Technological Options for Enhancing ADU’s Sustainability: Solar PV and Insulation

During the economical recession of 2008/2009, Portland saw housing and rent prices go down (pretty much like any other major city in the United States), and by that time, nothing was said about housing or affordability problems. After the recession, nonetheless, the city experienced a strong growth—people from all over the country and really from all over the world started moving to the city, attracted by its features, including the weather, abundant nature, social diversity, and strong economy. The fact that the economy was in a good shape again and that thousands of people were moving here, made the real estate and rent market to suffer from a supply shortage, thus leading prices to skyrocket—ultimately creating what is now being called the housing affordability crisis (see [1, 2]). To make matters worse, Portland is expected to grow even more in the next decades, and that brings concerns to the population as well as to policy-makers around infrastructure capabilities, among which housing stands out as one of the biggest challenges. According to [3], the metro-area population could receive up to 725,000 new residents in the next 20 years, and [4] states that the city of Portland alone might experience an increase of 56–74% of its households by the year of 2035. All of the studies and reports that deal with the expected growth in the City of Roses highlight housing as the biggest issue to be tackled. As aforementioned, as of now, Portland already is facing severe housing affordability problems, and once population starts to grow even further, the building of new housing does not seem to keep up with the demand. On [5], the journalist raises the question whether the city is/will be prepared to accommodate all of its new residents in the next few years.