Reply to Alexandria on the Cusp of Eliminating All SFH Zoning

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]1-4 unit is all treated the same by Fannie/Freddie for purposes of underwriting the property, extensions of credit, downpayment requirement, PMI, etc. It's technically not "multifamily" until its 5+ housing units.

My prediction is that the zoning change will enable construction of townhouses on SFH plots. That will be the vast majority of the permits.  [/quote]

Townhouses are single-family housing.

Also, generally, a row of two townhouses is referred to as a duplex.[/quote]

Not unless the lot is subdivided and each TH has its own deeded lot. Otherwise these duplexes are treated as condos. And many developers build condo duplexes on land where they cannot subdivide the lot and build separate SFH. A duplex is NOT a SFH. You can think of it that way, but that doesn't make it true in the industry, legally or in practice. The TH must have its own separate tax lot.[/quote]

A duplex is a single-family house attached to another single-family house. Townhouses are a series of single-family houses attached to each other.[/quote]

please take real property law class. Die mad that you don't understand the differences I guess.

BTW, all that will be built are super expensive THs (whether in subdivided lots or as duplex condos on one lot), for example link the ones at Commonwealth and E Alexandria done precovid, the ones being currently built on Commonwealth across from the library mentioned upthread, the ones built off of Mt Vernon near the car dealership. That's where the $$$$ is. Too many people with too much money want to live in Alexandria and will pay for these types of TH. Developers do NOT want to be landlords, especially to low and middle income tenants. Sure there are some 501(c)(3) entities that will use tax exempt public financing assistance to build low and middle income housing, but there aren't many, the process is super complicated and arduous, and then you have to be a landlord on an ongoing basis. Aa for TH and condo projects for home ownership (like Henson Ridge) those are even more complicated. That's not going to happen. Developers want the most bang for their buck in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of responsibility.

Yes, I do have urban planning, public/affordable housing and public finance experience (20 years of it). This is exactly what will happen. Everyone has been punked. [/quote]

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