Would You Buy a One-Bathroom Home?

We talk a lot about housing affordability in California—interest rates, down payments, inventory, construction costs and the challenges facing first-time buyers. Through my work in real estate and my involvement at both the local and state association level, I have the opportunity to hear many of these conversations.

But lately I keep coming back to a much simpler question:

Would you buy a new home with only one bathroom?

It may sound like an odd question, but I think it represents something much bigger.

My first home was less than 900 square feet with three bedrooms and one bathroom, in a neighborhood that wasn't necessarily at the top of anyone's wish list. It wasn't my dream home. It was my first home.

Before buying it, I lived at home with my parents and saved. Much of my savings actually came from a very busy babysitting business. When we purchased the house, I was working full time and my fiancé was working while going to school. We bought what we could afford at that point in our lives and started there.

A generation later, I watched my own three children make similar choices. Each stretched to purchase a first home. All three started with just one bathroom, and two purchased one-bedroom homes. They didn't begin with everything they may ultimately want. They began with an opportunity to own.

That makes me wonder whether we have changed not only the economics of homeownership, but also our definition of a first home.

Many first-time buyers understandably picture homeownership through the lens of the home they grew up in—the three bedrooms, two bathrooms, remodeled kitchen, granite countertops and nice yard. But that may be the home their parents worked their way up to, not necessarily where they started.

Where Is the New Starter Home?

When I look at our existing housing stock, I can still find two-bedroom, one-bath homes and other modest properties that once represented a typical entry point into homeownership.

What I have a much harder time finding is their equivalent in new construction.

New homes tend to offer more bathrooms, larger kitchens, primary suites and many of the features buyers have come to expect. There's nothing wrong with wanting those things. But I wonder what those expectations do to the cost of getting through the front door.

Have we designed the traditional starter home out of new construction?

Interestingly, I'm not the only one asking. A recent Realtor.com article, “What Is a Starter Home? The Small, Affordable Houses That Weren’t Being Built Anymore—Until Now,” looks at this same issue. The article describes the traditional postwar starter home as often just 800 to 1,000 square feet, typically with two bedrooms, one bathroom and relatively simple interiors.

That sounds remarkably similar to the kind of home I'm wondering about today.

Related Reading: What Is a Starter Home? The Small, Affordable Houses That Weren’t Being Built Anymore—Until Now | Realtor.com

Maybe It's Time to Rethink the Product

I'm not suggesting that one-bathroom homes are the answer to California's housing affordability problem. Land costs, regulations, infrastructure, labor, materials, financing and many other factors influence what can be built and at what price. Today's affordability challenges are very real.

But as we search for ways to help more Californians become homeowners, perhaps we need to ask not only how we help people afford the homes we're building, but whether we're building enough homes they can afford in the first place.

Could the next generation of starter homes be smaller? Could we build more modest two-bedroom homes, cottages, townhomes or condominiums with simpler finishes and fewer amenities? Could a thoughtfully designed 800- or 1,000-square-foot home once again become a meaningful first rung on the homeownership ladder?

And perhaps the other half of that question belongs to us as consumers.

Would we buy them?

Would a first-time buyer choose a smaller home with one bathroom, a simpler kitchen and fewer amenities if the tradeoff were a more attainable opportunity to become a homeowner?

I don't pretend to have the answer. But as California continues to wrestle with housing affordability and we look for ways to create more opportunities for homeownership, I think it's a conversation worth having.

So I'm putting the question out there:

Would you buy a smaller new home with just one bathroom if it gave you a more attainable path to homeownership?

I'd genuinely like to know.

Maybe bringing back the starter home begins by reconsidering what we're willing to call a start.