Big Changes Could Be Coming for Manufactured Housing Under Trump Admin, Experts Say

The final two years of the Trump administration could be pivotal for the manufactured housing industry, experts say, as political pressure mounts to address the nation's massive housing shortage.Manufactured housing—a category ranging from prefabricated materials to factory-built housing—has for years struggled to expand beyond a niche building type. But 2026 has brought the bipartisan housing reform package, the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which includes reforms to encourage manufactured housing."That's a response to an affordability crisis," Suzanne Garwood, a managing director and associate general counsel for JPMorgan Chase, said last week at a conference held by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.For years, manufactured housing has not been a very robust product for lenders, Garwood said. But the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which governs manufactured housing policy, has signaled an appetite for change."HUD is uniquely tasked with overseeing the manufactured housing code," Garwood said. "So I think now's the right time for HUD to be looking at manufactured housing. And if I were predicting what HUD could accomplish in the next t...