what it's cheaper to rent or buy it's a question that a lot of first-time homeowners may ask themselves and a sobering new report gets some clarity at least at this point in time the report from bank rate looked at 50 Metro areas and found that the Bay Area had the biggest gaps between renting and buying in the areas of San Francisco Oakland and Berkeley renters pay about $3,500 a month compared that to the average mortgage payment of more than $8500 a similar situation in the South Bay where rent is about $3 $200 but a mortgage is $8,500 bankr says one of the reasons for the Staggering Gap is a low housing inventory California has been trying hard to build up a supply but it's been challenging one of the solutions is called backyard homes or accessory dwelling units in recent years State lawmakers have been removing a lot of red tape to make it easier to build them and sell them but in one community on the peninsula contractors say they're meeting a lot of resistance when it comes to buing adus and as our Kenny Choy shows us it's coming from an unlikely [Music] Source building accessory dwelling units is becoming a steady source of income for General Contractors like Tim Pond but a new mandate in Montara adding tens of thousands of dollars to the price tag isn't helping by the time they're you know I informed them of the costs up front and um people are often um reluctant to even start the process the Montara water and Sanitary District now requires Builders to install new water lines and meters for all adus rather than connect them to the existing lines on a property it's just frustrating to me especially since a lot of people are in need for these units to have to tell them that they need to pay this amount of money and do this amount of unnecessary work since policy makers established in 2016 a Statewide set of rules for legalizing accessory dwelling unit the number of adus permitted each year in California increased by more than 15,000 between 2016 and 2022 resulting in nearly 85,000 adus permitted starting last year Mona residents trying to build adus have had to pull additional permits and pay other engineering fees in the thousands they want us to dig into the street to the middle of the street and install a pipe which roughly supplies 10 times the amount of water that we need for the Adu install a new water M and a new meter Pond says no other jurisdiction in the Bay Area requires this additional setup that is tacking on 15 to $20,000 to the cost of constructing an Adu Lewis moranti is Vice President of public policy on housing for the nonprofit Bay Area Council there are just so many agencies in California that don't see solving the housing crisis as part of their mandate who are actively making it worse and this is a good example of one of those situations the Montara water and Sanitary District declined multiple on camera interview requests to explain why the new water line and meter rules were put into place this is currently uncommon I think in the Bay Area but it's a trend that I'm seeing and it's a trend that concerns me your your feasibility depends on cost and these costs increase you know overall to a point where it's just not worth it to build it Pon says there's growing demand to build more adus in the Bay Area getting rid of unnecessary red tape is Paramount in making a bigger dent in the housing crisis State housing data shows that for every Adu completed in 2022 roughly three prits were submitted in the previous year that indicates local cities and communities have not kept pace with demand in California thanks for watching you can get the latest headlines and weather over on pix plus and remember to like and click the button on the bottom left of your screen to subscribe for the big Bay Area News
