Modular Homes Answer Affordable Housing Needs

The recent nationwide housing slump, which has left many homebuyers to experience the downside of Adjustable Rate Mortgages and feel the crush of rising mortgage payments, is also affecting the home construction industry, putting many builders and industry sub-contractors in very tight financial straits.

This trend is not true in the modular homes industry, however. The demand for new homes is still high, and homebuyers are increasingly seeking alternatives to rising new home prices and interest rates. One growing alternative is modular homes. Modular home building is on the rise and is becoming more popular with homebuilders and homeowners each day.

Why? Public perception towards the industry has changed as more people have come to understand the structural, construction and cost benefits of modular housing. Modular homebuilders are providing solutions to the need for affordable housing, by using advanced engineering and building systems to provide quality, attractive home designs at affordable cost and at a fraction of construction time.

Modular homes are constructed in pieces in controlled factory environments. Factory production means fewer accidents and mistakes and a more predictable product and time frame. The pieces are then shipped to the site where they are assembled. Because the pieces need to be shipped, they are built much stronger than traditional site built homes, using ten to fifteen percent more construction materials than are normally used. Modular homes also offer a much higher quality control standard, with so many third-party inspectors, engineers and architects involved.

Since modular home builders provide 80 to 85 percent of the home, the buyer avoids the risk of giving money to a builder and not having the home built to their specifications, or of having their price inflated by numerous change orders. Additionally, unlike modular homes, site-built homes are exposed to unfavorable weather conditions during the construction process, making the home vulnerable to water or weather damage, and increasing the costs of the project by adding additional materials and replacement components.

All of these savings are passed on to the homebuyer. And, because the construction time is greatly shortened as compared to the time frame needed for a traditional site built home, homebuyers reap the benefits of lower interest rates and fewer payments on construction loans. Although they were wary at first, mortgage lenders are seeing the rapid growth in the sale of modular homes and are thus adjusting their practices to accommodate this growing market of homebuyers.

Modular homes are not only on the rise in the United States. Homebuilders around the globe are seeing modular homes as an answer to both the growing need for affordable housing and the increasing industry demand for green building and energy efficient construction. For example, modular homes are currently being used to ease the affordable housing crisis in the Highlands of Scotland. The planned £20million construction project will provide dozens of pre-built houses, and will see modular houses built in eight Highland areas over the next three years.

Because of the focus on energy efficiency, architectural and design communities worldwide are coming together to create innovative designs for homes of all shapes, sizes and tastes. Custom modular homebuilders, such as Grant Smereczynsky, CEO of Building Systems Network, a custom modular homebuilder based in Atlanta, GA, are encouraging consumers who are not yet familiar with the options available in modular homes to educate themselves about the benefits of these advancements in engineering, architectural design and systems-based construction.

"Don't let these innovative designs and new home building technologies pass you by," Smereczynsky says. "Take advantage of benefits and opportunities available to home buyers of affordable luxury and custom dream homes, as well as energy efficiency and increased durability and safety that modular homes and modular home builders provide."

For more information on modular homes, visit http://www.buildingsystemsnetwork.com/.