Dive Brief:
- A record number of accessory dwelling units — more than 10,200 — were completed in Los Angeles County in 2025, accounting for 37% of the county’s new housing, according to a recent analysis by the Neighborhood Data for Social Change, a project within the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate.
- Overall housing production in the county fell more than 4% in 2025 compared with the year prior, slipping to 27,293 new units from 28,498.
- Expedited replacement housing for homes lost in the Palisades and Eaton fires impacted the numbers, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
Several states and cities are embracing ADUs — sometimes called granny flats or cottage houses — as one tool to address a widespread affordable housing shortage.
Despite the proliferation of new ADUs, Los Angeles County remains far behind its state-mandated goal of 812,000 new permitted housing units by 2029, according to the Lusk Center. The county has produced less than 125,400 units since 2021, the report said.
“I don’t think that’s to say we shouldn’t feel encouraged by these initial signs of a supply expansion when it comes to ADUs,” Jared Schachner, a researcher for the Lusk Center report and assistant professor of research at USC’s Price School of Public Policy, told the Los Angeles Daily News. “But it’s not nearly enough to fill that gap in terms of what we need regionally.”
The full impact of ADUs on local housing supply also remains unclear, as the diminutive structures located on the same land as a primary home may or may not be used as a rental apartment or living space by the homeowners who build them, the Daily News reported.
California and the city and county of Los Angeles have all made efforts to streamline ADU permitting in recent years, according to the report. ADUs are “a key strategy for relieving housing market pressures, as they offer a cost-effective, flexible way to add homes within existing neighborhoods, often without major new infrastructure,” the Lusk Center report said.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in March approved $3.8 million in state funding to help residents in unincorporated communities erect ADUs following last year’s Eaton Fire.
“ADUs can help house displaced family members, provide rental income to offset rebuilding costs and offer long-term stability,” Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a news release.
