I dislike the term residential unit.

It makes a home sound like some sort of widget. When have you ever heard someone say, "unit sweet unit"? Never. And yet this is generally what we use to refer to housing that comes in an apartment form and is not grade-related.

If you build low-rise houses, you're a home builder. But anything beyond that, and the home moniker apparently needs to fall away.

There is, of course, a very good reason for this and it is that we have a longstanding history of not liking apartments. And so this is in all likelihood some sort of carryover of that bias. Surely there's no way to create a morally-correct home in an apartment. So let's use a more utilitarian sounding name, like unit.

I'm sure that I have used the word "unit" countless times on this blog throughout the years. But I am working to remove it from my vocabulary. And now you can all hold me accountable to that.

I dislike the term residential unit.

It makes a home sound like some sort of widget. When have you ever heard someone say, "unit sweet unit"? Never. And yet this is generally what we use to refer to housing that comes in an apartment form and is not grade-related.

If you build low-rise houses, you're a home builder. But anything beyond that, and the home moniker apparently needs to fall away.

There is, of course, a very good reason for this and it is that we have a longstanding history of not liking apartments. And so this is in all likelihood some sort of carryover of that bias. Surely there's no way to create a morally-correct home in an apartment. So let's use a more utilitarian sounding name, like unit.

I'm sure that I have used the word "unit" countless times on this blog throughout the years. But I am working to remove it from my vocabulary. And now you can all hold me accountable to that.