Overcoming Barriers to Placing Manufactured Housing in Metropolitan Communities

Problem: Manufactured housing is an option that is relatively little used in metropolitan communities although it appears to provide a quality-cost advantage over site-built housing. Purpose: This article examines barriers to placing manufactured housing in metropolitan areas that planners might influence, focusing particularly on land use and design regulations. Methods: We paired data from a nationwide survey of planners in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)-eligible metropolitan communities with information on those communities' characteristics to estimate several regression models explaining two measures of manufactured housing supply using both supply- and demand-side variables. Results and conclusions: A variety of regulatory restrictions, including the lack of by-right zoning, as well as permits, snow load standards, fire codes, zoning codes, subdivision regulations, and architectural design standards impede the placement of manufactured housing in metropolitan communities. In general, such regulations determine whether or not jurisdictions have any manufactured housing at all; if they do, market conditions have the primary influence on the number of such units in a community. Takeaway for practice: Planners play an important role in determining whether manufactured housing is a feasible housing alternative when they assess the demand for manufactured housing and recommend policies that will influence whether units are placed in their communities. We suggest that planners emphasize manufactured housing as an affordable housing option and we offer suggestions for accomplishing this. Research support: This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.