Missing Middle Housing is a range of house-scale buildings with multiple units—compatible in scale and form with detached single-family homes—located in a walkable neighborhood.

Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today's Housing Crisis

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“Few causes of planning reform from recent history have succeeded so thoroughly at adoption into the law of the land as Missing Middle Housing has in recent years, and it is only right that Parolek, who coined the term, has written this definitive guide to the subject.”
– Josh Stephens + James Brasuell, Planetizen

Missing Middle Housing in the News

Top 10 Tips for Cities Considering Pre-Approved Housing Plans

Dan Parolek, Jennifer Settle, July 11, 2024

Developer to revive plans to bring pocket neighborhood to east Santa Rosa

Sara Edwards, July 10, 2024
Smartgrowth

What is a Walkability Study, and Why Should You Do One?

John Coleman, April 30, 2021
Governing

A Recipe for Achieving Real Housing Affordability

Todd Litman, April 30, 2021
Housing Next

Missing Middle Crunch Requires All of Us to Solve It

Ryan Kilpatrick, April 21, 2021
Missing Middle Arlington

Making Space to Age in Place

March 30, 2021

The Types

The Missing Middle Housing types provide diverse housing options, such as duplexes, fourplexes, cottage courts, and multiplexes. These house-scale buildings fit seamlessly into existing residential neighborhoods and support walkability, locally-serving retail, and public transportation options. They provide solutions along a spectrum of affordability to address the mismatch between the available U.S. housing stock and shifting demographics combined with the growing demand for walkability.
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Video Introduction
Duplex: Side-by-Side
Duplex: Stacked
Fourplex: Stacked
Courtyard Building
Cottage Court
Townhouse
Multiplex: Medium
Triplex: Stacked
Live-Work

“Well-designed ‘Missing Middle’ buildings unify the walkable streetscape as they greatly diversify the choices available for households of different age, size, and income. Smaller households tend to eat out more, helping our neighborhood attract wonderful restaurants. Diverse households keep diverse hours meaning we have more people out walking our streets at more varied hours—keeping them safer.”

Ellen Dunham-Jones
Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co‑author of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs

Learn More About Missing Middle Housing

About Missing Middle Housing

This transformative concept highlights a time-proven and beloved way to provide more housing and housing choices in sustainable, walkable places.

What is Missing Middle Housing?

What does the market want?

Learn more about Market Trends

Missing Middle Housing in Practice

Characteristics

Missing Middle Housing is not a new type of building. It is a range of building types building types exist in cities and towns across the country, and were a fundamental building block in pre-1940s neighborhoods.

See the Characteristics

Assembly

With a footprint typically not larger than a large single-family home, Missing Middle buildings are easy to integrate into existing neighborhoods, and serve as a way to transition to higher-density and main street contexts.

Learn about Assembly

How to Regulate

Form-Based Coding has proven to be an alternative to conventional zoning that effectively regulates Missing Middle Housing. Form-Based Codes (FBCs) remove barriers and incentivize housing types in appropriate locations.

Read about Regulation

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