Zoning Friendliness Scorecard

Methodology

Each state is reviewed against five criteria. The criteria emphasize legal pathways for full-time tiny-home residency — not just hobby THOW ownership — because that's the use case our readers actually need to plan around.

1. THOW residency legality. Can a tiny home on wheels be legally occupied as a primary residence on private land somewhere in the state? Statewide explicit allowance (e.g. an HB or ORS provision) scores best; county-by-county patchwork scores worse; statewide prohibition with no rural exceptions scores worst.
2. ADU permissive framework. Has the state preempted local zoning to legalize ADUs by right? Permissive frameworks like Oregon HB 2001 and California AB 68 / AB 881 score best.
3. Building code adoption. Has the state adopted IRC Appendix Q (the international building code chapter purpose-built for tiny homes < 400 sq ft)? Appendix Q adoption scores best; non-adoption with restrictive minimum-square-footage rules scores worst.
4. State preemption vs local control. States that explicitly preempt restrictive local zoning to enable tiny homes score better than states where local jurisdictions retain full control.
5. Metro-level enforcement consistency. Even with permissive state laws, enforcement varies. We look at how the largest 3–5 metros in each state actually treat THOWs and ADUs in practice (permits granted vs denied, public planning-department guidance).

A state is classified Friendly if it scores well on at least three criteria including #1 or #2; Moderate if it has clear pathways but with material restrictions; Challenging if statewide prohibition or absent pathways make full-time tiny-home residency a meaningful legal risk.

Caveats and what the scores do not capture

The scorecard is a state-level summary. Local enforcement is the variable that actually decides whether a specific build is permitted, and we always direct readers to verify with their local planning department before purchasing land or beginning construction. We update individual state scores when our underlying state research surfaces material legislative or regulatory changes — see each state page for the dated reasoning.

How to cite this dataset

The scorecard is published under CC BY 4.0. Cite as:

TinyHomeList Editorial Team (2026). Zoning Friendliness Scorecard. https://tinyhomelist.com/scorecards/zoning/

BibTeX:

@misc{tinyhomelist_zoning_scorecard_2026,
  author = {TinyHomeList Editorial Team},
  title  = {Zoning Friendliness Scorecard},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://tinyhomelist.com/scorecards/zoning/}
}