Manufactured Housing in America

  By Hemant G.

Manufactured housing is termed as a type of housing unit first assembled in factories and the transferred to the sites where they are intended to be deployed. Manufactured house is basically a home built in safe environment under the HUD’s federal code of US department. However manufactured homes are quite different than mobile homes.

Mobile homes basically describe homes built in factory before the HUD code enactment in 1976.the major aim of building such homes was to provide mobility. In 1960 and 1970 the mobile homes grew in size and longer and wider mobile homes were produced and thus their mobility became very difficult. Today a manufactured home is built and moved to the intended location it is deployed there permanently. Thus since 1970 the term manufactured housing is used in place of mobile housing because the mobility of these houses has greatly decreased since then.

The mobile homes were not costly and they had a tendency to depreciate faster than the house built at site. Thus using these houses as collateral for loans became very risky. As a result these houses developed a negative stereotype among the people.  However the manufactured homes of today generally known as modular homes are as good as the homes built at site. They have a higher standard than the historical mobile homes and also meet build codes which are applicable in various areas.

Both mobile homes and modular homes together are known as manufactured housing but there is a lot of difference between the two. Modular homes are transported to the site on flatbed trucks and are generally in two pieces which are hauled by two trucks. There are five axels in each frame. However as opposed to the mobile homes the axels and tongues are removed and the house is mounted on a concrete foundation by a large crane. When the modular homes are properly placed it becomes difficult to distinguish these homes from the homes built at site.

The market for the modular homes is expected to grow as the there is more codification of the differences between the modular homes and the ones built at site.

The prices of these houses are also expected to grow as their demand increases. Due to the regular improvement in the quality of these houses their demand is increasing in the market continuously and the lenders are expected to treat these homes as they treat other site built homes.