Is the missing middle housing affordable? Based on data from Zillow

Data source Zillow listings of properties that are for sale Two outliers were removed from 78704: $4.5 million dollar single family house $3.2 million dollar single family house Pulled all of the listings for 78704 and 78702 from Zillow. Data included – type of structure, price, size, dollars per foot, date built, bedrooms, baths. Analyzed each and looked for relationships between data.

How price relates to housing type - 78704 Single family is most expensive. Condos are least expensive. I’ll go into more detail about inexpensive units. Duplexes and townhouses are clustered in the $350,000 to $750,000 price range.

Missing middle vs Single Family in 78704 Combines the 3 types of missing missing and compares to SF. Shows that SF pricing is more spreadout and bulk of units are $600,000 and above. Bulk of missing middle is just below SF in price. Fills in from $400,000 to $800,000.

How price relates to age in 78704 We looked at the relationship between price and building type, shown in previous graphs, and also size, bedrooms, and age. Obviously unit size has a huge impact, but we found that age, the date the unit was built, had a dramatic impact. Red line is $300,000, what I consider threshold for affordable. Units below the red line are affordable. The missing middle units built recently are expensive. The affordable units are at 25 years old. And, most are small apartments in condo conversions. To the extent there are cheaper SF units they are also older, built 50 or more years ago. They are also small.

How Price Relates to Size in 78704

Now look at 78702 78702 looks difference than 78704. The SF houses are more concentrated and lower in price. The missing middle seems to compete more directly with the SF houses in $350,000 to $450,000 price range. The affordable units are mainly SF.

Missing middle vs Single Family in 78702 Combines missing middle types and compares to SF. Missing middle and SF are clustered at same price.

How price relates to age in 78702 Red line is $300,000 which I call affordable. Only a couple of units below red line. The 2 condos are 464 and 671 square feet. There are quite a few SF hugging the affordable line. Again these are older units.

How Price Relates to Size in 78702

Comments Single family houses are more expensive. In 78704 the missing middle is cheaper, but not affordable. In 78702 the missing middle is priced similarly to SF. The affordable properties in any category are older properties. Both for missing middle and single family, new homes are more expensive. Data we don’t have is the price of the properties that were torn down.