The Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) conference is occurring in Lexington. It brings cities across Kentucky together, connecting them with services and finding potential solutions to issues facing their respective municipality.
One of those issues is lack of affordable housing. At the conference, city stakeholders from across the Commonwealth could view a manufactured model home. Those homes could be completed within a matter of days, rather than months.
“You have the same person that does trim work every day; that’s their job. You have the same person that frames this wall; that’s their job — and so just the efficiency of the building,” Logan Hanes, KMHI.

Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran recently showed off her new L.A. manufactured home on TikTok. The open floor plan places the dining area next to the cozy living room. The white couch against the white walls creates a sleek but beachy look, while the round wood table ties the space in with the rest of the home. “I think I like this more than the New York City home,” Corcoran said.

Jackson, Mississippi – The average household income for a family of four in Jackson is $50,000 to $60,000 a year. Chloe Dotson, City Director of Planning and Development, said they want to build a home where the average family can be an owner.
“The customizable model home we are showing you today is roughly 1,300-square feet, three bedroom, two bath with an appliance package, a kitchen island and a front porch. The offsite build price is about $129,000,” said Dotson.

Findings suggest that manufactured housing is a viable alternative to site-built housing which, in the face of increased barriers to homeownership nationwide, could be more widely utilized. By addressing regulatory barriers, improving financing options, and increasing awareness about the cost advantages of manufactured homes, more homeownership opportunities can be created for low- and moderate-income households. The potential benefits of manufactured housing should not be overlooked, and concerted efforts should be made to leverage this promising solution to address the affordable housing crisis in our communities.

WBUR, In Massachusetts, housing advocates estimate developers need to build 100,000 more homes per year to keep up with demand. A low housing inventory has helped push the area’s rents and home prices to among the highest in the country, frustrating many residents. Real estate experts say the region must build more housing — and fast.

Part of the solution may come from factories. That is, manufacturing the modules that make up a building and then assembling them on construction sites. This can slash the time it takes to build new units.

Manufactured housing quietly provides deeply affordable starter homes at an average construction cost under $90,000, but is easily excluded by some communities. Manufactured housing remains a grievously underutilized, deeply affordable housing resource in Rust Belt cities with low land prices, and in rural areas in northeastern states.

Manufactured housing has long mattered most in low-income and rural areas with low land prices. In states with the most liberal regulatory treatment of manufactured housing, concentrated in the South and West, manufactured homes supply between 20 percent and 60 percent of all new single-family homes.

If your credit score is 580 or higher, you can finance as much as 96.5% of the home’s purchase price, so you’ll only need to put down 3.5%. How much you can borrow will depend on where you live — for instance, homebuyers in places like New York and San Francisco can borrow more because the cost of living is higher than in other areas.
One way to find approved FHA loan lenders is to go directly to the HUD lender list search tool. You can search for lenders by city, county, state, ZIP code and mortgage type. [Link]

FreddieMac – If you are buying a manufactured home to install on land that you already own, or are planning to purchase, it can be titled as real property once the home is affixed to the land. If you are renting a site in a manufactured home community or leasing on private land, you will likely need to title the home as personal property.

This isn’t a trailer in a trailer park. Instead, it’s a quality built home that is almost identical to traditional “site-built” housing, except it is built in a factory and transported to the lot where it will be placed on a foundation.
The average cost in July of last year of a new manufactured home in Georgia was $82,000 for a single-wide and only $158,700 for a brand new double-wide three-bedroom two-bath home. That is from a recent report of the Census Bureau’s Manufactured Housing Survey (MHS).

For all its complexities, America’s nationwide housing crisis boils down to a problem of supply and demand: The country needs a lot more homes than it has, yet even ambitious reforms won’t provide developers with enough incentive to bridge the gap. Addressing this dilemma could well be the defining public-policy challenge of the next few decades. One promising option is manufactured housing, which can be produced much more quickly and at much lower cost than traditional homes constructed stick by stick onsite.

Housing affordability nationwide is the worst it has ever been on record due to spiking home prices and interest rates, Bloomberg reports.

The bustling Middleburg factory shows just how efficient construction can be. Walk from one end of the cavernous factory to the other and you’ll see how a 64-foot by 13-foot floor—roughly the size of an oversized truck load—becomes a piece of a house, as workers add walls, windows, electrical wires, insulation, and siding as the module moves from one station to another on a rail track. At peak times, this happens quickly

The common-sense zoning reform found sponsors across the political spectrum, championed by progressive Daniel Volland and co-sponsored by conservative real estate broker Kevin Cross and by Forrest Dunbar, who just won election to the Alaska state Senate as a Democrat. The two other members of the conservative voting bloc on the Assembly followed suit, voting “aye” alongside the liberal majority.

As part of its Housing Supply Action Plan, the Biden administration earlier this year announced programs aimed at making the financing and development of manufactured homes easier. A recent Morning Consult survey finds that about half of Americans see alternative housing such as mobile homes as a good investment, with younger generations more likely to be interested in these types of homes.

Manufactured homes come in many forms. Entry-level models are broadly affordable for low and moderate-income Americans. Larger and higher-end models can meet the aesthetic and functional expectations in many communities across the country.

Inflation, rising borrowing costs and inventory shortages are pushing down sales of single-family homes, condominiums and land, but a more affordable part of the real estate market is still growing: mobile homes.

