The US housing shortage is most severe on the more affordable side of the market, which is no surprise at a time when costs are escalating broadly and homes that were recently attainable by many have moved out of reach of most. The problem is worst in the most heated markets, of course, where affordability mandates and rent controls seek to retain rental affordability for some, as owning a home in such markets is a dream accessible only to the wealthiest. No measures in this post have any impact in such markets.

In the geographic majority of the US where home ownership is still possible for most, affordable housing is considered achievable by government mandates and subsidies, but we have all heard the narratives on the struggles of building affordable homes using these measures, and fierce resistance in places targeted for their construction. This isn’t one of those stories. Instead, this post looks at a number of core affordability facts that are usually ignored, then lays out patterns useful in providing enduring affordability in communities built by private-sector, for-profit developers. New Town at St. Charles near St. Louis is one such place, and some houses sold there for years for under $100,000; all images here are from New Town.

“Enduring affordability” means that a broad range of affordability endures over time in a community, even though market forces may increase the values of individual homes. Home values not allowed to escalate by any means are unfair to their owners; why should they not be permitted to participate in building generational wealth in their homes?

“Enduring affordability with dignity” is a higher standard usually considered impossible, because it means that a range of affordability endures over time in a place that reinforces self-respect and pride of place, or “places people love,” if you prefer. How is it possible for home prices to not get quickly bid up in places like this? Let’s consider enduring affordability first, then revisit the question of dignity.

There are two paths to enduring affordability in a community: The first begins with the proposition that development isn’t complete when the last lot is built out; that is instead the point in time at which the maturing of the community begins. A maturing community adds accessory units on existing sites, and adds intensity to “missing middle housing” (more on this later) in the community. In-parcel development patterns now common in the US include Accessory Dwelling Units (or ADUs, like a Granny Cottage) and more recently Accessory Commercial Units (or ACUs, like a home workplace).

While homes affordable to many in the beginning of the first path will naturally appreciate, new homes coming online refresh the range of affordability of the place. This proposition seems foreign today because we are so accustomed to homeowners’ associations, which freeze subdivisions in their original state of development like insects trapped forever in amber. Traditional American towns, however, have always matured like this over time.

The second path is an older and more refined route to maturity. The primary difference is that while the first path keeps the original lots intact, the second path allows landowners to subdivide their lots, making all property owners mini-developers of their land parcels. This method has been used around the world since antiquity; almost all of the most-loved places on earth were developed this way. It has recently been codified into a process known as the Sky Method to work in today’s American development system. (“Sky” is the name of the town for which it was first developed.)

The first step down either of these paths to enduring affordability is to lay important groundwork with the local zoning authority to make affordability possible. There are four things the market, not the zoning authority, should decide for a place: the size of your home, how many off-street parking spaces you have to build, whether you can work from home, and whether you can have anyone else living at your place to help pay the mortgage. Remove these bureaucratic burdens, and naturally-occurring affordability is conceivable; allow them to remain, and the only chance of affordability is subsidy, imposed politically.

One problem with politically-imposed affordable housing is that it lasts only until political will changes, so it is not enduring. Another problem is the fact that any mention of an affordable housing project brings ferocious opposition, so it is deemed more efficient to do fewer but larger projects for the poorest, but this concentrates poverty, which has many deleterious effects, which creates places where nobody wants to live if they have any choice at all because they are places without dignity.

The terms “affordable housing” and “an affordable home” are used purposefully in this post. “Affordable housing” is a product of the Industrial Development Complex, produced most efficiently at great scale (with the problems just noted). An affordable home is singular, and is a home I can afford.

I can impart a level of dignity to my home with acts of love. Most elements of places with dignity, however, are things shared throughout the community so they don’t burden each home individually. Dignity comes in part by being able to do for others, but that happens best when you actually know others. So places with dignity are designed in such a way that people naturally meet and get acquainted. Dignity also comes from being able to do for ourselves, so places with dignity are designed to let us get around to our daily needs without burdening us with the necessity of driving. And one of the greatest sources of dignity is the ability to do meaningful work, so places with dignity allow people to make a living where they’re living if they so choose. And the dignity of doing meaningful work in the affordable place where you’re living has benefits beyond your community, as it ends the great separation that has for decades driven home and work further apart, forcing compulsive commuting which is one of the chief causes of climate change. This may end up being the greatest benefit of building places of enduring affordability with dignity because it benefits us all.

steel bowspring truss bridge spanning canal at New Town at St. Charles in St. Charles, Missouri with stone obelisk in background

The basic principles for providing a range of affordability without government mandates or subsidies are surprisingly simple, beginning with wide market diversity. If long lines of people are ready to write a check higher than the listing price on a property for sale, that means there’s not nearly enough choice in the market. When real estate becomes a bidding war, a range of affordability is impossible; when there is much wider choice, far fewer people are competing for each home for sale. This also means that people are far more likely to find a home that’s perfect for them, something that’s unlikely in a one-size-fits-all market.

