Live West Valley City listings, filtered
Homes with an ADU or casita in West Valley City.
West Valley City 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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Want it narrower? Tell me your exact spec.
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 West Valley City listings appear here as they list, and sold homes drop off. The read on what makes one legal is just below.
Buying here
Confirm legal status before you count on it.
The word that matters most here is permitted: an accessory dwelling, whether a basement apartment, a casita, or an attached suite, only counts as a legal separate unit if the entrance, kitchen, and egress windows are recognized by the city, not just built. Tell me what setup you need and I will have the West Valley City-area partner agent I work with pull the permit history on any home you flag.
Selling here
Own a West Valley City home with a documented accessory dwelling?
Buyers on this page want a legal secondary unit with the paperwork to back up its legal status, not just a kitchen and a door. List it with the West Valley City-area partner agent I connect you with and it goes in front of that exact 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 West Valley City.
An accessory dwelling is a property feature, not a promise. On a West Valley City 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 Salt Lake Valley for two honest reasons, multigenerational living under one roof and a permitted suite where the unit is legal, and both turn on the same homework, which is whether the space is actually permitted.
West Valley City is good ground for this search, and the form it takes here is mostly the basement apartment. The valley frost line is deep, so foundations go down anyway, and the city's long-settled core, the postwar brick ramblers of Granger, Hunter, Redwood, and Chesterfield with a median build year around 1985, carries a deep stock of finished basements that already double the living space. Adding a second kitchen and a private entrance to that kind of full basement is exactly the conversion most of these listings describe. The 1990s-2000s product on the west side around Highbury, Lake Park, and Stonebridge can carry built-out lower levels too. A fully detached casita is the rarest shape in a city this built out, since it takes a lot with 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 building 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 were built before today's rules. 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 West Valley 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 quote you a rent number or a payment number on a page like this, because what a unit could earn depends on its legal status, the specific space, and rules that change, and a non-conforming unit cannot be relied on at all. What I can do is point you at the right stock. If a true separate suite is the goal, the older-core ramblers are the natural hunting ground, so the single-story page is a useful next stop. If you only want the extra square footage and not a second kitchen, the homes with a basement page is the wider search, and because a separate entrance is easier on a bigger lot with no shared-amenity rules over it, the no-HOA page pairs naturally with this one. Earlier in the process than show me listings? Start with the West Valley City 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 West Valley City most of these are basement apartments, since full basements are common on the postwar core stock. Attached mother-in-law suites turn up too, and a detached casita is rare in a city this built out, 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 West Valley City, 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 postwar core: Granger, Hunter, Redwood, Chesterfield
The brick ramblers of the four original farm-town grids sit over the deepest stock of finished basements in the city. This is the most likely place to find a real separate suite, and also the most likely place to find one that was finished without a permit, so it is the area where verification matters most.
Split-level and tri-level floor plans
The 1970s-to-1990s tract era around the median build year of 1985 left West Valley City a lot of split-entries, and the layout lends itself to a lower level with its own grade-level door. The split design can put a private entrance just a half-flight down, which is why so many conversions started here. Confirm the egress windows on the bedrooms below.
The Redwood Road and Jordan River edge
The established east-side stock near Redwood Road and the Jordan River greenbelt is the city's closest core to downtown, and many of these older homes carry full finished basements. A newer permit history is less common here, so plan to confirm the unit's legal status carefully.
Highbury, Lake Park, and Stonebridge
The 1990s-2000s master-planned west side has younger systems and plenty of full basements, some finished as separate living space. A newer build is more likely to have been finished with permits, but you still verify it, and you still confirm the egress on every below-grade bedroom.
Bigger lots and larger floor plans
The largest floor plans, mostly on the west side, tend to carry the deepest and tallest basements, which makes a comfortable second kitchen and a real bedroom downstairs more workable than in a low older basement. Bigger lots are also the only place a detached casita has room to sit in a city this built out, so if a separate structure is the goal, that is the lot to look for.
Near the TRAX Green Line stations
West Valley City has four in-city Green Line stations and the southern terminus at Fairbourne Station, and a home with a separate lower unit within a walk of one pairs a flexible floor plan with a car-free commute option to downtown and the airport. Station-adjacent demand is steady, so these move when they list.
Before you tour: what to actually check
Is it permitted: ask the listing agent for the permit history and confirm the unit's status with West Valley 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 basement apartments are non-conforming, finished before today's rules or without permits. Understand exactly what you are buying, what can and cannot be relied on, and that what is allowed depends on the specific parcel's zoning, not a citywide rule.
Separate systems: check whether the kitchen, HVAC, and any meter are genuinely separate, and whether the wiring and gas work for the second kitchen were done to code and inspected.
Ceiling height and light: an older postwar basement can be low. Stand in it, since a full-height finished lower level lives very differently from a short, fully below-grade basement that reads more like storage.
Water provider and the rest: most West Valley City addresses are served by the Granger-Hunter Improvement District, but border parcels fall under neighboring districts, so confirm by address, and on any older-core home, date the roof, furnace, electrical panel, and sewer lateral.
Want a real accessory dwelling without the guesswork?
Tell me your budget, the part of West Valley City 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 West Valley City-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 West Valley City home with a basement apartment, a casita, or an attached accessory suite? The buyers reading this page want exactly that. List it with the West Valley City-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 listings use several words for it. In West Valley City 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. 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 West Valley 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 West Valley 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 were 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 postwar core of Granger, Hunter, Redwood, and Chesterfield, the brick ramblers that sit over the city's deepest stock of finished basements. The 1990s-2000s product on the west side around Highbury, Lake Park, and Stonebridge can carry built-out lower levels too. Because this is flat valley-floor ground without the bench or foothill relief that produces a true walkout elsewhere in the valley, expect a below-grade unit leaning on egress windows rather than a door that opens to a sloped yard, and a fully detached casita has room to sit only on the largest lots in a city this built out. 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 West Valley 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 West Valley City-area partner agent and flag matching listings as they go live. Pair that with a pre-approval so you can move when the right separate-suite home lists, since these are a narrow slice and they do not sit long.