Is support growing for more housing?
As Bay Area cities twist into knots to manage bold housing goals and navigate a recent state law allowing more suburban housing, a new survey shows surprising support for more and denser development.
About 84% of San Jose metro residents and 79% of San Francisco and East Bay residents support accessory dwelling units or small, multifamily projects in suburban neighborhoods, according to a Zillow survey.
Support is strong from homeowners — 82% in San Jose and 73% in San Francisco — and rises to nearly 90% among Bay Area renters. Still, support narrows to about 60% when homeowners were asked if they would allow it in their neighborhood.
A scorching housing market, with U.S. home values rising by nearly 20% last year, has alerted communities about the national housing shortage, said Manny Garcia, population scientist at Zillow.
“The Bay Area is really an extreme example of what the rest of the country is waking up to,” Garcia said. “This is becoming much more a nationwide challenge.”
The survey comes as California cities and counties are battling over longterm residential development plans to comply with new, more aggressive state housing goals. Municipalities are also grappling with a new state law, SB 9, which allows homeowners to more easily split large properties and develop duplexes and auxiliary units.
Zillow surveyed residents in 26 major U.S. metros and found more backing for ADUs and two- and three-unit apartment buildings than for just new duplexes and triplexes. Nearly eight in 10 survey respondents supported more small, infill development in suburban neighborhoods. The support was strongest among renters and younger generations between the ages of 18 and 42.
Bay Area residents were divided on whether bringing apartments into their neighborhoods would improve the look and value of the community. About seven in 10 said it would make parking and traffic worse.
But strong majorities of those surveyed agreed that new apartments would create more affordable housing, encourage walking and biking and bring more parks, community centers and restaurants into Bay Area neighborhoods.
About two-thirds of Bay Area homeowners think they should be allowed to add an ADU or convert their single-family home into a duplex, consistent with a similar survey taken in 2019.
The current Zillow survey was drawn from 12,000 homeowners, renters and others with insecure or non-traditional housing in major U.S. metros.
The results echo other recent surveys acknowledging the housing crisis in the Bay Area. A recent questionnaire by the Bay Area Council found residents supported new housing in their neighborhoods by a margin of 57% to 38%. Matt Regan, senior vice president of public policy at the council, said the business group found broad backing of development around transit hubs and small multiplexes in suburban communities.