With few new starter or lower-cost homes being built in the U.S., communities throughout the nation could leverage manufactured homes (modern mobile homes) to help increase the housing supply. However, a lack of financing for these homes continues to present a significant barrier for prospective manufactured home buyers and has stymied the growth of this key housing source.
Historically, lenders and government financing agencies have treated manufactured homes differently from site-built housing in financial and legal terms, which has diminished manufactured housing’s potential to meet the needs of prospective homebuyers. But in recent years, federal, state, and local leaders have taken steps to bring this critical type of housing into the financial and regulatory mainstream.
The Pew Charitable Trusts’ housing policy initiative provides data and analysis to help policymakers better understand what challenges manufactured housing buyers and lenders face, and how to boost people’s access to safe and affordable financing for these homes.