Data from Homeowners in Portland Who are Planning to Build ADUs

The first ADU class was fantastic and I want to thank the class for making it such a fun experience for me.

Next, I want to share some information derived from the class questionnaires. The questions were in large part to help me figure out what to teach, but I included some other questions that would help provide some insights into the minds of homeowners who are likely to build ADUs.

When asked "What is your motivation to build?", here are the responses. Respondents could check up to three choices.

The most common response for the "biggest barrier to building an ADU" from the respondents was cost/financing (which is not really a surprise). Incidentally, I'm proud to say that every respondent said that the class helped them figure out useful approaches to address their biggest personal barrier, which ranged from permits, cost, financing, lack of knowledge, "taking the leap", city rules, neighbors, to finding the right designer and builder. 

Every respondent said that they would use a general contractor instead of trying to general contract it themselves. This uniform response was probably due in part to the information that they learned in the class, but I was still surprised to see a consensus since I did not specifically advise people not to general contract it themselves. 

50% are planning detached new construction. 25% are planning conversion of an existing garage, and 25% are planning on attached new construction.

Over half of class participants were in the 40-50 age bracket.  The other ages ranged evenly in a bell curve from 20-70. 

Here's a picture of the class during the walk-through tour of the ADU.

Walk-through Tour of the ADU

And, here's the last slideshow from the class, which shows the ADU construction process, step by step. 

ADU Construction Process (in pictures)

View more presentations from Kol Peterson

For those who were unable to make the first class, I'm offering the ADU class again on Sunday, November 6th.