A recurring theme of this newsletter is the failure of prefabrication (building homes in factories instead of on-site) to revolutionize the housing industry. While it’s possible to build a successful construction business with prefabrication, it hasn’t swept away the old methods of building - building a home on-site remains the most common (and in most cases, the cheapest) way of building a house in the US. (Outside the US, prefabrication is often more popular, but it’s still not a
It’s also interesting to see in that graph that there was a second peak in the 1990s, not as high as the early 70s peak. But the two peaks had a different relationship between single family and multifamily homes, which might explain different factors leading to those peaks. It’s too bad that graph doesn’t go back to some of the earlier periods mentioned in the article, but it’s probably harder to get standardized information for those periods.
I noticed a couple typos in one of the last paragraphs (it says that 40 states had adopted 119.1 by 1945 even though it just said 119.1 was developed in the 1960s, and it says 2x2s were used instead of 2x2s).
At some point it would be interesting to compare with Japan, where I've read that houses are culturally assumed to be more temporary. How does that affect how they're built?
I am currently building a manufactured home for my property. Everything I have seen compares to a stick build. And price wise very affordable. The one I live in now is 50 years old. Time for a new one.
I own a 1994 single wide. Recently resided it and updated the interior. It's already given me over 20 yrs I think with the upgrades I can go til retirement.
It's notable to me how the residential trailer park is largely absent from European cities, except for Roma, construction workers, or Circus members. A few people do live in housing comparable to them. In Germany I'm reminded of garden shacks at Kleingärten, which are mostly not legal dwellings but many people still live in them; mostly the shack is the traditional European alternative.
I believe the "mobile home craze" is driven by weather. Traditionally (1940s-90s) mobile homes weren't isolated at all I think, and the US is a more southerly climate than Northern Europe, with no internal borders so you may migrate south in winter in the US (but not in Europe). To get the baby boomers out of their shacks in years of high housing demand and utter destruction of the housing stock, what was done in Central Europe at that time was building (poorly insulated) Plattenbau-style prefab concrete apartments instead of mobile homes.
Fascinating to learn of the history!
It’s also interesting to see in that graph that there was a second peak in the 1990s, not as high as the early 70s peak. But the two peaks had a different relationship between single family and multifamily homes, which might explain different factors leading to those peaks. It’s too bad that graph doesn’t go back to some of the earlier periods mentioned in the article, but it’s probably harder to get standardized information for those periods.
I noticed a couple typos in one of the last paragraphs (it says that 40 states had adopted 119.1 by 1945 even though it just said 119.1 was developed in the 1960s, and it says 2x2s were used instead of 2x2s).
At some point it would be interesting to compare with Japan, where I've read that houses are culturally assumed to be more temporary. How does that affect how they're built?
I am currently building a manufactured home for my property. Everything I have seen compares to a stick build. And price wise very affordable. The one I live in now is 50 years old. Time for a new one.
I own a 1994 single wide. Recently resided it and updated the interior. It's already given me over 20 yrs I think with the upgrades I can go til retirement.
It's notable to me how the residential trailer park is largely absent from European cities, except for Roma, construction workers, or Circus members. A few people do live in housing comparable to them. In Germany I'm reminded of garden shacks at Kleingärten, which are mostly not legal dwellings but many people still live in them; mostly the shack is the traditional European alternative.
I believe the "mobile home craze" is driven by weather. Traditionally (1940s-90s) mobile homes weren't isolated at all I think, and the US is a more southerly climate than Northern Europe, with no internal borders so you may migrate south in winter in the US (but not in Europe). To get the baby boomers out of their shacks in years of high housing demand and utter destruction of the housing stock, what was done in Central Europe at that time was building (poorly insulated) Plattenbau-style prefab concrete apartments instead of mobile homes.
interesting.
looking forward to next parts.
especially curious to see if new companies like boxable and cover are solving the core issues with manufactured homes.