By Agnes Masnik, Freelance Writer for REALTOR® Magazine
More than 10,000 Baby Boomers a day are turning 65 starting this year, according to the Pew Research Center. And home owners are responding to changes in the economy by exploring the option of turning a single-family house into two homes.
Commonly known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), these dual housing arrangements were quite common up until the end of World War II and the boom of suburbanization. ADUs are now making a comeback. The “New Urbanism” planning trend includes ADUs in a wide range of affordable housing choices, particularly for the elderly, disabled, empty-nesters and young workers.
Michael Litchfield, author of In-laws, Outlaws, and Granny Flats: Your Guide to Turning One House into Two Homes (Taunton Press, 2011) helps answers the question if an ADU is right for your clients.
From the book: 3 Key Points for REALTORS®
1. Get to know the various types of Accessory Dwelling Units.
2. Understand common zoning standards for ADUs to better advise your clients.
3. Gain an understanding of the family dynamic surrounding a life change and how to best meet clients’ housing needs.
Litchfield walks the reader through the decision-making process from the details of popular designs to tips on how to choose appliances and materials for energy and space saving products, as well as navigating plans and permits. He chronicles 30 in-law units and personal stories in the U.S. and Canada. Litchfield offers a richly-illustrated and informative guide to transforming a single-family house into a property with independent living spaces.
From the book: 7 Take-Aways For Home Owners
1. An ADU allows for family to live close by. Continue reading »
By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Whether it’s McMansions or manufactured homes, chances are you’ve dealt with at least one property that was influenced in some way by William Levitt. What’s that? You’ve never heard of William Levitt? Well, that’s not too surprising. Even though he was the closest thing the housing industry had to Henry Ford, the vast majority of Americans probably have no idea who he is.
But most of them are almost certainly familiar with his handiwork. That’s because he was responsible for turning a potato field in western Long Island into Levittown, N.Y., the first post-World War II suburb, and a town widely considered to be the progenitor of “Suburbia” as an American cultural institution.
Real estate writer Steve Bergsman explores Levitt’s legacy in his new book, Growing Up Levittown: In a Time of Conformity, Controversy and Cultural Crisis (Dancing Traveller Media, 2011). Bergsman is more intimately familiar with that legacy than most: His family moved to Levittown in 1954.
Despite that familiarity — or perhaps because of it — there were some surprises for Bergsman as he was doing research for the book.
“When I moved there, I was a young child and didn’t know the history,” he explains. “I had a happy childhood and enjoyed living in Levittown. But as I researched Levittown, I realized it had a bad name in the 1950s and 1960s.”
The reason? Public intellectuals across the political spectrum saw Levittown as an abomination, Bergsman says. Left-leaning thinkers viewed it as artificial and conformist, while many on the right attacked it out of something like snobbery for its apparent lack of style and quality. Continue reading »
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