The Starter Home: A Forgotten Path to Affordable Housing
To create more affordable, adaptable housing, we must rediscover the traditional starter home and remove the barriers preventing its return.
A true starter home represents the smallest increment of development — affordable, flexible and built with expansion in mind. Historically, these homes were built with cash or a small loan, sometimes by homeowners themselves, and they were designed for future growth.
Key Traits of a Traditional Starter Home:
- Size: Smaller footprint with an efficient floor plan (~750-1,250 square feet).
- Ownership model: Fee-simple, meaning the home sits on its own lot.
- Design: Simple and efficient, often available as catalog designs or prefabricated kits.
- Construction: DIY-friendly or built by small-scale builders.
- Expandability: Not designed to be "finished" — homes could grow over time with additions.
- Affordability: Materials could be purchased with cash or with a small loan.
- Garage: Enclosed or attached garages were upgrades, not necessities.
This model provided an accessible entry point to homeownership, allowing families to invest incrementally in their homes over time rather than purchasing fully completed houses upfront.
How the Suburban Experiment Erased the Starter Home
The postwar suburban boom fundamentally altered the way cities develop, shifting from incremental, small-scale growth to a model dominated by large-scale production builders focused on efficiency and expansive growth rather than organic demand. This new development pattern prioritized single-use zoning and expansive, built-to-a-finished-state subdivisions, leading to rigid regulations that made traditional starter homes impractical or even illegal.
As a result, homes became larger, more standardized, and increasingly dependent on complex financing models, further distancing homeownership from the adaptable, incremental approach that once defined starter homes.
What Killed the Starter Home?
- Zoning restrictions: Increased minimum lot sizes and setback requirements made small, affordable homes illegal.
- Financing models: The rise of 30-year mortgages made larger, fully finished homes more attractive.
- Development patterns: Large developers built "entry-level homes" at a fixed price point, replacing the incremental approach.
- Cultural shift: Cultural shift: Homeownership became an investment strategy rather than a process of gradual improvement.
The Difference Between a Starter Home and an Entry-Level Home
The terms "starter home" and "entry-level home" are often used interchangeably, but they represent dramatically different approaches to homeownership.
A starter home, in its traditional sense, is the smallest increment of development, designed to be affordable, flexible and expandable over time. These homes were once common and offered a path to gradual investment and growth.
In contrast, the modern "entry-level home" is a mass-produced product created to meet a specific price point in the housing market. These homes are typically larger, require substantial mortgages, and are built to a fixed design, offering little flexibility for expansion or adaptation.
The Path Forward: How Cities Can Bring Back the Starter Home
Bringing back the traditional starter home requires a shift in policy, financing and cultural attitudes toward homeownership.
Policy Changes:
- Reduce minimum lot sizes and setback requirements to allow for small homes.
- Permit small-scale infill development in existing neighborhoods.
- Legalize incremental expansion, allowing homeowners to add space over time.
Financing Innovations:
- Enhance current lending tools to support local lending programs tailored to small, incremental home construction.
- Support self-built housing with streamlined permitting and training programs.
Cultural Shift:
- Move away from the expectation that homes must be "forever homes" at the time of purchase.
- Encourage the idea of homeownership as an evolving process rather than a static product.
The traditional starter home is not just a nostalgic concept — it’s a critical missing piece of our housing ecosystem. By reviving the incremental, adaptable approach to homeownership, we can create more affordable pathways for first-time buyers without relying on subsidies or mass-produced housing developments.
If cities and policymakers recognize the importance of enabling starter homes, they can help restore a housing model that once provided millions of Americans with a sustainable and attainable way to own a home.
Learn how to bring starter homes back to your city. “The Housing-Ready City: A Toolkit for Local Code Reform” presents six code reforms that local officials can implement today with the authority they already have. It explains how to implement these reforms and provides real examples of places that have already done so.
Want to go even deeper? Sign up for the spring session of the Accelerator to get coaching from Strong Towns experts. Discuss approaches with other professionals and develop a plan to make your community housing ready.
Edward Erfurt is the Chief Technical Advisor at Strong Towns. He is a trained architect and passionate urban designer with over 20 years of public- and private-sector experience focused on the management, design, and successful implementation of development and placemaking projects that enrich the tapestry of place. He believes in community-focused processes that are founded on diverse viewpoints, a concern for equity, and guided through time-tested, traditional town-planning principles and development patterns that result in sustainable growth with the community character embraced by the communities which he serves.