Research methodology

Where our numbers come from, and how to read them.

First-party project data

Costs, rents, appraisals, sizes and timelines described as coming from our builds are drawn from project records of ADUs designed and built by our team. We anonymize them: names, addresses and identifying details are removed, and we present results as ratios where local dollar figures would identify a project or mislead readers in other markets.

Public data

National figures come from government and institutional sources, cited on each page — for example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics rent index and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Calculators and examples

Our calculators use the formulas described on each tool page. Worked examples use illustrative figures, labeled as such, and are not quotes or forecasts. Every result depends on your own inputs; confirm costs with a fixed-price quote, rents with local comparables, and values with a lender and appraiser.

What we don’t do

We don’t publish figures we can’t trace to a record or a source, and we don’t present estimates as measured data.