A Simple Way to Make Housing Cheaper Is Languishing in the GOP House
The new factory-finished homes would also
allow for more design potential, which means neighbors might be happier to see
them on empty spots of land. “You can start building homes that don’t stand out
for the reason that they appear to have been manufactured, but instead stand
out because they look innovative, highly functional, including the energy
efficiency, resistance to hurricanes, because they’re put down properly in the
right foundation and are built with potentially even higher-quality materials,” Dutta-Gupta said. “Especially if there is a savings here from relaxing this requirement
from the steel chassis, then that money could also be put back into higher-quality windows, exteriors, interiors, et cetera.”
Of course, none of this would solve all the
problems with using manufactured homes to help increase supply. These homes
have historically been difficult to finance. Some families choose personal
property loans to buy them because they don’t have good enough credit for a
home mortgage, but some states treat manufactured homes more like personal
property for titling and tax purposes—like a car rather than real estate. That
can mean families spend more than they need to on loan payments because they
don’t have access to traditional 30-year mortgages, or struggle to keep up with
maintenance because it’s harder to borrow to make repairs.
“Unfortunately for manufactured housing,
sometimes it can be much more difficult to get financing, like home equity
lines of credit and loans in order to, say, fix the roof, or a water heater, or
something like that,” Rachel Siegel of the Pew Charitable Trusts said. Manufactured
homes’ reputation for poor quality may stem in part from building standards,
but “some of it is access to credit, when credit’s needed to be able to keep
these homes up and ensure that they stay in good shape,” she said.