Realtor.com Study: With Steel Chassis Rule Gone, Manufactured Homes Could Fill the Starter-Home Gap, Hartford Metro Ranks First
A Realtor.com research report released on October 26 found that the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act has removed the longstanding requirement that manufactured homes be built on a permanent steel chassis, a change that could lower production costs, make factory-built homes look more like site-built homes and open a new path to filling the nation's starter-home gap — though local zoning rules remain the decisive hurdle.
Under the new law, homes built without a chassis must receive the same treatment as homes with a chassis for financing, titling, insurance, taxes, transport and installation, and states must adjust their laws within one year of enactment (two years for states with biennial legislatures). "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 at 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."
The price contrast is stark: resale mobile homes including land and improvements had a median price of $150,000 in September, while new manufactured homes sold for $134,800 in April. A $200,000 purchase with 3% down at a 7.4% rate means a $6,000 down payment and a monthly payment of about $1,343; by comparison, the median site-built buyer put $27,100 down on a $419,250 median listing price, for an estimated monthly payment of $2,715 at the same rate. Fannie Mae allows down payments as low as 3% at rates comparable to site-built mortgages.
Zoning remains the gatekeeper. Land Use Labs estimates that only about 17% of zoned land nationwide expressly allows mobile and/or manufactured housing parks. Many municipalities exclude manufactured homes from regular residential zones, confine them to commercial, industrial or agricultural areas, or require special exemptions and conditional-use permits, while minimum floor-area and architectural standards can also block homes that meet federal HUD construction codes.
Ranking the top 100 metros on starter-home share, new-construction premium per square foot and median land price per acre, the report's opportunity list is led by Hartford-West Hartford, Connecticut (17.9% single-family starter share, 29.1% new construction premium, $54,805 median land price per acre), followed by Denver-Aurora-Centennial; Allentown-Bethlehem; Albuquerque; Colorado Springs; Albany-Schenectady-Troy; Rochester; Syracuse; Spokane-Spokane Valley; and Worcester — all in the Northeast or West, and mostly smaller markets. "The markets with the most to gain are not necessarily the biggest ones," said Joel Berner, senior economist at 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."
Some jurisdictions will need to revisit their rules: Albany bars mobile homes, mobile home courts and trailer parks for dwelling purposes citywide, while Aurora, Fountain and Monument in Colorado use a 24-by-36-foot minimum footprint that likely excludes many single-wide manufactured homes. Colorado Springs; Bethlehem and Upper Macungie, Pennsylvania; and Spokane and Spokane Valley, Washington, already allow manufactured homes by right. Starter homes in the study are defined as homes listed at or below 80% of their metro's median listing price in September 2026; land prices come from third-quarter 2026 land-only listings, and the new construction premium compares size-adjusted median prices of new and existing single-family homes in the same quarter.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：工厂建造的预制房屋（双拼式 sectional）外景资料图。图片：CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。Photo: Exterior of a factory-built manufactured (sectional) home, file photo. Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
