Article originally posted on tucson.com on May 26th, 2021
Calling it an effort to provide more affordable housing, Tucson is considering amending the city code to allow accessory dwelling units, casita-like structures where people can live.
Amending the city’s development code to authorize the dwellings called ADUs for residential use is also part of the city’s push to support multigenerational living options and promote infill development.
The smaller units are add-ons to main residences with their own kitchens and restrooms and are typically under 1,000 square feet. Tucson’s code currently states accessory structures to residences cannot serve as dwelling units.
City staff’s currently proposed regulations include putting the maximum size of the units at 1,000 square feet, allowing one ADU per a residential lot and requiring one parking space per ADU.
With the option to rent ADUs to ones’ parents or grandparents, the units can also provide more ...

Article originally posted on supermarketnews.com on May 13th, 2021
The eat-at-home trend boosted by the COVID-19 crisis won’t recede anytime soon post-pandemic, according to new research from CPG sales and marketing firm Acosta.
After the pandemic ends, 92% of families plan to continue eating together at home at least as often as — or more often than — they do now, Acosta’s “COVID Dining Journey: Eating at Home and Away From Home” report found. Online surveys of Acosta’s proprietary shopper community, conducted between March and April, showed that eating together as a family will stay the same for 72% of all households, while 20% expect to eat together more frequently.
Almost two-thirds of shoppers polled reported that, since the coronavirus outbreak, they cook at home more and eat “far more” meals at home all the time, Acosta said. That trend spanned all eating occasions during the day. Following the start of the pandemic ...

Article originally posted on zillow.com on March 11th, 2021
Collectively, Americans spent a lot more time at home last year cooking, eating, and, well, taking care of post-meal business. Perhaps not coincidentally, features related to high-end kitchens and luxurious bathrooms frequently appeared in the online listing descriptions of homes that ended up selling for more money than otherwise expected.
To determine the price premium associated with certain features, Zillow analyzed closed home sales in the United States in 2019 and 2020 where we could match the sale to the listing description and the home’s Zestimate in the month before listing. Six out of the top 10 features mentioned in listings that sold for more than expected in 2020 are kitchen-related, two are related to bathrooms and one — “modern farmhouse” — could reasonably apply to both (assuming “modern” does not imply an outhouse situation). 
At the other ek ...

Article originally posted on azbigmedia.com on May 5th, 2021
Following one of the most disruptive periods of our times, at the start of 2021, the hottest U.S. rental markets and most in demand locations for renters were certainly not the ones you would expect.
“The largest markets and surrounding exurbs show renters are distinctly looking to get more square footage or more amenities for the same price, within these hubs and close to them. Residents from large gateway markets are “trading up”, and with work-from-home policies, exurb locations close to these areas are also benefitting from this behavior.” says Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix.
Phoenix, AZ, also made it to the hottest rental markets ranking, with a competitive score of 39.5. The Arizona job hub’s rapid growth has attracted an increasing number of renters from surrounding states over the past few years. Most recently, the market&rsk ...

Article originally posted on nahbnow.com on April 28th, 2021
Soaring lumber prices that have tripled over the past 12 months has caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $35,872, according to new analysis by the NAHB Economics team. This lumber price hike has also added nearly $13,000 to the market value of an average new multifamily home, which translates into households paying $119 a month more to rent a new apartment.

These unprecedented lumber price hikes are attributable to the following factors:
Many mills reduced production last spring due to stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures enacted by state and local governments at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

When it became clear in the ensuing months that housing weathered the storm much better than predicted and demand remained strong, lumber mills did not ramp up production accordingly. 

And more

Click on the link below to see the full article and Why k ...