The price of a home ranks as the top concern for Gen-Z home buyers. While the median home price for site-built homes across the United States in July 2022 was $402,500, the average sales price of a new off-site built home without land, which varies by region, is around $130,000. Overall, Gen-Zers see the many possibilities for off-site built homes with customizable options at attainable price-points. Modern, stylish and energy-efficient home design options also contributed to the positive overall impression.

The goal is to maintain diversity in the housing supply. “It’s a small text change, but it would have big implications for a few areas,” Hurley said. “It could be a veteran, it could be another family that’s just trying to find, with rents escalating, just one more option.”

Over 20 million Americans live in manufactured housing – more than in public housing and federally subsidized rental housing combined. Yet many people, including urban planners and affordable housing researchers, see manufactured housing parks as problems. In contrast, we see them as part of the solution to housing crises.

If you’re looking to buy a house, some of the most affordable price tags in your area may be attached to modular homes. Modular homes aren’t mobile homes—they don’t move.

In rural Florida, a new development could offer one solution to the nation’s affordable housing crisis: a built-to-rent community populated with manufactured homes.

Manufactured housing — units constructed off site before being moved to a property — is another way to increase the housing supply quickly. But shifting away from nontraditional buildings would require an effort to convince surrounding communities of their value.

In policymakers’ hunt for a scalable, quick solution to the affordability crisis, one model has attracted more attention of late: manufactured housing. Manufactured housing received a prominent shoutout in the Biden administration’s affordable housing plan, which touted the potential role Freddie Mac could play in that market.

The Biden administration wants to put America’s house factories back to work. A new housing plan by the White House offers a set of actions designed to close the nation’s massive affordability gap. Among its proposals are steps that would lower costs for manufactured homes by expanding financing options.

A park model, as RVers who camp at commercial campgrounds probably know, is basically a cabin built on a single trailer chassis. Federal rules restrict them to less than 400 square feet, but they can be as much as 14 feet wide, which neutral observers might conclude stretches the definition of “vehicle.”

NATIONAL – After a decades-long slump in demand, and even longer as an unloved segment of the residential industry, manufactured housing is experiencing a surge in demand — and seeing a slow but steady change in how it is perceived.

NATIONAL – Amid a historic housing boom, one that’s pushing homeownership out of reach of many Americans, manufactured housing presents a partial solution to the affordability squeeze. Makers of manufactured homes have raised their game in recent years, and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have responded by backing mortgages on higher-end prefab homes.

NATIONAL – As an overheated housing market – marked by double-digit price increases, bidding wars and inventory shortages – puts the dream of homeownership out of reach of many ordinary Americans, manufactured homes are growing in popularity because their cost is roughly half that of homes built on a permanent site.

NATIONAL – You have several options for loans depending on your down payment, credit score, and size of the home. The best fit could also come down to whether you want a mobile, manufactured, or modular home.

NATIONAL – For many young people, the idea of buying a house feels like an abstract concept far out of reach. In reality, homeownership could be well within their grasp, giving them a solid home base where they can continue building their lives. Owning a home — and one that’s sustainable, affordable, beautiful, and flexible — can be achievable for most anyone, with the right tools and mindset.

NATIONAL – Investors are pouring record levels of money into manufactured housing, seeking stability and yield as the need for affordable living options increases across the U.S.

WASHINGTON POST – A study from the Urban Institute found that manufactured housing is 35 to 47 percent less expensive per square foot than new or existing site-built homes…

NATIONAL – Multiple articles are published daily about the growing need for affordable housing. Unfortunately, the term ‘affordable housing’ often conjures up images of low-income, government-subsidized housing located in less desirable areas of the community.

NATIONAL – From the outside, the three-story home within sight of the Atlantic Ocean looked like one more large, newly minted home awaiting siding.

NATIONAL – Construction of new housing in the past 20 years fell 5.5 million units short of long-term historical levels, according to a new National Association of Realtors report.

NATIONAL – CraftMaster Homes was acquired this month by South Carolina-based Mungo Homes, part of Berkshire Hathaway’s Clayton Properties Group under the Buffet conglomerate’s Clayton Homes brand.

NATIONAL – Musk revealed in a tweet that he is now living in a humble $50,000 home that he rents from SpaceX on its launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.

NATIONAL – Clayton Homes recognizes and celebrates two important observances in June designed to empower affordable homeownership solutions. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has recognized June as “Manufactured Housing Month” and U.S. President Joe Biden has proclaimed the month “National Homeownership Month.”

NATIONAL – The pandemic has forced the federal government to be more nimble as it sets up programs and deploys relief money to states and local jurisdictions. That could help lay the groundwork for spending on housing through an infrastructure package.

NATIONAL – Manufactured housing rents and occupancy rates are back to pre-pandemic levels — not necessarily something experts predicted would be the case back in April 2020.

NATIONAL – The industry joins together in congratulating Charley Lott upon his retirement from Fleetwood Homes after 50 years as a manufactured housing executive.

NATIONAL – On Tuesday, the price per thousand board feet of lumber soared to an all-time high of $1,359, according to Random Lengths. Since the onset of the pandemic, the price of lumber has skyrocketed 280%.

SCOTLAND – Site work is getting under way this month on what is claimed to be Scotland’s largest social modular housing development.

NATIONAL – Manufactured homes are an important source of affordable housing buyers can customize to fit their needs and financial situations.

ENGLAND – Seventeen new modular homes in Darlington are all ready for their new residents, after contractors assembled the modules and completed the last details on site in just a few weeks.

CALIFORNIA – Completion of Hope on Hyde Park, which has an estimated budget of $40 million, is expected in the second quarter of 2022.