With the recent downturn of the economy, many are looking for alternatives to the more expensive site built homes. While renting a home or apartment can be cost effective for a short period of time, within a few years it becomes a costly expense. Depending on the geographic location in which you live, a family might spend more on rent than a monthly mortgage payment for a modular home. Over the past few years modular home sales have increased. On average, modular homes are nearly 25 percent cheaper than site built homes.
A common misconception with modular homes is that the term has been misconstrued as being a manufactured home. Manufactured homes, often called mobile homes or trailers, are dwellings built based on the HUD code. The HUD code is a Federal building code based on the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards established by the US government. Regardless of where the manufactured home is placed, federal codes must be met. These mobile homes or manufactured homes as they’re now called usually have simple ranch style floor plans and come single, double or triple wide depending on the size home you want. These homes are often confused with modular homes when in truth mobile homes are just the cheapest type of modular house.
Manufactured homes are cheaper than modular homes but have limited designs and configurations. Manufactured homes cost on average $55 per square foot. The average for modular home sales is roughly $65 per square foot. Site built homes range from $85 to $130 per square foot. Building prices vary from state to state; your local building department should be able to give you a rough idea of costs in your area.
Building a traditional home on site is a very labor intensive and costly process. All the resources have to be trucked to the worksite unloaded by one crew, before being put together by another crew. A process that has to be repeated for each step of the home building process, foundation, framing, roofing, plumbing, electrical, tiling, flooring, and finishing. This extra work requires more workers and a longer total building time, both of which cost more.
Modular homes are factory built and can be designed to the homeowners’ specifications. Modular homes can be designed with basements, porches, garages and various other amenities. Whereas manufactured homes adhere to a strict federal code for construction, modular homes are constructed to meet local building codes at their designated home site.
Modular homes can be constructed, transported and installed on a foundation in less time than a site built home can be completed. In fact, a constructor can lay the foundation and have it ready by the time the home is transported from the factory. Depending on the complexity of the design, a homeowner could move into a new modular home within 90 days of initial construction. In addition to being cost effective, modular homes are also well built. Since these homes are transported from a factory nearly 90 percent complete, they are built to be durable enough to handle being transported.
Along with being durable and cost effective, modular homes also offer a variety of floor plans. Modular homes can be designed for a modest dwelling of 1000 square feet to larger homes that could rival any site built house. Often modular homes are so well designed that few can tell the difference between a modular home and site built house once the building is completed. Within the past few years, modular home sales have risen to become nearly 8 percent of all new homes sold. For those looking for a affordable, quality housing modular homes are worth looking into.