Deal makers
This page is only useful if it's right. If one of these is wrong, or the label's too generous, tell me.
I keep a page of deal breakers, every argument against all of this that I take seriously. It sat there on its own for a while and started to feel lopsided, like I only collect the reasons to quit. So here's the other list. The reasons I think building an ADU, and letting people build more housing generally, is worth doing.
Same as the other page: each one gets a label for how sure I am of it. Solid means there's real evidence for it. Holding up means it's plausible and partly shown. Betting on it means it's a reason I believe but can't prove yet.
Solid
Solid One new home helps a family that never sets foot in it. This one has been measured.
When somebody moves into a newly built place, they leave one behind. Somebody moves into that one and leaves another. The chain runs five or six moves and ends up in a cheaper neighborhood than it started in. That isn't a hunch, it's been counted, and one of the moves in the chain lands on a household that could never have bought the new place directly. Build one, and a family several rungs down gets a better home.
Read how
Deal breaker: Housing is zero-sum
Solid The law actually changed. A homeowner has a right now they didn't have on June 30. Codified and dated.
SB 1354 is real. It's in Idaho Code at § 67-6541, it took effect July 1, 2026, and every Idaho city over 10,000 people has to bring its own code into line by February 1, 2027. That's Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene, Hayden, Rathdrum. This isn't a bill somebody is hoping passes. It passed, and the clock is running.
Read how
Holding up
Holding up Taking control over what gets built away from the local level is the thing that actually brings housing costs down. The clearest case for it is Tokyo.
Tokyo largely took zoning out of local hands and kept building through decades of population growth. Its housing stayed affordable while every other big rich city's ran away. It's one city, in another country, with a different starting point, so I hold it as strong evidence rather than proof. It is a big part of why I think the state stepping in on ADUs is the right call and not an overreach.
No post yet. It runs underneath most of what I've written on why.
Deal breaker: This is central planning from Boise
Holding up An ADU is the cheapest way to add a home in an expensive place. On paper, and I'm testing it on my own lot.
You build on land you already own, so there's no land cost, and land is most of what makes a house here expensive. You're often tapping utilities that are already in the ground. My own numbers so far hold up. What I don't have yet is a finished build with a final total on it, and that's the number that settles the argument.
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Deal breaker: Fees price an ADU out before you start
Betting on it
Betting on it It keeps young families near the people who help them raise their kids. This is one I feel, not one I can chart.
When my wife and I were raising our sons, our parents were close by, and it mattered more than I can put a number on. If my kids have to move three states away to afford a house, they lose that, and so do I. Every home built here that a young family can actually reach is a shot at keeping them in range of their people.
Read how
Deal breaker: Just move somewhere cheaper
Betting on it More homes near the work means shorter commutes, not longer ones. The alternative is the one that adds traffic.
The housing a town gets when it won't allow infill is a subdivision at the edge, and everyone in it drives. A small home or an ADU on a lot that's already in town doesn't add a commute. I can't hand you a corridor travel-time study for Kootenai County yet. I can tell you the worst choke point on US-95 got that way while people argued about growth instead of housing it.
Still chasing a real travel-time number for the Hayden–Coeur d'Alene corridor.
Deal breaker: More housing just means more sprawl
Tell me one I'm missing, or one I've oversold
Same offer as the deal breakers page, pointed the other way. If there's a reason to do this that isn't on the list, send it. If you think I've put a green label on something that hasn't earned it, that's the more useful message and I want it.
The contact form if you'd rather it stay private, a comment on any post, or a message to the Facebook page.