2023 BuildCasa Year in Review: Building the Missing Middle

At BuildCasa, we just wrapped up our first full year of operations, and we’re making great progress towards our mission to build 100,000 homes in existing neighborhoods. The lack of housing supply, especially affordable starter homes in places where many people want to live and work, is one of the greatest crises of our generation. At BuildCasa, we help homeowners leverage new upzoning laws to unlock six-figures of cash from their extra lot space, without giving up their house or mortgage. 

As we look back on what we’ve accomplished in the past year as we move closer to our mission and goals, we wanted to share some exciting highlights:

• 97 New Starter Homes in Development: BuildCasa has nearly 100 new housing units in various phases of the building process. 
• 246,160 SF of New Developable Land: Magic is happening and where one lot used to stand, now there will be two. BuildCasa’s process has laid the groundwork for 246,160 square feet of new lots, including in neighborhoods that haven’t seen new development in decades. 
• $104K Average Homeowner Payout: We have helped partnered with homeowners in 11 jurisdictions across the state netting them an average of $104,000 in cash while keeping their house and mortgage.  
• $3.5M Pre-seed Funding: BuildCasa raised $3.5M in seed capital from top VCs like Gutter Capital, Precursor, Kapor, Hometeam, Blue Field Capital, and top angels like Ryan Johnson (Culdesac) and Brian Ma (Divvy).   

We’ve seen coverage of our mission and the success stories of BuildCasa customers in NPR, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and Bloomberg.  

After incredible success and demand in Northern California, we have already begun the process of expanding statewide beyond our pilot market of Sacramento, with projects underway in the Bay Area, Riverside, and San Diego. As we look ahead to 2024, we’re excited to continue our momentum and to announce expanded jurisdictions in Southern California. 2024 will be a year of growth and expansion as we work to serve more customers across the state.

We’re 1/1,000th of the way to our goal, but the signals are strong that BuildCasa will play an important role in the solution to the housing crisis in America. As upzoning spreads across the country, we’re more confident than ever that we can make a big dent in the shortage of starter homes in this country.

-Ben and Paul