You don’t have to be rich to buy a house in America, but it helps.
Over the last 60 years, the average American house has doubled in size, while quadrupling in cost (bloating out to roughly 2,200 square feet, and ballooning in price to $359,000).
Americans, meanwhile, have not evolved into a race of wealthy giants, and a housing shortage has grown to 4 million housing units.
Enter the innovators and investors at HomeEc, who are meeting the American housing crisis by building more affordable, luxury compact prefab accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and home additions using advanced, durable, highly efficient, and easily assembled building materials.
In doing so, HomeEc is loosely following in the footsteps of Levitt & Sons, which earned fame for pioneering the mass production of affordable homes to help solve the American housing crisis that preceded the Baby Boom of the 1950s.
‘Levittown’ – With a Prefab ADU Twist
A father/son/son team – the father, Abraham Levitt, and his sons, Bill and Alfred – were among the first to implement a high-volume home construction model that would eventually result in the construction of 13 million single-family “cracker boxes” in America.
The Levitts bought a floundering 2,000-acre potato farm on Long Island to construct 4,600 houses, and to sell them for about $7,000 a pop ($92K in 2024 dollars). Each took roughly a day to build. Yet most of these small (1,200 sq. ft.) homes remain standing, a testament to the Levitts’ commitment to building affordable, quality housing. The Levitts built their housing developments – called “Levittowns” – in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and even Puerto Rico.
These original “tiny homes” helped build the American Middle Class, meeting the demand for housing that pent up during the Great Depression and World War II.
Yet the Levitts and other developers also left Blacks and other minorities behind in the booming postwar economy. Most builders wrote deed restrictions into their subdivisions, banning non-Caucasians from buying their houses.
In contrast, Texas-based HomeEc is a minority-owned company that promises to fill housing needs for all Americans – whether they’re looking for a starter home, extra space for their existing home, or extra income from backyard homes, also known as prefab accessory dwelling units (prefab ADUs). HomeEc’s tiny homes and additions also provide an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant option for seniors and others who seek assisted living without institutionalization.
HomeEc co-founder Robin Ball (photo left) encapsulates a few of the market challenges facing current and potential homeowners this way:
- * Construction labor shortages and increased materials cost have pushed prices far out of reach for entry-level home buyers;
- * The average new home – often, a McMansion or a modern farmhouse – averages about 2,220 sq. ft., far exceeding the basic needs of most Americans seeking starter homes;
- * Hedge funds and private equity investors have been aggressively buying up single-family homes since the housing crash of 2008, further pushing home prices out of reach for regular Americans; as a result, 40% of all single-family homes are expected to be rentals by 2030; and,
- * Also by 2030, Fannie Mae projects that roughly half of all single-family homes will be owned by the age 60-plus population, putting into question where that population will reside when they need assisted living, and who will own the properties once they’re sold.
HomeEc disrupts the traditional housing market by providing a cost-effective means in which property owners can incorporate additional living space into existing lots. HomeEc’s easily constructed, inviting prefab ADUs reduce construction times by 66%, while using materials with exceptional durability and energy efficiency.
To learn more about the Levitts and how their business model fit into the Baby Boom, click here.
In our next installment, we’ll discuss what sets HomeEc apart from other housing solutions.