Experts push standardization, off-site construction and guaranteed factory demand to scale starter homes in Washington state

Adam, a presenter at a Washington state housing session, told attendees that scaling production of starter homes requires "standardization as a practice across the ecosystem," including design, workforce, policy and financing.

He said statewide systems such as master permitting or state-level systems permitting would reduce local fragmentation and speed adoption of off-site construction methods. "If we want to be able to produce starter homes at scale, we really need to lean into standardization as a practice across the ecosystem," Adam said.

The presenter outlined a range of off-site technologies that should be accommodated, including panelization, wet cores and walls, prefabricated components and full volumetric modular units. He noted current regulatory coverage favors full volumetric…