Rethinking the Role and Design of Duplex Homes

Duplexes are a viable strong market solution to rising home prices. By converting former single-family sites into duplex developments, a developer is able to increase density without significantly increasing necessary footprint, acquisition, and utility costs. This can be especially helpful in urban areas where housing shortages are most pronounced and where land is most costly. These projects explored this tactic while also questioning the conventional layout challenges for the duplex typology historically challenging for young families. An offset layout in the first project showcases an approach to duplex design that minimizes shared party walls while maximizing defined and semi-private exterior spaces for families. This project was built on two separate Lincoln, Nebraska sites in 2022. The second project trades these advantages for the ability to develop additional units (four duplex units on a former single family site) and attached (two car) garages.

These 3BR/2BA homes were developed at an average cost of $305K and sold for $165K to $190K to qualifying first time homebuyers making less than 80% of area median income. Unfinished basements allow homeowners to add up to two additional bedrooms and a full bath as their financing and family size dictate. Gap financing was secured through the Nebraska Affordable Housing Trust Fund and their inclusion in the NeighborWorks Lincoln Community Land Trust also ensures that these homes will remain affordable for the foreseeable future (when they decide to sell, these eight families have agreed to do so to a family in their same economic circumstance as when they bought). Given an average residential tenure of 7 to 10 years, these duplex units will serve as many as fifty low- and middle-income families over their useful life.

Projects completed with NeighborWorks Lincoln