Live Washington Terrace listings, filtered
Homes with an ADU or casita in Washington Terrace.
Washington Terrace listings with an accessory dwelling unit, whether that is a basement apartment, a detached casita, or an attached mother-in-law suite, fed straight from the MLS and sorted newest first, with a clear read on what makes one legal here and what to verify before you write an offer.
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Newest first
The newest ADU and casita listings.
Fed straight from the local MLS and filtered to homes that note an accessory dwelling unit, whether that is a basement apartment, a detached casita, or an attached mother-in-law suite. New Washington Terrace listings appear here as they list, and sold homes drop off. The read on what makes one legal is just below.
Buying here
Sort permitted from existing before you tour.
The word that matters most here is permitted: a basement apartment, a casita, or an attached suite only counts as a legal unit if the separate entrance, kitchen, and egress windows are recognized by the city, not just built. Tell me what setup you need and I will have the Washington Terrace-area partner agent I work with pull the permit history on any home you flag.
Selling here
Own a Washington Terrace home with a documented accessory unit?
Buyers on this page want the accessory unit with the paperwork to back it up, the separate entrance, the egress, and the permit record. List it with the Washington Terrace-area partner agent I connect you with and it goes in front of exactly that search.
Listing information comes from the local MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
The local read
What an accessory dwelling really means in Washington Terrace.
An accessory dwelling is a property feature, not a promise. On a Washington Terrace listing it means a secondary living space that can function on its own: a second kitchen, its own bathroom, a separate exterior entrance, and sometimes a separate utility meter. The words move around. A basement apartment is a lower level built out that way, a casita is usually a detached unit set apart from the house, and a mother-in-law suite is usually an attached apartment on the main or upper floor. The search shows up across the Wasatch Front for two honest reasons, flexible living under one roof and a rentable suite where the unit is legal, and both turn on the same homework, which is whether the space is actually permitted.
Washington Terrace is reasonable ground for this search, and the form it takes here is mostly the basement apartment. The northern Utah frost line is deep, so foundations go down and basements are the regional norm, and the city's housing backbone is post-WWII brick cottages and ramblers on modest, mature, tree-lined lots, a great many sitting over a full basement. The city was literally built in 1942 and 1943 as a federal wartime housing project, converted to single-family ownership after the war, so this older single-level stock over a basement is exactly what defines the place. Adding a second kitchen and a private entrance to that kind of basement is exactly the conversion most of these listings describe. The newer two-story and tri-level infill threaded among the older streets can carry an attached suite too, and a tri-level or split-entry floor plan, where the layout puts a grade-level door a half-flight down, suits a separate lower unit as much as anything in town. A fully detached casita is the rarest shape here, since this is a compact, fully built-out city of about two square miles and it takes a lot with real room for a second structure, so treat one as a find rather than an expectation.
Here is the part that matters more than the photos. A finished basement is not the same as a legal apartment, and neither is a converted room over the garage or a guest structure out back. A second kitchen and an outside door do not make a unit conforming on their own, and a great many existing accessory units in older Utah housing were finished over the years without permits or built before today's rules, so they are non-conforming. That is not a reason to walk away, but it is the reason to verify rather than assume. Two questions decide everything: whether the unit is permitted with Washington Terrace City and whether it has its own legal egress, meaning a code-sized window well or door out of every sleeping room below grade. What an accessory dwelling is allowed to be on a given property depends on that parcel's zoning, so the answer is property-specific, not citywide.
Treat any income angle with the same caution. I will not put a rent number or a payment number on a page like this, because what a unit could do depends on its legal status, the specific space, and rules that change, and a non-conforming unit cannot be counted on at all. What I can do is point you at the right stock. If a true separate suite is the goal, the older brick ramblers are the natural hunting ground, so the single-story page is a useful next stop, since a parcel with room and freedom tends to sit in that older stock. If you only want the extra square footage and not a second kitchen, every Washington Terrace listing is the wider search, a different intent than this one. Earlier in the process than show me listings? Start with the Washington Terrace guide, and when a home below reads right, that is the moment to reach out.
What counts as an accessory dwelling
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The form it takes: in Washington Terrace most of these are basement apartments, since full basements are common in the postwar stock. Attached mother-in-law suites turn up in the newer infill, and a detached casita is rare on a lot this size, so read the listing for where the space actually sits.
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Second kitchen: a full or kitchenette setup is the core marker. A finished basement or a spare suite with no kitchen is just extra space, not a separate unit, so read the listing for the actual layout.
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Separate entrance: the second front door this search is really about. A private exterior entry, often a walk-down or a side door, is what makes the space usable on its own rather than a through-the-house extension.
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Separate egress: every sleeping room below grade needs a code-sized window well or a door to the outside. This is a safety item and a legality item at once, and it is the first thing to confirm in person.
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Separate utilities: some units have their own gas or electric meter, or at least split HVAC. It is a convenience, not proof of legality, so note it but do not read it as a permit.
The local map
Where the accessory units actually are.
Homes with a second living space turn up across Washington Terrace, but the forms concentrate in a few patterns, and the basement apartment is by far the dominant one. Here is where to look, and the due-diligence note attached to each.
The 1940s housing-project core
The blocks laid out from the original 1942 and 1943 federal project, later converted to single-family ownership, hold the post-WWII brick cottages and ramblers that form the backbone of the stock, a great many over a full basement. This is the most likely place to find a real separate suite, and also the most likely place to find one finished without a permit, so it is where verification matters most.
Tri-level and split-entry floor plans
The newer infill among the older streets carries tri-level and split-entry layouts, and the design lends itself to a lower level with its own grade-level door, since the split design can put a private entrance just a half-flight down. Confirm the egress windows on every bedroom below grade before you read it as a legal unit.
