Missing Middle Housing

With walkable, mixed-use real estate now in high demand as an economic engine for cities, metropolitan governments are reexamining how to build productive, resilient urban places to attract young talent, aging demographics, and new employment sectors. A crucial factor in their development is diversity—not just diversity of residents, but in housing, transportation, and workplace choices.

Missing Middle Housing, developed by CNU member Dan Parolek and Opticos Design, is an initiative designed to confront and help remedy a serious market gap in many walkable urban places.

Missing Middle is a range of multi-unit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes that help meet the growing demand for walkable urban living. These types provide diverse housing options along a spectrum of affordability, including duplexes, fourplexes, and bungalow courts, to support walkable communities, locally-serving retail, and public transportation options. Missing Middle Housing provides a solution to the mismatch between the available U.S. housing stock and shifting demographics combined with the growing demand for walkability.

This website is designed to serve as a collective resource for planners and developers seeking to implement Missing Middle projects. You will find clear definitions of the types of mid-density housing that are best for creating walkable neighborhoods, as well as information on the unifying characteristics of these building types. The website also offers information on how to integrate Missing Middle Housing into existing neighborhoods, explains how to regulate these building types, and pin-points the market demographic that demands them.

For more information about Missing Middle Housing including analysis, case studies, and resources, visit www.missingmiddlehousing.com.

Top photo: Opticos Design, Inc.