Gov. Katie Hobbs signed two bills - one which makes the the creation of casitas legal across the state, and a bill aimed at encouraging the construction of other than single-family housing - that advocates say will facilitate a desperately-needed increase in Arizona’s housing supply.
There’s a lot of HUGE differences between Tucson and Vancouver, CA. Many of them cultural, even more logistical.
I was looking for rentals in Tucson not too long ago and Casitas are a great choice, and the short-term housing market basically popped, so they aren’t competing like they once were. It seemed like Tucson was popular when everyone and their aunt was working remote and folks felt like they could move. I think were on the other side of that now with many businesses declaring Return To Office forcing many to return to wherever their employer is located.
As a result, I’m seeing a lot of short term only rentals back on the market entirely.
And that’s before getting into the culture of Tucson and how Casitas have a long, storied history here. There are certain areas of town where almost every home has a Casita, and they aren’t where the short term rentals are - quite the opposite actually. Living in Downtown Tucson in a charming Casita still has to deal with living downtown.
The other big factor is population density, and it’s a HUGE factor.
Downtown Tucson is rocking about 2,449.8/sq mi (2,251.44/sq mi for our metro) while Vancouver (the city, not the metro) is an astounding 14,892/sq mi.
There’s just a LOT more space to put ADU’s/Casitas than there would be in Vancouver, and coupled with an existing culture that utilizes Casitas for long term housing, I think it’ll turn out differently. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Learned something today
Very different from the Vancouver market for sure