Boulder County will soon gets something it needs desperately: More than 100 new houses at hard-to-find prices.

Louisville-based Boulder Creek Neighborhoods will next month begin selling the small single-family homes, dubbed wee-Cottages, to be built in the Blue Vista community in southeast Longmont.

The homes will be listed in the low-$300,000s, said Boulder Creek founder David Sinkey. Twenty-seven of the 102 homes will be permanently affordable, the exact cost of which is to be determined by a number of factors, but will likely be in the low- to mid-$200,000s.

Clearly, the pricing is right: more than 400 people are on the waitlist for a market-rate Longmont wee-Cottage. At a recent wee-Cottage development in Stapleton, more than 1,000 people were on the list for 30-some homes — half of which sold in the first month.

“My guess is we’ll have all of those sold before construction starts,” Sinkey said. “It’s clear that there’s just a huge demand for this type of product.”

The current median for a single-family home in Longmont is $405,000, the most affordable in all of Boulder County ($550,000 median) and Broomfield ($500,000). A recent affordability report showed that fewer than 500 homes sold for less than $350,0000 in 2017 in all of Boulder County.

The wee-Cottages are still in the permitting process, with a target completion of late 2018. Despite the name, the homes aren’t actually all that small, ranging from 896 to 1,354 square feet — comparable to many townhomes and condos.

But they are tiny for a standalone house. Nationally, the typical, new single-family home is 2,422 square feet, according to Census Bureau data. That has grown over the years: In 1973, the average American home was 1,525 square feet.

“Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Americans grew up in these homes that were 900 to 1,200 square feet,” Sinkey said. “Somewhere along the way, we decided (they) need to be bigger, and (people) who can’t afford the bigger homes out of luck.”

Boulder Creek has begun calling prospective buyers — who must prequalify — and in coming weeks will be hosting informational sessions to further winnow the field.

Shay Castle: 303-473-1626, castles@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/shayshinecastle