Many wonder what the difference is between a manufactured home and a modular home because both may be placed in a land-leased community or on private property. The differences are in how it is assembled and erected on the site as well as the building codes each must follow.

Manufactured homes, formerly called mobile homes or trailers, are constructed with a permanent chassis designed for over-the-road transportation and delivered to the home in one or more sections according to the National Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 enforced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This is why they are also called HUD-Code homes.

HUD regulates the home's design and construction, strength and durability, transportability, fire resistance, energy efficiency and quality control. It also sets tough performance standards for heating, plumbing, air-conditioning, thermal and electrical systems. Manufactured homes are popular in the southeast and southwest, as well as in rural areas on private land with minimal land use restrictions.

Modular homes, sometimes known as state pre-manufactured homes, are delivered to the building site in largely complete form as multiple modules and placed by crane on conventional basement or crawl space foundations. The design and construction of modular homes are regulated entirely by state and local building codes similar or identical to those that apply to site-built homes. Modular homes account for about 3 percent of all homes built annually in the country or about 42,000 homes in 2004, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

There generally is more difficulty in financing manufactured homes than modular homes and they can also be more difficult to refinance due to their originally being classified as "vehicles" and suffering similar property depreciation as automobiles and because many manufactured homes are on leased land. However, if you also own the land on which the manufactured home is built, and the home is immobile, getting manufactured home loans and refinancing is generally easier. Modular home financing, on the other hand, are treated in the same way as site built homes. With more people turning to manufactured and modular homes as low-cost housing solutions, it is getting easier all the time to find the right manufactured or modular home lender.

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