BOISE, Idaho — Cody Draper stood outdoors his Boise Bench warehouse on a chilly February afternoon and watched as a crane truck, flooding the world with the odor of diesel, lifted a home into the sky.
Employees rigorously positioned the house out of the best way, then slid inexperienced straps over a second residence to carry. These houses, says Draper, could possibly be an answer to Idaho’s painful housing scarcity: a house that may be prepared in two to 6 weeks for a fraction of the traditional price of a brand new home.
Draper is the founder and CEO of a Boise firm referred to as Mountain Modular. The startup builds sturdy, steel-framed houses in its two warehouses that it could possibly truck and carry into Treasure Valley backyards as accent dwelling models, or ADUs.
“Basically, you get your property delivered like a pizza,” Draper mentioned. “We simply do all of the on-site work, and in per week you’re residing in a house watching soccer.”
Mountain Modular’s plan so as to add houses to the Treasure Valley’s housing market comes as residents are leaping to construct ADUs of their backyards because the metropolis of Boise loosened restrictions throughout an overhaul of its zoning code in 2023. The corporate is drawing consideration from native leaders with visits from the staffs of Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Meridian Mayor Robert Simison.
The enterprise shouldn’t be the primary within the Boise space to construct ADUs. A number of builders supply the prospect of a house for aged or different members of the family, an area for work or a spot for company, and the prospect to earn supplemental earnings from tenants. Fashions vary from hanging customized houses with massive home windows to cheap constructions resembling yard sheds. (Like most different such builders, Mountain Modular builds bigger homes too.)
ADUs, Draper mentioned, might assist alleviate among the ache from the housing disaster as the value to purchase stays excessive.
ADUs are houses that include a kitchen, a full lavatory, and residing and sleeping areas however should not the primary construction on the property, in line with town of Boise. ADUs are often smaller than the primary residence and usually constructed on-site.
In contrast to cell houses or manufactured houses constructed on chassis, Mountain Modular’s houses are constructed to worldwide requirements, qualify for conventional financing, and are inspected and delivered in sequence with the patrons’ foundations and constructing permits, Draper mentioned. The corporate is a “one cease store.”
“We’re not a tiny residence, we aren’t a cell residence,” Draper mentioned in an interview. “We are literally an actual residence that’s simply in-built a warehouse.”
The corporate has blueprints for a number of sorts of garages, ADUs and bigger houses with studio to three-bedroom models starting from about $100,000 to $300,000, although Draper mentioned the last word worth relies on how far Mountain Modular must take a unit. The houses are trendy with vaulted living-room ceilings, they usually vary from 450 sq. toes to almost 2,500 sq. toes, with choices for as much as two loos and a two-car storage, a patio and a coated porch.
Alley Properties, a standard stick-built ADU builder in Boise, estimated that the common complete price for an ADU in Boise was $150,000 to $325,000 in 2024.
In keeping with Marc McConnell, a accomplice at Mountain Modular, the fee might lower as the corporate grows and it finds methods to construct extra effectively. The corporate nonetheless subcontracts some work out however is planning to begin bending its personal metal frames and doing its personal insulation work.
Nonetheless, the fee is low in contrast with historic residence costs that noticed quick development after the Nice Recession then lurched additional skyward through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The median worth to purchase a house in 2025 was $415,000 in Canyon County and $540,000 in Ada County, in line with Intermountain A number of Itemizing Service knowledge. Since 2019, that’s a worth enhance of over 67% for Canyon County, 56.5% for Ada County.
In distant Valley County, the place Draper bought his begin in improvement, the numbers are worse. The median residence worth in 2025 was an eye-watering $776,000 — an almost 82% enhance since 2019.
“Inexpensive housing in Valley County doesn’t exist,” Draper mentioned. “And (in) 95% of Idaho.”
Fixing Valley County’s housing scarcity
Draper began his improvement profession with a 20-acre subdivision in Lake Fork, about 7.5 miles south of McCall, however struggled with the remoteness, journey and lodging prices, site visitors and shutdowns on Idaho 55 and the seasonal nature of homebuilding within the space.
“Once you work out of city, your charges are excessive,” Draper mentioned. “It’s simply a kind of (issues) that we’ve to face and say ‘look, we have to stop attempting to reinvent the wheel of constructing in Valley County, and throw that within the rubbish and give you a brand new thought and a brand new system.”
Draper mentioned he needed a greater technique to ship his personal reasonably priced developments and realized constructing in a warehouse took out many of the variables and let employees construct 12 months spherical. He began Mountain Modular in 2023, aiming for distant and hard-to-get-to areas.
McConnell mentioned their imaginative and prescient is to place houses all through the state together with areas like Challis or Solar Valley, which have struggled with housing affordability. Draper mentioned that whereas it might usually price $700,000 for a two-bed in Ketchum or Solar Valley, they may put one among their fashions down for about $250,000.
“The dynamic in all of Idaho is useless,” Draper mentioned. “There’s no technique to do it. That is the answer.”
A hope for housing in Boise?
In keeping with a presentation in February to the Boise Metropolis Council by Deanna Dupuy, a planner with Planning and Growth Companies, 130 ADUs have been permitted in 2024, up from a mean of 61 in earlier years.
“(ADUs have) form of turn into the star of the zoning code,” Dupuy mentioned. They “form of stole the present of the primary 12 months of the zoning code.”
ADUs are primarily going up within the North and East Ends, which Dupuy mentioned is in line with previous developments. However extra are cropping up within the Central and West Bench neighborhoods and in Southeast Boise because the code rewrite.
Mountain Modular is attempting to get a slice of this market, and Draper mentioned they have been lucky that Boise and Meridian permit individuals to position a second houses of their backyards.
“We didn’t begin this for the ADUs,” Draper mentioned. “It form of popped up proper as we have been unfolding.”
The necessity is excessive. To maintain up with the demand for housing, Boise must construct 2,700 houses per 12 months till 2032, in line with a 2022 evaluation. Of that demand, 77% is for housing that’s reasonably priced for these incomes 80% or much less of the world median earnings.
In Boise in 2025, 80% of the world median earnings was $54,000 for a single individual family and $78,400 for a four-person family. In keeping with Zillow’s mortgage calculator, in case your family earns $78,400 per 12 months, you’ve got $0 in debt and make a $20,000 down cost, you can possible afford a $290,000 residence.
Of the almost 8,000 houses offered in Ada County in 2024, simply 46 have been offered for $299,999 or below, in line with Intermountain A number of Itemizing Service knowledge. That’s about 0.006% of all residence gross sales.
McConnell mentioned he’s acquired calls from Wyoming, Montana and Nevada with individuals who can’t discover workforce housing. In McCall, he mentioned the native Albertsons has struggled to seek out checkers since few can afford to stay there.
“We get it,” McConnell mentioned. “It’s not only a Treasure Valley drawback. It’s a nationwide drawback.”
The corporate is increasing to fulfill the necessity. Draper just lately opened a second warehouse, desires a 3rd and hopes to increase into Reno, Nevada, and some different states which have struggled with reasonably priced housing.
“Our mission is to ship hundreds of houses to the Northwest,” Draper mentioned. “We’re nicely on our manner with our personal developments.”