Market diversity begins with building type. The concept of Missing Middle Housing was developed in response to the fact that most markets have only two housing types: the single-family home (detached or townhouse) and the condo tower. Most Missing Middle types are classics, long found in American towns and cities but discarded in postwar development. They range from the twin (formerly known as the duplex) to courtyard buildings and live/works of several types.

The second type of choice is choice of place from rural to urban. Some want a view into nature, others choose to be right in the center of the action, and others prefer a quiet neighborhood street. Small American towns provide this choice naturally, whereas large cities have to work at it by providing a network of parks and greenways for views into nature. Subdivisions rolling on endlessly provide none of this choice.

The third choice type is the range of expression in the architecture. Vernacular architecture has been the greatest source of affordable homes in human history; it is least expensive and most charming. Refined architecture is more expensive and most elegant. Everyone has a comfort level at some point on the spectrum of expression.

These are some of the patterns that have allowed New Town to build a wide range of affordability with dignity. And the range of affordability is a crucial element of dignity. Because the range is wide, New Town’s homes range from cottages to mansions, but because the architecture is neighborly, there’s no sense of a “rich side” and “poor side” of town.

green-hooded street lantern with cottage court in background

New Town has achieved durable affordability with smaller and simpler design, meaning that it will retain its affordability over time in part because each house type is laser-focused on its market segment instead of trying to be all things to all people. This limits the bidders to those people for whom a particular building type is well- to highly-suited.

And people who find a home that's an ideal fit for them tend to be much happier about their investment than the person in a line of people running around the block who bid more than the other hundreds of people for a unit that only nominally suits them all because it is so ordinary. And those who love their investment naturally become stronger advocates for the neighborhood they've chosen as their home than those who are merely satisfied with their one-size-fits-all purchase somewhere else.

New Town at St. Charles cottage court centered on trees

DPZCoDESIGN planned New Town at St. Charles with several excellent cottage courts. Because there are no cars on the court, porches can be lower while maintaining Walk Appeal, saving on foundation costs.

But construction costs are only the beginning of cottage court benefits, which center on the fact that the street that serves a cottage court is located to one side instead of running down the middle of the cottage court. This allows the front porches of the cottages to be over 30 feet closer together, so it's easy to have a conversation from porch to porch in a normal conversational voice instead of shouting. This isn't for everyone, of course, as some people would rather have more privacy. But there are plenty of home choices with more privacy so people can choose what suits them best.

Young parents often gravitate to cottage courts because they feel comfortable letting their children play in the courtyard years before they would let them play in the street, not only because there are no cars there, but also because other neighbors on the court might be sitting on their porches, and therefore able to keep an eye on the kids.

two white-clad garages serve entire cottage court, reducing land consumption

The white board & batten buildings at the rear of this cottage court are garages opening onto a parking court beyond, which is a far more efficient use of the land than burdening each cottage lot with a garage. Depending on the layout, a parking court can consume well under half the land required for individual garages on a rear lane or alley. This saves thousands of dollars in land cost per cottage.

As with other elements at New Town, individual patterns have multiple benefits. Courtyards work best when they have good (but not complete) enclosure. Without the garages, this cottage court's space would run into the next one into a long, linear space that would look more like a long corridor than a courtyard and the cars would be visible so sitting on your porch, you'd feel like you're on the edge of a parking lot. So the garages both screen the cars and provide good enclosure for the cottage court.

Marsala's Market and post office frame neighborhood square at New Town at St. Charles

A huge key to durable affordability is the ability to walk or cycle to your daily needs. Known in some circles as "location-efficient communities" and 15-Minute Cities in others, these places put as many everyday needs as possible within reach to most without cranking a car.

Some purveyors of daily needs are superstars of attraction, drawing other needs into close proximity. A neighborhood grocery is a classic example; build one, and other daily needs will come as well. Third Places are another such superstar type. So named because while home is your first place and work is your second place (when you're not homeless or jobless), the Third Place is where you can hang out indefinitely, and "where everyone knows your name," in the classic Cheers tagline. And Starbucks has capitalized with the Starbucks Factor which shows that homes can become more valuable the closer they are to a Starbucks. But in reality, it should be the Third Place Factor.

While groceries and Third Places can provide delicious things, the third daily need superstar is the necessities-only neighborhood-managed post office. The US Postal Service has not provided new home delivery in decades, opting instead to require gang mail boxes in any new development. But while checking the mail is purely a necessity, a lot of other neighbors may be doing the same thing sometime after they're off work, so it can be a social setting.

