Another Reason not to buy a HUD home

Another Reason not to buy a HUD-coded Home

Read here.

Palm Harbor Homes Arizona Introduces New Modular Home

Palm Harbor has announced a new model to their modular home division, Discovery Custom Homes. (Here is a link to their press release) A photo of the home is here.

Features of this new home are:

• Standard overhangs – many builders do not include eaves on their homes.


• 6/12 or higher roof pitches (Standard pitch for a manufactured home is 3/12)


• Flexible Floor plans - Square footage of 1,809 to 2,445


• Innovative designs

I have been out to the sales center in Chandler, AZ on a couple of occasions and I like their models. You can check out all of the Discovery homes here. Discovery competes directly with the Genesis series of modular homes from Champion and with UBC-coded homes from Cavco. Most of our dealers have told us that the Genesis and Cavco homes are less expensive than the Discovery. I have noticed that there are more standard upgrades in the Discovery product.

The new offering from Palm Harbor/Discovery is still a better option than most site-built homes of today.

Prefab Homes Get Fabulous

BusinessWeek Online has a new article about new trends in Factory-built housing here. Also, check out the slide show here.

I think we are about to see the tipping point for modular housing. As these innovative architects and builders continue to experiment with modular construction, the big boys (Champion, Palm Harbor, Fleetwood and Clayton) are going to have to begin to offer these modern alternatives.

The MH industry is offering an affordable product with its HUD-coded homes. It now needs to expands its offering for more modern products.

Great Modern Modular in California

Fabprefab.com recently sent out an email highlighting a new modular modern home in Desert Hot Springs, California. I have been a big fan of Marmol Radziner + Associates since I first saw articles of Ron Radziner’s own home in Architectural Digest and Sunset Magazine a few years ago.

They are now designing and building modern modular homes. Check out their new website here. They have built an unbelievable home. They have incorporated concrete floors, high ceilings and many other very modern features.

I am a little concerned with their price point above $200 PSF. Price is also the big issues with many buyers of the GlideHouse. Part of the draw to modular construction is the cost savings over site-built. They would argue that their clients are not as concerned about the price. I would agree that to duplicate this home in the field would probably be in the $300+ PSF range.

Another great job by Marmol Radziner.

Not tin cans on wheels
Marilyn Bowden at Bankrate.com has a great article here about today’s manufactured housing. Here are the hHighlights of her article:

- One in 10 new homes in 2004 was a manufactured home.

- These homes are “built tough.” I always tell people, your home has to travel down the highway at 55 MPH. It better be built strong to handle that.

- The Ford Foundation is spending millions of dollars to help the image of factory built housing.

- No longer a bad investment

2006 should be a very strong year for all forms of factory-built housing (manufactured, modular and panelized). I think we will see new ideas coming from the industry as we rebuild the in the Gulf States after this terrible hurricane season.