Posted on 10/27/2014 3:02:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Houses made in a factory are a cheap and energy-efficient way for poorer Americans to become homeowners—plus, these days, the mass-produced units can be pretty spiffy.
You’ve seen it before: a house, on a truck, on a highway, slowing down traffic with its yellow “OVERSIZED LOAD” sign, its tan vinyl siding nearly screaming “Trailer Park!”
The snobs among us may judge these pre-fab homes as shoddily built, cheap eyesores in a country that’s increasingly eschewing the suburbs for walkable urban areas.
But pre-fabricated homes just might be part of the solution to America's affordable housing crisis.
Home prices are continuing to rise, even as incomes on the lower-end of the scale remain flat, putting home ownership out of reach for many Americans. In some cities, that’s led to renters flooding the markets, which in turns drives rental prices up. Homeownership in the U.S. was 65 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, down from 69 percent in 2005, according to the Census Bureau (PDF).
Families who can't afford homes often find that the apartments available to them are tiny, expensive, and old. Manufactured homes, affordable-housing advocates say, are spacious in comparison....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
“For some reason trailers do not attract decent renters.”
It is the owner’s or manager’s fault, not the type structure.
Same for any other piece of rental property.
We lived in Jax, FL once and had a neighbor who wouldn’t take his dog in at night or during the day. Nice young chocolate lab who needed love and attention. At first, He kept the dog in a cage 22 hours a day and it barked its head off all day long until until I bitched at them so they let it run loose in the back yard. Even after that, life sucked because of a constantly barking dog...had to sue for injunctive relief.
All I could think of was that if I lived in a trailer park, I wouldn’t have to deal with all this sh!t.
Manufactured houses are too expensive. Compressed earth blocks and other more natural materials are much less costly and more durable.
A small, traditionally framed house is also much less costly and can be much more well built (experience).
Yeah, up to about 1976.
Have you read up on straw bale houses?
What do a tornado and a West Virginia divorce have in common?
I couldn’t build a bird house when I was healthy, much less now. LOL
Shipping Containers are pretty Sweet!
OK. I'll bite?
If your condition allows, you might be interested in some of the articles of Jeffrey Yago (PE) on small, do-it-yourself energy projects. His latest is a “Solar suitcase” for tiny power uses (cell phone, laptop, radio, etc.).
I really liked his trailer project a few years ago.
Solar power trailer (Jeffrey Yago)
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago108.html
One pretty good source of components that includes some how-to and other info (included here because of the easy-to-understand tech. info around the site). Readers should also seek other, more basic PV solar information that’s available on many sites around the Net.
http://www.solar-electric.com/
If it’s of no interest to you, that’s understandable. People in various places live under different conditions and have different needs. Some people in some places will benefit from the knowledge. I like tech. stuff.
[This comment was powered by the sun and a low cost, homebuilt, mobile system with averaged monthly cost being very low.]
In both cases someone loses a trailer.
It's been done. His name was R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller and the modular in question is his geodesic dome home.
Geodesic dome construction could not be more simplistic, as they are made of simple triangles bolted together.
The dome is itself the structure and no internal load bearing walls are required, so the rooms can be where and how you want them to be and then are relatively easy to change, especially when compared to traditional structures.
Plus, unlike a trailer in a trailer park, a dome is a challenge for tornadoes as their shape and robust structure handle wind very well, same for snow loads.
Aesthetically, they have a love it or hate it appeal and can be an acquired taste, sometimes never acquired.
But with low material requirements and simple construction, they are fairly cheap to build and can be very energy efficient. Not a bad compromise.
If unique is what you seek, Bucky Fuller had it.
The design and construction quality of manufactured homes has come a long way. Manufactured homes are not trailers. They are built in sections on jigs in a factory environment The walls are straighter the fit better than on many stick built homes
I love these tiny houses, in fact if I could I would ‘take two they’re small!” lol
You are right about that! I've been day dreaming about a getaway location somewhere in the western part of the state and a tiny house fits well in my day dream. Not sure how well living the dream would go, but I wouldn't mind finding out one way or the other.
Tumbleweed has some interesting designs:
Tiny Texas Houses is another company with day dream quality pics.
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