Tommy DobczykOpportunity Zone Advisor, OZ Wizard · Director of Development | Certified Opportunity Zone Advisor

Affordable Housing Revolution: HUD Duplexes & Zero Lot Lines Explained! #shorts

23 Apr 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:34

In this short, the speaker explains a new affordable‑housing model that uses HUD‑approved duplexes available in all 50 states. These units are manufactured homes built on real foundations with a zero‑lot‑line design, allowing each side of the duplex to be treated as a separate townhome with fee‑simple ownership of the land beneath it. The speaker describes the regulatory overlay that permits this configuration, the city and civil‑engineer review process, and the pricing strategy that keeps units below the local median income (roughly $400,000). He highlights the market niche these homes fill—appealing to retirees, first‑time homebuyers, and investors because the purchase price is often lower than comparable rental rates.

Chapters

Are you running deals like this? Home distributor, and there's affordable housing cottage home rules zoning that overlays over normal zoning. So about 2 years ago, they came out with a duplex that's HUD approved in all 50 states, and I was just looking at it and, and I said, what's the difference between a stick-built and, you know, regular duplex? And then you can, you know, you can townhome them if the land under it is Fee simple. So I put it through the city, talked to a civil engineer, and the civil engineer said, yeah, it seems it meets all the rules. They just didn't expect the rules to go together. Like, so basically what I'm doing— and I'm gonna find out in about 6 days if the city approves the second review— they understand it's a manufactured home and it has a zero lot line, which means that one property on the left of the middle of the duplex is your home once it's, once it's sold, and it has its own parcel numbers and the dirt underneath it. But it's just, just a townhome. That's all it is. But the cool thing about the concept is the houses are actual affordable. They're on a real foundation. They're below the medium income, as long as in the area it's, it's below $400,000 medium income, and somebody can buy it. That it finds an actual niche that a buyer would do, and I'm thinking folks that are retiring, folks that are entering into the housing market, and investors, because it's below the price point of rent. So it just meets a lot of niches.