Federal Law Opens a New Path for Manufactured Housing

Lower costs and a site-built look could expand manufactured housing, but zoning remains the hurdle; Hartford, Conn., leads metros with the most potential manufactured-home uptake.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal change could give manufactured housing a new shot at the entry-level market by lowering production costs and making factory-built homes look more like site-built homes, but local zoning rules will determine whether that opportunity becomes new housing, according to a new Realtor.com^® report.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act removes a longstanding requirement that manufactured homes be built on a permanent steel chassis for towing. Homes built without a chassis must receive the same treatment as homes with a chassis for financing, titling, insurance, taxes, transport and installation. The change can reduce material costs, enable more flexible installation, including multi-level assembly, and eliminate the step-up appearance associated with mobile homes.

"The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act opened the door and created the opportunity for cities to allow for building homes more efficiently," said Danielle Hale, chief economist, Realtor.com^®.  "A home that looks more like a site-built home may face less resistance from communities that have used design standards and zoning rules to keep manufactured housing out. But the federal change can only open the door. Local leaders still decide whether these homes can move from the factory to a neighborhood."

Zoning remains the gatekeeper

Only about 17% of zoned land nationwide expressly allows mobile and/or manufactured housing parks, according to Land Use Labs. Municipalities can restrict manufactured housing by excluding it from regular residential zones, limiting it to commercial, industrial or agricultural areas, requiring mobile-home parks, or making installation subject to special exemptions and conditional-use permits. Minimum floor-area rules and architectural standards can also block homes that meet federal HUD construction standards.

The chassis change may be most consequential in metros where land is relatively affordable, traditional new construction is expensive for entry-level buyers and single-family starter homes make up a small share of available inventory. Hartford-West Hartford, Connecticut, ranks first in the report's opportunity analysis, followed by Denver; Allentown-Bethlehem; Albuquerque; Colorado Springs; Albany; Rochester; Syracuse; Spokane-Spokane Valley; and Worcester. All 10 metros are in the Northeast or West, and most are smaller markets.

"The markets with the most to gain are not necessarily the biggest ones," said Joel Berner, senior economist, Realtor.com^®. "They are places where the economics create an opening for factory-built housing: land is more attainable, site-built new construction carries a premium, and buyers have too few starter-home options. Whether that opening turns into new supply will depend on whether local rules allow these homes by right and whether communities are willing to update standards written for an older version of the product."

Some jurisdictions may need to revisit rules that could exclude chassis-free homes. Albany, New York, bars mobile homes, mobile-home courts and trailer parks for dwelling purposes citywide, while Aurora, Fountain and Monument, Colorado, use a 24-by-36-foot minimum footprint that likely excludes many single-wide manufactured homes. Other jurisdictions, including Colorado Springs; Bethlehem and Upper Macungie, Pennsylvania; and Spokane and Spokane Valley, Washington, already allow manufactured homes by right.

Metros with the Most Opportunity for Manufactured Home Expansion

A lower-cost path to homeownership

Manufactured housing's cost advantage could matter most for buyers who own or are purchasing the land where the home will sit. In those cases, installation costs such as foundation work and utility connections can generally be included in the loan balance, and Fannie Mae allows down payments as low as 3% with rates comparable to site-built mortgages.

For example, a $200,000 manufactured-home purchase with 3% down at a 7.4% rate would require a $6,000 down payment and carry an estimated monthly payment of $1,343. By comparison, the median site-built homebuyer put $27,100 down on a home priced at $419,250, producing an estimated monthly payment of $2,715 at the same rate.

This report builds on Realtor.com^®'s recent work examining the policy and financing barriers around attainable homeownership. The Small Mortgages Are Disappearing report examined how financing constraints can narrow the path to lower-priced homes, while the Community Development Grant Funds Emerge as Housing Incentive Lever in New Law report explored how Community Development Block Grant incentives can encourage local housing growth. Together, the reports highlight the connection between making homes possible to build and making them.

Last month, Realtor.com^® and others across the industry launched the Let America Build™ campaign, an industry-wide public awareness effort focused on increasing housing supply and encouraging a fact-based conversation about the local actions that make more housing possible. Manufactured housing puts that challenge in concrete terms: federal policy can make a lower-cost housing type more flexible, but local zoning will determine whether communities let it become part of the starter-home supply.

Methodology

Starter homes are defined as homes for sale priced at or below 80% of their metropolitan area median listing price in September 2026. Land prices come from land-only listings on Realtor.com^®'in the third quarter of 2026. New construction per-square-foot premium comes from the median size-adjusted price of new single-family homes for each metro compared to the median size-adjusted price of existing single-family homes in the third quarter of 2026. The national estimate for manufactured home park allowance comes from Land Use Labs with roughly two-thirds of the national jurisdictions covered.

About Realtor.com^®

For over 30 years, Realtor.com^® has connected buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights, professional guidance and powerful tools to help them find their perfect home. Recognized as the No. 1 real estate site REALTOR® agents recommend, Realtor.com® delivers consumer connections and a robust suite of marketing tools to support business growth. Realtor.com^® is operated by News Corp [Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc.

Media Contact: Mallory Micetich, [email protected]

SOURCE Realtor.com