FHA Official Predicts ‘Significant Acceleration’ in Manufactured Housing Under New Rules

Recent reforms to federal rules for manufactured homes could spur a boom in the sector and boost the supply of affordable starter homes, a top housing official says.Matt Jones, an official in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as FHA commissioner, said that a seemingly small change in the recently passed 21st Century Road to Housing Act could have a big impact on manufactured housing.The law removes a federal requirement that manufactured housing include a permanent steel chassis to transport the home. Following the change, Jones says, many modular homes may qualify as manufactured housing under the federal HUD code, which preempts local building codes."A lot of today's modular builders will be able to claim code preemption, and as a result, we expect a lot of the state requirements will then be forced to update their state-level code to align with the federal standard," he said on Tuesday at the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual conference in Chicago. "What this means is we think there will be a significant acceleration of factory-built, non-site-built housing."Factory-build homes are often much cheaper and more e...