r/yimby

The homes that housed Michigan's middle-class throughout the 20th century were significantly more affordable because they were allowed to be smaller buildings on smaller lots. These were the traditional "starter homes" that gave our families and workforce a footing to build a future here.

But today, the starter home doesn't exists in-part because they're banned out of existence. Unworkable zoning rules often include requirements that homes be built larger than they need to be -- and it's not that large homes are bad. The problem is that smaller homes are banned.

For instance, the average square footage of a single family home in 1950 was 983 sq ft. Today, that size of a single-family home would be flat-out banned in a vast majority of the top 50 municipalities in Michigan. The result is straight-forward: affordable homes are just not legal to build.

The good news is that we can address this issue by simply legalizing the starter home again -- the whole purpose of the Michigan Housing Readiness bill package: HB 5529-5532 and HB 5581-5585. Tell your State Representatives to legalize affordable homes and address our cost of living TODAY!

Data source: AARP Publication: The ABCs of ADUs, Census Reporter, ACS 2023 1-Year, National Association of Home Builders, "Cost of Constructing a Home 2024", Eric Lynch, 2025

Since the Great Recession, banks have basically stopped giving loans for family residential construction, and this is a major reason for the collapse in home construction for the past 2 decades.