaller and houses were getting bigger), it still begs the question: does living in the 21st century require 2.5 times the amount of space that living in the 20th century did? Why?
3. Double up: Increase affordability by “doubling up” and living with a roommate or family members. It’s not uncommon: over 3.7 million people lived in doubled-up households in 2019. These kinds of arrangements aren’t always easy: it can create strains on the relationships in the households and be especially hard on children. One study of mothers, however, did show financial benefits. Those who doubled up saved an average of about $4,040 per year compared to those who did not.
4. Sub lease: If you can be flexible, most people looking to sublease often ask less than the market rate. Craigslist has a whole section devoted to people looking for others to assume their lease, often at favorable terms.
5. Share: The sharing economy has opened up new ways to defray housing costs. By listing your place (with the right permissions) for times when you are out of town or even renting out an extra bedroom you can earn extra income to help supplement the rent. Research on Airbnb in Boston suggests that 4 out of 5 Airbnb hosts are occupants seeking extra income by renting out their own homes. Beware however, that same research finds that the more Airbnbs in an area, the higher the rent.
6. Build: Several cities, especially those on the West Coast have started to permit building accessory dwelling units. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are a smaller, independent residential dwelling units that sit on the same lot as a single-family home. They go by many different names like “accessory apartments,” “in-law apartments” and “granny flats.” Even basement and garden apartments are considered ADUs. Cities usually only permit these to be 1,000 square feet or smaller, but that less square footage does increase the overall affordability. Lots of firms offer prefabricated ADUs in designs from modern to traditional, even timber frame. Find a friend or family member and figure out how to split the costs (a shared equity model might make sense). In most places, you’ll get a place to live and they’ll likely boost their property values.
7. Buy low: Buy a fixer upper but don’t fix ‘er up. It often seems when someone buys an older home, they quickly begin the renovation process. But unless the house is unsound or unsafe, you can save a lot of money, head (and heart) ache by living with imperfection. Decorating is cheaper, faster and environmentally friendlier. Websites like apartment therapy have lots of great ideas about how to play up the vintage charms of homes that don’t involve the time, expense and waste of a renovation.
8. Win the lottery: Not the Powerball lottery, the housing lottery. Most cities have affordable housing available for residents within specified income ranges. The problem? They don’t have very much of it, so most is let out through housing lotteries (where sometimes literally, names are drawn from a hat). But going on to a cities’ websites, like the one in my city of Cambridge, you can usually navigate to the pages that list available and upcoming housing. There are other ways to qualify as well, such as set asides for artists, municipal workers like teachers, firefighters and garbage collectors.
9. Squat: Squatting in the US has a long and often inglorious history, with ties to American colonialism and land theft from native people. While some may support a land back approach, others embrace the tradition of occupying housing without the lawful permission to do so. Sometimes known under the more palatable name of “adverse possession,” squatting can take the form of protest, ingenuity or plan old practicality. Squatters usually garner the most sympathy if they occupy and improve property that owner of record has effectively abandoned. While not easy, it is possible to start out as a squatter and eventually become the legal owner.
10. Participate: Most agree that a main reason for contemporary housing affordability issues is supply and demand: there is not enough supply housing to meet the demand (people needing housing). And many agree that restrictive zoning contributes to this low supply, with multifamily housing barred in about 75 percent of residential land in the U.S. The two main ways to increase the supply are to change zoning laws and support zoning appeals. Support changing the zoning rules in your community to allow for more housing units on less land (whether multifamily or just reducing the minimum lot size, or advocating for ADU zoning). A few years ago, Minneapolis, unpaved the way, by allowing more duplexes and triplexes. The entire state of Oregon soon followed. Now a number of cities like Syracuse and Louisville are working on changing theirs.
One of the most effective ways to get cheaper housing at scale is to get politically active. Support or even initiating rezoning efforts at the municipal level. But zoning rules don’t always need to be overhauled for more housing to be built. Sometimes builders make a special appeals for a single project. They also can make major concessions to appease neighbors, like a proposed development in Salem, Massachusetts, where developers plan to appease abutters by creating a barrier of not one but “two fences and a field of trees.” Resident support, through letter writing and attending zoning meetings, can go a long way in getting that appeal passed. Historically, many more residents objected to housing developments (NIMBYISM) but lately, a counter reaction has formed, with many showing up to support such projects (YIMBYISM). One abutting resident who supported the Salem project, who wrote to the Board stated simply “I’m hoping you continue giving this project a green light.”
How many on this list have you tried? And how did they work out? Any other hacks for housing affordability?
Read about this and other discussions about the housing problem on my blog Real Estate for Radicals
