Manufactured Homes Are The Future of Housing In America
America is the nation that invented factory fabrication. When we buy a washing machine, a microwave oven, a television or an automobile, we don’t expect it to be dumped in parts in our backyard for us to assemble. We expect these products to come factory-made, inspected, and ready for instant use. It is unlikely that the site home building industry will cling to the idea of costly, error prone piece-by-piece fabrication of homes at job sites. For both economic and quality reasons, on-site home building can’t last while manufactured home building can’t miss!
When I discuss manufactured homes I am including all forms of homes that are built in a factory environment, which includes homes built on a steel frame foundation and transported on its own chassis or homes in module form that are hauled to site to be joined, mated, or stacked and erected on a site built foundation. Manufactured homes, sometimes referred to as mobile homes, are by far the most popular factory built form of residential housing available today and is the forerunner of the other types of factory housing.
I have written numerous articles on this web-site detailing the advantages of manufactured housing in comparison to the “stick-by-stick” method of building homes on site with the efficiency of the factory built manufactured home. In factory construction, quality is invariably superior to what can be achieved on a job site and accomplished in a quicker time-frame. Typically a customized manufactured home can be built and installed on customer site in as little as 4-6 weeks, whereas a customized site-built home can require several months, depending on the weather, to be ready for homeowner occupancy.
The manufactured home of today portends to be the wave of the future as a result of the following attributes that can not be equaled by the traditional site built homes.
The advantages over site built are many:
- – Manufactured homes have superior quality.
- – Manufactured homes are built with equal or better materials.
- – Manufactured homes are built to last as long as any other type of residential dwelling.
- – Manufactured homes factories use advanced technological building equipment and systems.
- – Manufactured homes are safer.
- – Manufactured homes are the most regulated and inspected housing in the country.
- – Manufactured homes are quicker to build.
- – Manufactured homes appreciate in value the same as site-built
- – Manufactured homes look great.
- – Manufactured Homes are by far the most affordable quality housing in America.
The manufactured housing industry was well on its way to becoming a dominant force prior to the burst of the of the housing bubble amid a dreadful economy over the last 7 or 8 years. The manufactured home industry was hit equally hard and lost many of the manufacturers and retailers that were were the impetus for growth of the manufactured housing industry.
As the economy begins to improve, it is important for the industry to re-start that derailed momentum to get the message out to potential homebuyers that our home is the answer to those desiring the American dream of quality and affordable home ownership. To quote Phyllis Knight, President of Champion Commercial Structures and Executive Vice President of Champion Home Builders,
“We need to get back to being proud of what we do in the manufactured
housing industry. Our homes fill a crucial need and they’re “cool,” they’re
“green,” they’re “affordable” and they are built in “America.” What else could
you ask for?”
The home of the future most assuredly is a manufactured home. It is conceivable that in my grandchildren’s lifetime that all new homes in the U.S. will be built in a factory. It just makes sense!
