Going garage-free: How builders are driving down costs to deliver more affordable homes

In a new Texas development called Indigo, right outside Houston, homeowners can rely less on cars to get around.

The project is focused on walkability, an approach the developer says can also drive down home prices, making homeownership more attainable. Instead of garages dotting the neighborhood’s streets, many will be gone entirely.

Though the project is unconventional in sprawling, car-centric greater Houston, Meristem Communities’ reassessment of the garage is becoming more commonplace in conversations among homebuilders nationally as they look for ways to lower costs.

Forgoing the garage completely, or swapping a two-car garage for a one-car model, is a means to create more affordable residences as the median new home price in the United States has reached a high of $446,000, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The method works, industry professionals say, because houses can be built on smaller or narrower lots, and a wider home isn’t needed to accommodate the car space. Those savings are then passed on to buyers.

Builders such as D.R. Horton, Toll Brothers and Century Communities have looked to smaller homes as a cost-saving strategy, while some architects have cut down the size of amenities such as public parks and clubhouses in their master-planned projects. The goal is to meet affordable housing demand, while the results can end up shifting the look of a traditional neighborhood.

“It’s definitely been on the major forefront with every builder we’ve been working with, especially since interest rates came up in the last couple of years,” said Seth Hart, an architect with DTJ Design who’s worked with Toll Brothers, Shea Homes and Thrive Home Builders on residential developments. “Everything is about attainability.”

Determining where to make trade-offs is a dance, professionals say, one that can be complicated by local zoning rules that regulate the design and construction of new homes. But in the end, it can deliver more affordably priced homes for Americans looking to buy — if they’re willing to let go of some features.

In planning Indigo, Scott Snodgrass, Meristem’s founding partner, gained approval for small, shared parking lots rather than garages. The development, expecting move-ins this month, includes a general store, more sidewalks and narrower streets than a typical cluster of suburban homes.

“If you can’t push the levers anywhere else that helps someone afford a home, what you can do is help them reduce their reliance on the vehicles they have,” Snodgrass said during the International Builders’ Show last month in Las Vegas. “We believe, even in car-centric Houston, we have two- to three-car families that will be dropping a car, saving them $12,000 to $15,000 a year.”

Diminishing the size of a garage can help homebuilders maximize land use and minimize materials — a cost that’s risen and part of the reason why home prices are at historic highs.

“At a certain point, you have to look holistically at a design project, at a home,” said DTJ Design’s Hart. “You can’t say we’re going to make everything smaller but keep all of the program the same. A lot of times that’s the conventional thinking of big national home builders, ‘Well, we still want three bedrooms. We still want a two-car garage. We still want all the things, we just need to find a way to do it smaller.’”

DTJ Design worked with Hartford Homes to develop a design that would cost less. The result was the single-family detached Bloom Cottages in Fort Collins, Colorado, homes that are situated around a common courtyard with a detached garage building.

Hartford Homes tested the market with 22 cottages last year and plans to build 125 more due to their popularity. The homes are 1,024 to 1,538 square feet, aimed to help first-time buyers get into the market, and priced starting in the low $400,000s. They feature between two and four bedrooms and two to three bathrooms with one or two detached garage space options.

Another way builders can reduce housing costs is by cutting down the size of recreational clubhouses or parks in a planned development. Or they can choose to build on land near where amenities already exist.

“This proximity to neighboring amenities can actually eliminate what you may need or want in your own neighborhood you’re creating,” said Chris Grady, a land planner at architecture firm Kephart. “Leverage what’s on the outside.”

Typical zoning requirements, though they vary by city, require a number of off-street parking spots per unit or bedroom, the Housing Solutions Lab at New York University said in a 2021 report. With household formation declining and the two-parents-with-children family structure no longer as prominent, according to the Census Bureau, adjusting garage requirements could be a solution with little impact.

Minnesota pushed for a “People Over Parking” law last year, removing parking requirements, but it failed to pass. This year, state legislators are trying again. Other cities across the country have ended similar rules, such as San Francisco in 2019; Austin, Texas, in 2023; Portland, Oregon, in 2023; and Buffalo, New York, in 2017.

“The smallest consumer group today is the traditional single-family buyer that has kids that want to go to school; that’s what our zoning is focused on right now,” John Hunt, chief analyst at housing research firm MarketNSight, said during the builders show.

Part of the acceptance and move toward one-car garages or no garages could be dependent on age, according to architect Jaime Matheron, who recently designed a $5 million home in Palo Alto, California, with a one-car garage.

“When there’s a constrained amount of land, why devote all that space to a garage?” Matheron of Dahlin Architecture said. “There may be a generational shift of, ‘Do we need that much garage space?’”

At the same time, much of the older existing housing stock in the United States has no parking. The inventory comes from decades ago when much of the so-called middle housing stock was built, said Hunt.

Sixty-six percent of new homes built in 2023 included a two-car garage, according to federal data. But just 39% of homes included two-car garages in 1971, with 26% not including any parking.

Data shows that new homes are shrinking in size in response to land availability and affordability. The National Association of Home Builders found the median home size dropped to 2,150 square feet in 2024, the smallest in 15 years. Lot sizes have declined by 1,000 square feet over that time frame.

Still, municipalities across the country dictate widely ranging minimum lot sizes for new single-family construction, keeping builders from developing smaller houses. A 2023 working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found municipalities with high minimum lot requirements had home prices nearly $30,000 higher compared to areas with smaller ones.

Without the limitations, some builders look to provide even smaller housing options that are more affordable.

Developer Snodgrass noted that the vast majority of homes in the Houston suburbs were built for two-parent households with children. That's created an opportunity for alternatives aimed at buyers who don't fit the profile. At Indigo, Meristem offered cottages between 939 to 1,350 square feet, priced around $219,000. They sold out in 45 days.

There is a “huge waitlist” for the homes, said Snodgrass.

Builders often face off against local government officials over square footage limits, too. While some towns and cities believe smaller homes could bring down values, analysts such as Hunt beg to differ.

“We need more product that is 1,750 to 950 square feet, the market wants it, but most cities are predisposed against it,” he said. “Building smaller homes increases your values. It’s an educational process, and we’ve got to tell that to everybody.”