By Walter Pryce
Opinion. This is an analysis of a recent post from the National Association of Home Builders. The survey findings and the views attributed to NAHB are the association’s; the conclusions about Western New York are the author’s.
BUFFALO — Drive down almost any older street in Buffalo or the first-ring suburbs and you will see the raw material for more housing sitting in plain view: detached garages, finished attics, half-used basements and the old carriage houses behind Victorian homes. A new survey from the country’s home builders suggests that more homeowners are starting to put those spaces to work, and that the Northeast is leading the way.
In “A Quarter of Remodelers Started ADUs Over Past Twelve Months,” published Oct. 23 on NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog, economist Eric Lynch reports on the association’s Remodeling Market Index. An accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, is a second, self-contained home on the same lot as a house: an in-law suite, a garage apartment or a backyard cottage.
What the builders found
Asked whether they had started an ADU project in the past 12 months, 24% of remodelers said they were building an addition for use as an ADU and 23% said they were converting existing space into one. Both shares rose from the last time NAHB asked, in the first quarter of 2019, though Lynch notes that “a large majority of remodelers still did not start ADUs.”
The regional numbers are the part Western New York should read twice. The Northeast, the Census region that includes New York, was the most likely to have remodelers building ADUs, with at least a third reporting each type of project. The Midwest was the least likely, at under 20%. NAHB’s explanation is short and pointed: the leading regions “have states with relatively nonrestrictive ADU laws to encourage further production.”
The survey also shows what these units cost now. Sixty-two percent of ADU projects came in at $150,000 or more, more than double the 28% share in 2019. NAHB’s own index puts remodelers’ input costs up more than 51% over the same stretch.
Buffalo already said yes
The city of Buffalo is ahead of most of its neighbors here. The Green Code, the zoning overhaul that replaced rules dating to 1953, lists an ADU as an “ancillary dwelling” and permits it by right in most of the city’s neighborhood and downtown zones. It is not allowed in the N-4 single-family zones. The rules are reasonable. No ancillary dwelling may exceed 1,000 square feet, and a detached one has to be shorter and smaller than the main house and meet the code’s carriage-house standards.
That is the kind of predictable, administrative path NAHB’s numbers point to. A homeowner who meets the standards doesn’t need a special hearing to build one.
The suburbs are a patchwork
Outside the city, the picture is less settled. In the Town of Amherst, whether and how a homeowner can add an ADU depends on the zoning district. The town’s own program rules recognize two routes: a unit allowed by right, or one approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals through a special use permit. Amherst also deserves credit for running one of the first state-funded ADU programs in the region. Backed by a $2 million grant from New York State Homes and Community Renewal, it offered homeowners earning under the area median income up to $125,000 toward an ADU. The program is now closed to new applications.
The Village of Hamburg’s code limits ADUs to one per single-family home and requires an owner to live on the property and sign a notarized affidavit saying so, and it bars selling the unit separately. Those are defensible guardrails. The trouble is that every town and village sets its own, so a homeowner in one suburb can face a very different process from a neighbor a mile away.
Albany has tried both the stick and the carrot. In 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed requiring localities to allow ADUs on residential lots. She withdrew the proposal within weeks after town and village officials and suburban lawmakers in both parties objected to losing local control over zoning. The state then put money behind the idea instead. Its $85 million Plus One ADU program had awarded $59 million by May 2024 to local governments and nonprofits for roughly 500 units statewide. The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency runs a city version for single-family homeowners earning under 120% of area median income, though its applications are also closed for now.
What Western New York should take from it
NAHB is a trade group for builders, and it has an obvious interest in more construction of every kind. That doesn’t make its data wrong. Its survey points to a simple idea: when the rules are clear, homeowners and contractors build.
Western New York has an aging population, a large stock of older homes with room to spare, and young families priced out of starter houses. An ADU lets a widow rent the space over the garage for income, lets grown children live near aging parents, and adds a home without a new subdivision, new roads or new sewer lines on the edge of town.
Grants help, but they reach only a few hundred households statewide, and both local programs are closed. The more lasting fix is cheaper and within every town board’s power. Allow ADUs by right in residential districts, under clear size, height and parking standards, the way Buffalo already does. Keep sensible owner-occupancy rules if residents want them. Publish one plain-language checklist so a homeowner knows the answer before hiring an architect.
The suburbs were right to insist on local control in 2022. Now they should use it. The builders’ numbers show that demand is there, and that rising costs are already a hurdle. Local rules shouldn’t add another one.
The survey results and views attributed to the National Association of Home Builders are the association’s own. Read the full post here.
Featured photo: Lexington Avenue in the Elmwood East Historic District, Buffalo, by Andre Carrotflower / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
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