What Is Manufactured Housing?

Manufactured housing (MH) is a dwelling unit built mostly or off-site at a factory before being relocated to a piece of land where it will be placed. The cost of building per square foot for prefabricated housing is often far lower than for traditional on-site dwellings. Long known (maybe somewhat disparagingly) as mobile houses, manufactured housing has gone a long way in appearance, amenities, building quality, and public image. Yet, it still retains some of its fundamental characteristics. “Modular houses,” or dwellings divided into various components created off-site and then assembled like building blocks on the land, are a subset of manufactured housing. If made in a modular form, a prefabricated housing unit can be as little as 500 square feet or 3,000 square feet.