Newer two-story infill
The pockets of newer two-story construction filling in among the postwar stock tend to have younger systems and full basements, some finished as separate living space or an attached suite. A newer build is more likely to have been finished with permits, but you still verify the unit's status rather than assume it from the age of the house.
Bigger lots, the rare casita
Whether on an older brick cottage or a newer two-story, the homes with the tallest, deepest basements make a comfortable second kitchen and a real bedroom downstairs far more workable than a short, fully below-grade basement. A lot with genuine extra room is also the only place a detached casita has space to sit in a city this built out, so if a separate structure is the goal, that is the lot to look for.
The arterials, traffic vs. access
Homes nearer the connectors toward South Ogden, Riverdale, and the Washington Boulevard corridor are commuter-convenient and carry plenty of the older stock that suits this search. The separate note here is the street, not the unit: drive the block at rush hour, because nearness to an arterial trades a quieter street for quicker access.
The bench edge, with a flood check
Toward the Weber River bottoms on the north, the bench-edge blocks include older homes that can carry a built-out lower level. The added note here is that the low ground near the river bottoms can fall in the FEMA floodplain, which matters for a below-grade space, so pull the flood map and the flood-insurance picture per parcel.
Before you tour: what to actually check
Is it permitted: ask the listing agent for the permit history and confirm the unit's status and zoning with Washington Terrace City. A second kitchen and a side door do not make a unit legal on their own.
Egress on every bedroom: each sleeping room below grade needs a code-sized egress window and well, or a door to the outside. Look at the actual window wells, not just the listing photos.
Conforming vs. existing: many older accessory units are non-conforming, finished before today's rules or without permits. Understand exactly what you are buying and what can and cannot be relied on.
What the parcel's zoning allows: what an accessory dwelling can be is property-specific, not citywide, so confirm the zoning on the exact parcel with Washington Terrace City rather than assuming the rule from the home next door.
Attached, detached, or below grade: note which form you are actually looking at, because they live very differently, and an older postwar basement can be low. Stand in it before you picture anyone living there.
Inspect the decades, not just the house: on a bench-edge home pull the FEMA flood map, and on any older home date the roof, furnace, electrical panel, and sewer lateral, and confirm the second kitchen's wiring and gas were done to code.
Want a real accessory dwelling without the guesswork?
Tell me your budget, the part of Washington Terrace you like, whether you want a basement apartment, an attached suite, or a detached casita, and whether you need a fully permitted, conforming unit or are open to an existing space you would verify and possibly bring up to code. I will connect you with a trusted Washington Terrace-area partner agent for the on-the-ground work and stay on the file for the homework and the financing, with straight answers about which spaces are legal units and which are just finished basements with a door.
Selling a Washington Terrace home with a basement apartment, a casita, or an attached accessory suite? The buyers reading this page want exactly that. List it with the Washington Terrace-area partner agent I connect you with, and your home gets featured across MovingUtah, on the pages they are already reading.
Quick answers
ADU and casita shopping, answered.
It is a secondary living space that can function on its own, and the listings use several words for it. In Washington Terrace the most common form by far is a basement apartment, a lower level built out with a second kitchen, its own bathroom, and a separate exterior entrance. A casita usually means a detached unit set apart from the main house, and a mother-in-law suite usually means an attached accessory apartment on the main or upper level. All of them are property features describing the space, nothing more. The big thing to know is that a second kitchen and an outside door do not make a unit legal on their own, so the real work is confirming whether it is permitted and conforming with Washington Terrace City and what the specific parcel's zoning allows.
Some are and some are not, which is exactly why you verify rather than assume. An accessory dwelling has to be permitted with Washington Terrace City to be treated as a separate dwelling, what is allowed depends on the parcel's zoning, and many existing basement apartments and converted suites in older homes were finished over the years without permits or built before today's rules, so they are non-conforming. That is not a dealbreaker by itself, but you need to know which one you are buying. Confirm the zoning, the permit history, the unit's status, and the egress independently before you rely on it, and I will help line up those checks.
Most often in the 1940s housing-project core, the post-WWII brick cottages and ramblers that sit over the city's deepest stock of full basements and carry most of the basement apartments. Attached suites turn up in the newer two-story and tri-level infill, and a tri-level or split-entry floor plan, where the layout puts a grade-level door a half-flight down, suits a separate lower unit as much as anything in town. A fully detached casita is the rarest form here, because this is a compact, fully built-out city of about two square miles and it takes a lot with room for a second structure. The live listings above are the honest count on any given week.
Only where the unit is legal, and that is the whole point of the verification. A permitted, conforming accessory dwelling is a different thing from a non-conforming space that happens to have a kitchen, the rules around accessory dwellings and rentals can change, and what is allowed depends on the parcel's zoning, so this is a question to confirm with Washington Terrace City for the specific property, not to assume from the listing. I will not put a rent figure on a page like this, because it depends entirely on the unit's legal status and the specifics, but I can connect you with a local agent who will get you straight answers on what the city allows.
Egress is a legal, code-sized way out of every below-grade sleeping room, usually an egress window with a window well sized for a person to climb out, or a door to the outside. It is both a safety requirement and a piece of what makes a basement bedroom or apartment count as legal living space. It matters most on the basement units that make up most of this search, and it is the first thing to confirm in person, because a room marketed as a bedroom downstairs is not really one without it. We check the actual window wells, not just the photos.
Tell me the budget, the part of town, and whether you need a fully permitted suite or are open to an existing space to verify, and I will connect you with a Washington Terrace-area partner agent and flag matching listings as they go live. Because Washington Terrace is a small, thin market, a true separate suite is a narrow slice, so it pays to be ready and to have the legality and egress questions lined up before you tour.