What is the History of Manufactured Housing?

Discover the history behind manufactured housing and how it became one of today's most affordable paths to homeownership.

 

 

The manufactured housing space is actually really interesting because it actually started as trailer parks in the 1950s. And that's when people were wanting to travel, and wanting the mobility of getting here and there with their homes. And then after World War II, their need for affordable housing skyrocketed. And because trailer parks had become this huge thing at the time, people started converting those into their homes, their long-term homes. And that's how mobile homes became more popular, they just grew from there.

Manufacturers started building more homes. So it was kind of like this unmarked territory. Manufacturers could do whatever they wanted, operators could do whatever they wanted. So there was a stigma that started to grow with the space. Around the 1970s, the federal government started putting in standards. And that's when we started to see a shift in switching from mobile homes to manufactured homes.

 

Manufactured housing, if you look back at mobile homes, they're existing all the way back to the Civil War, even maybe even some before that. Heck, if you even want to look at, for example, pioneers crossing the plains, it's an example of a mobile home that was built somewhere that were made to transport other places. The modern age really comes back, it dates back to the mid-70s when HUD standards were implemented.

Mobile homes were very much a subset of RVs. They're built without standards in place. You see that in a lot of these older homes that are 1950s, 1960s homes. They're much smaller, they don't have a lot of the livable standards that we see today. So in the mid-70s, the government put standards in place so that homes have to meet certain criteria of safety, of quality, of compliance that continue to evolve today. Some of the more recent things we've seen in regards to energy efficiency, new standards are being placed on that.

A lot of manufacturers are trying to even get ahead of the curve on becoming Energy Star qualified, so that they can provide a little bit more incentive. But also with the understanding that some of those qualities might become requirements, so you might as well get ahead right now. One of the things that is amazing about the industry is just how high the quality of the homes is.

I think so many people look at manufactured housing and think trailer park. And that's really not what it is. Because of the standards that are in place and the quality of these homes that are going out there, this is a fantastic option for people that maybe can't afford traditional site-built homes, especially as costs continue to increase, as interest rates continue to go up, manufactured housing is more attractive than ever. When you get a chance to go into some of these homes, it's shocking. I remember when I first came into the industry, I thought I was getting into the trailer park industry. I showed up on the first day when I started doing some property visits and noticed how this is not a trailer park.

These are really nice, high-quality homes.