INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

With the crisis in affordable housing continuing across America, manufactured housing offers a unique source of quality, nonsubsidized homes that people can afford. With an average per-squarefoot cost ranging from 10 to 35 percent less than site-built homes, depending on geographic region, today’s manufactured homes provide homebuyers with the best value to be found in the housing marketplace.

The affordability of manufactured housing can be attributed to the efficiencies emanating from the factory-built process. The controlled environment and assembly-line techniques remove many of the problems encountered during site building, such as poor weather, theft, vandalism and damage to building products and materials stored on site. Also, factory employees are scheduled and managed more effectively and efficiently, as opposed to the system of contracted labor employed by the site-built housing industry.

Manufactured home building also benefits from the economies of scale that result from being able to purchase large quantities of building materials and products. As a result, manufactured home builders are able to negotiate better prices on many construction
materials and products for the home and pass these savings on to the homebuyer.

In addition to affordability, today’s manufactured homes also offer the quality, amenities, and technologically advanced features that homebuyers desire. Ranging from vaulted ceilings to working fireplaces to state-of-the-art appliances, today’s manufactured homes offer the homebuyer the opportunity to customize a home to fit a family’s particular lifestyle and needs, at a price they can afford.

Once known primarily for providing rural housing, today’s manufactured homes are evolving, with architectural styles that blend into most neighborhoods and offer real housing options for suburban and urban markets. Exterior designs make these homes indistinguishable from site-built homes, allowing them to blend in seamlessly with existing neighborhoods. As a result, developers and builders are using manufactured housing in their subdivisions in increasing numbers.

Greater focus on energy efficiency within the manufactured housing industry has resulted in a significant jump in the numbers of manufacturers building EnergyStar-labeled manufactured homes. These homes, with enhanced levels of insulation, as well as more efficient heating and cooling equipment, provide homeowners with substantial savings on their energy costs.

An emphasis on innovation and "out of the box" thinking – including two-story and single-family attached homes – is propelling the manufactured housing industry forward in many new areas. With continued advances in technology and public acceptance, manufactured housing will remain a major provider of quality, affordable housing in the 21st century.