The bottom line is this: plant a market, a Third Place, and a place to check your mail and many other everyday needs will follow. That's why it's a great idea to have a small plaza like the one pictured above around which those uses can begin to gather.

calmly-composed townhouse row flanking central canal at New Town at St. Charles

New Town townhouses were detailed for affordable dignity in patterns long-loved locally. Doing so makes the townhouses part of a centuries-long continuum of local patterns. And as in countless other places, some of those patterns were explicitly developed to be more affordable in their regions' climate, conditions, and culture.

Brick rowlock bowspring arches used on the townhouses and on many other buildings in New Town are one such example. Brick rowlock arches are already the least expensive way of spanning a masonry opening, especially when they're bowspring arches instead of full-height Roman arches, which is why you see them all over the US on the backs of Main Street buildings where they don't need to impress anyone, but rather just hold up the brick over the openings. The local affordability adaptation is to make the arch less tall, which uses slightly fewer rowlock bricks and requires less cutting in the running bond brick above the arch.

Arches, however, aren't the only affordability story with townhouses. When you're building attached units, the long walls are shared with neighbors and have no exterior finishes except maybe at parapets capping the walls so you can afford a nicer front with little impact on your total price.

rocking chairs sit on double front porches of townhouses

Second level porch floors are notorious for leaking and ruining the ceilings below, but New Town eliminated the problem by leaving the ceilings open. "But what about rain leaking through on you," some ask? If you're on the first floor porch and a fiercely blowing rain is getting the floor above you wet, it'll definitely get you wet, too by blowing in under the second floor.

So go inside.

In less of a blowing rain where the entire second floor porch isn't getting wet, you can sit in the rocking chairs and enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of a gentle rain because you're rocking near the inside edge of the porch.

tiny brick townhouse entry between two blue stuccoed townhouses

Everyone loves a tiny building along the street: a tiny cottage, tiny house, tiny shop, and even a tiny townhouse, like this one at New Town. I’m pretty sure this is the front door to one of the adjacent townhouses, but it's no less charming, and brings a smile to all who walk by.

This is so, I believe, because of something I call the Teddy Bear Principle. This is nature's way of making the infants and the young of many species more endearing to the adults than other adults. Nature accomplishes this by endowing the young with different facial and bodily proportions than what they will grow into someday. Buildings with such child-like proportions have similar (if somewhat less powerful) effects on us as well.

stone-faced bridge across central canal at New Town at St. Charles which acts as a major stormwater control feature

Affordability with dignity relies heavily on infrastructure where each dollar spent elevates the experience of many. Look closely at this stone bridge: the bridge structure is readily-available concrete culverts; only the facing is stone. This elevates the experience of all who are walking, biking, or driving along this canal with nearly-negligible expense.

And this is not a newly-developed budget measure. Bridges a century ago were built like this, and for the same reason: elevating the experience of those who see the bridges for a fraction of the cost of a fully-arched stone bridge. Dating all the way back to antiquity, builders knew to put their best face forward and let the less visible parts of buildings and infrastructure be built of equally strong but less-refined materials.

street lamp and directional signage flanking canal

Civic furnishings like street lights and street signs are a vanishingly small part of the construction cost of the town but contribute to the dignity of the place by making it obvious it is cared about. Affordability with dignity depends on signs of care.

New Town was able to compounded the effect because it is so large, with thousands, not hundreds, of homes. This gave them volume buying power unavailable to smaller places, and they used that power well, procuring upgraded civic furnishings because they would be enjoyed by all.

And a place that is well-built like this isn't just endearing to the residents, but also to those who are looking to make it their home as well. Like so many other things at New Town, the civic furnishings do double duty by not only doing their normal jobs but also being effective marketing tools.

double front porches with street tree in foreground

Of all the civic elements lining a street, none increase in value by growing or have broader positive ripple effects than street trees. This picture was taken in 2010; today, trees either side of this street create a complete canopy, providing continuous shade for people walking to the town center.

These street tree assets are just the beginning. Dig deeper, and it becomes clear that street trees have many Powerful Virtuous Cycles that build environmental health, economic health, and public health. These make street trees one of the rare Silver Bullets of Urbanism, with benefits in many realms that run far beyond their cost, making them one of the absolute essentials of good urbanism that aspires to enduring affordability with dignity.

stone obelisk at center of entry to New Town at St. Charles in St. Charles, Missouri

The first and last infrastructure you see in a place is the entryway. Usually it's a portal of sorts, but even if left forever un-gated and unguarded, it can imply that you might not be welcome there. This is compounded when developers go overboard with an extreme "entry feature" that might cost millions in some cases. Developers who really want to go over the top with their exclusivity use a long entry drive between the entry feature and the point where you first encounter real estate that's for sale or lease, leaving no doubt that you're not welcome there unless you have a lot of money to spend. And long entry drives kill potential businesses at the center because they discourage potential customers that don't actuall live there.

New Town's entry isn't a gateway; it is marked instead with an obelisk as a landmark which simply says "this is an important place." And because you can see urbanism within before entering, it also says "c'mon in and have a look around at why it's an important place." And so people do.