Is The Manufactured Home The Future Of Housing ?

Question

As the US economy is driven into 'stagflation' - as prices rise and real purchasing power falls -  will manufactured housing drive out site built ?  At present the number of  site built homes is around 15X the manufactured number.   Manufactured home builders have raised the bar on interior quality, fit, and finish so much as to now be on par with site built -  and at somewhere around half the cost of a comparable site built house.   Are developers beginning to see the writing on the wall ? Will  future  suburban subdivisions be comprised of manufactured homes ?

John Teachout · Answer

The answer is no. Manufactured, modular, mobiles or whatever have been around since the middle of the last century and they haven't been able to make a significant dent in housing shares. There isn't that big of a difference in the price of a modular and stick built home. Even mobiles (manufactured homes) are much closer in price to stick built than indicated by the time land, site prep, location, utility hookups and so forth are factored in. There is definitely a stigma attached to mobiles and while many of the preconceptions may no longer be true the zoning ordinances prevent them in many of the places they could be beneficial.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

Never. The quality and amenities are not there...except may in just the visuals. One big problem is insulation. Even the nicer homes are still vastly under-insulated.....

And there are too many people that will never buy a manufactured or mobile home just because of the name and stigma....

Joshua Stewart · Answer

If by manufactured you mean modular, no. This has been the "future" for 60 years. There will always be a few success stories with them here and there, and believe me I am interested in doing them myself, but the reality is much of the pricing that gets tossed around with these are either target prices (meaning we'll get there if there is large demand and we can scale) or the price is misleading because it doesn't include things like delivery, site installation and sometimes doesn't even include interior finishes at all.

Mason Hickman · Answer

@Robert Carpenter

I haven't seen the prices coming in at half the price of site built homes (at least not in our area). IF that becomes reality, I could see them becoming more popular but I don't think they will become the standard.

Rachel H. · Answer

@Robert Carpenter I think manufactured homes including modular and tiny homes will have its place in the US. Though, it will be certain demographics that accepts it.

Unfortunately, there's still a negative stigma around the term "mobile home" which is a hard stigma to break. Slowly they are being accepted across the country in some markets but not all.

As for the future, I believe there will still be site built homes which has been a contributing factor to the backbone of housing in the US.

Hope that helps!

Chris Seveney · Answer

Big difference between a manufactured home and a modular home

If you refer to modular I believe modular and more advanced technologies for site built homes will come down the pipeline

Here is a question though to pose to yourself? Do you really want to be able to build a 2,000sf home for $50k? Think what that would do to home values….

Robert Carpenter · Answer

Yeah the whole fiasco with Katerra was most discouraging.  Could be they tried to do too much too soon.  Elon Musk talks about how every startup needs to first take baby steps, to start out small so you only have to correct small mistakes.    I actually think the solution might be a hybrid of mobile   and modular.  Mobile seems perfect for the small stuff, for bedroom, bath, kitchen, dining where you  can install  appliances, hvac, electrical, and plumbing in the factory - supplemented with  a kit based barn style garage and storage with large open plan living room above.   Anyway thanks for your input.

Robert Carpenter · Answer

Thank you for that.  As for your question, doesnt the answer largely depend  on who 'yourself' is :)   If youre a municipality which must fund public schools from property tax revenue then you probably don't want more affordable housing.   In fact you are incentivized to use zoning ordinances to prevent the construction of affordable suburban mobile home communities.  On the other hand if you are an hourly wage employee you might just  think such a deal is heaven  sent.   My thinking is that the looming stagflation is going to  price more and more out of the site built market so that the middle class home buyer of the future may have to resort to manufactured by necessity rather than by choice.

Is The Manufactured Home The Future Of Housing ?

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