Self-help housing and DIY home improvements: evidence from the American Housing Survey

Abstract

Self-help housing has been widely studied across the developing world. Little is known, however, about the contemporary use of self-help housing in the U.S. In this study we examine self-help housing in the U.S. and its potential links to two related concepts: incremental development and informal housing. We use data from the American Housing Survey from 1997 to 2011 to examine the prevalence, location, and the development process of self-help housing in comparison with that of conventional housing. Our analysis shows that self-help housing is common in the United States, comprising approximately 10% of new owner-occupied single-family housing units nationwide and more than double that in rural areas across the country. We analyse home improvement activity for self-help and conventional homeowners, illustrating the incremental process by which self-builders improve their homes, widespread reliance on do-it-yourself (DIY) methods, and the impact of these methods on housing affordability. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for housing research and policy.

Keywords:

• Self-help housing
• DIY
• incremental development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In addition to informal housing production, research has identified informal housing practices in the form of informal property transactions that leave owners with insecure titles (Way, 2009) and illegal property uses such as squatting (Herbert, 2018).

2 See here: https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/about/budget

3 To test this, we used data from the 2005 wave to examine the share of housing units in which the respondent was the first occupant in the dwelling. We did so for all single-family owner-occupied housing units and for those built within the previous two years. Among residents in all single-family owner-occupied units, only 59% of respondents were the first occupant in the dwelling; for dwellings built within the previous two years, 96% of respondents were the first occupant.

4 As shown on the right side of Table 3, and as might be expected given the differences in housing values, self-help homeowners in urban areas reported higher monthly housing costs and mortgage payments than did rural self-help homeowners.

5 We appreciate this suggestion provided by one of the anonymous reviewers. Unfortunately, the AHS does not collect employment data on occupation or industry, nor does it ask respondents about their opinion regarding the design or layout of the dwelling, so we cannot examine these hypotheses.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noah J. Durst

Noah J. Durst is an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at Michigan State University. His research focuses on low-income housing, urban informality, and municipal annexation.

Elena J. Cangelosi

Elena J. Cangelosi, MURP, is a research assistant for the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on rural climate and health adaptation planning and self-help housing.