About Manufactured Housing

Information on this page is provided by the Manufactured Housing Institute

What Is Manufactured Housing?

Unlike stick-built homes, manufactured homes are constructed on an assembly line where each section is put together in stages. Depending on the unit’s size and the extent of customization that a customer requests, the completion process can take several days to several weeks. The materials used for on-site home construction are the same for manufactured housing, including wood, steel, aluminum, copper, granite, plastic, glass, and electrical wires. After construction of your home is completed, the sections are loaded onto a flatbed truck and transported to your property.

Why Choose Manufactured Housing?

Quality Construction and Affordability

In the face of an ever-widening housing affordability gap, homeownership might feel like it’s beyond your reach, but don’t throw in the towel just yet—there are options you may not have considered. Today, manufactured homes aren’t what they used to be. 

There are currently 8.6 million manufactured homes nationwide, accounting for nearly 10% of the entire nation’s housing stock. They can be found in the country, rural, suburban, and urban communities. Manufactured homes are commonly available at lower monthly payments than the cost to rent, providing an affordable path to homeownership for millions of Americans. 

Today, manufactured homes are being built with quality construction to meet rigorous federal standards for safety, installation, and construction. They come with features that today’s homebuyers want, like luxury bathrooms and state-of-the-art kitchens with energy-efficient appliances. What’s more, many are often situated in communities with swimming pools, playgrounds, and even clubhouses.

While these amenities may sound like they come with a hefty price tag, manufactured homes provide quality housing at a lower cost. Indeed, the average price of a new, single-section manufactured home is less than $45,600 (excluding land) per square foot, compared to $177,000 per square foot for a traditional home, according to MHI statistics.

It’s important to remember that the affordability of manufactured homes is not a product of lesser quality. Instead, the way the building materials are produced is a more efficient and sustainable way to build a home. This means more money in your pocket.  

The terms of a manufactured home purchase differ from site-built homes. Be sure to ask the right questions at signing, including whether the house and its components come with warranties. Manufactured homes can be found anywhere in the country, in rural, suburban, and urban communities.

If you are ready to take the step of saying goodbye to writing rent checks, do your research to discover the varied paths to affordable homeownership available today.

Safety Guaranteed

Because the home isn’t rooted in the ground, many people are under the impression that it is more susceptible to damage from weather conditions, like tornados and hurricanes, than stick-built homes. We’re here to tell you that tornados and hurricanes do not discriminate against what types of homes or buildings they destroy. Manufactured homes (those built after 1976) are not more vulnerable to natural disasters than site-built homes. The only safe place to be during a tornado is in an appropriate shelter.

Manufactured Home Durability

As mentioned above, the building materials in today’s manufactured homes are the same as those used in site-built homes. The houses are engineered for wind safety and energy efficiency based on the geographic region in which they are sold.

For example, in areas prone to hurricane-force winds (Wind Zones II and III of the HUD Basic Wind Zone Map), the standards for manufactured homes are comparable to the current regional and national building codes for site-built homes. Manufactured homes are designed and constructed to withstand wind speeds of 150 miles per hour in Wind Zone 2 and 163 miles per hour in Wind Zone 3.

In fact, during the hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004, not a single manufactured home built and installed after1994 was destroyed by the storm. What that means is, the construction standards for manufactured housing across the country are subject to robust compliance and quality assurance regulations, sometimes more stringent than those for traditional site-built homes.

Anchoring

Anchoring is what holds manufactured homes firmly in place. The anchors are large steel rods that screw into the ground, and steel straps are fastened around the mobile home’s frame and attached to the anchors with adjustable bolts.

In 2007, the federal government established standards requiring all new manufactured homes to meet minimum requirements for installation and anchoring in accordance with its structural design and windstorm standards.

Also, states have the authority to establish additional installation standards above the minimum federal standards. State governments may establish installation and anchoring requirements for homes, depending on soil conditions and other factors in their state.

The industry supports state efforts to ensure that older homes are retrofitted with proper installation technologies to ensure their safety.

 

BENEFITS OF LIVING IN A MANUFACTURED HOUSING COMMUNITY

Financially Smart

Manufactured housing is one of the most affordable options for Americans to achieve the American dream of homeownership. New homes cost an average of $68,000, compared with $272,200 for a single-family site-built home.

There’s also more home for the buck: Manufactured homes often cost between 10-35% less per square foot to build than site-built homes, despite comparable interior finish-out. And, today’s new homes average over 1400 square feet of interior space.

The median annual income for those who choose the option of a manufactured home is $34,700, but almost a quarter of all manufactured homeowners have a median income of more than $50,000. In many cases, manufactured homeowners can save more than they would with a site-built home or by renting an apartment.

Sense of Community

Residents in a community have something that stick-built homes and neighborhoods mostly lack—a strong sense of community. In a community, you get to enjoy the privacy of your own home, yard, and parking space, but with all of the same community amenities that you get with an apartment complex. In many communities, there are social or activity clubs, fitness amenities, and friendly and caring neighbors. 

In fact, when we ask our own residents what they enjoy most about living in one of our communities, one of the most frequent responses we get is, “a sense of belonging”.

Safety and Quality

The Department of Housing & Urban Development has regulated and ensured standards for manufactured housing since 1976. All manufactured homes must meet this code. The performance code involves every aspect of the home including heating and air conditioning, fire safety, plumbing, electrical systems, structural design, construction, energy efficiency, and even transportation from factory to site. Today’s manufactured homes are built to a standard of safety comparable to, and in some cases exceeding, standards for site-built housing.

Environmentally Sound

The construction of a manufactured home, from the factory to finish can actually yield up to 90% less waste and environmental impact than site-built housing, owing to the efficiency of factory construction and the high standards of the HUD code.

Manufactured homes and manufactured housing communities are far more green and eco-friendly than site-built communities. Heating, cooling, and utility components of manufactured homes are all energy-efficient. On top of that, constructing a manufactured home requires fewer materials and doesn’t jeopardize the safety or structure of the home. 

Furthermore, because manufactured homes are built in a factory and assembled on-site, the environmental impact of transportation of the home is magnitudes less than the impact of moving raw materials on-site to construct a home.

Wanna know more about manufactured housing? Contact us today, and one of our employees will be more than happy to help you out.