The Innovations in Manufactured Homes (I’m HOME) Network has announced the upcoming release of the inaugural I’m HOME Manufactured Housing Industry Benchmark. This report, to be published in October, will track the progress of the manufactured housing industry in adopting and implementing higher quality home production standards across the United States. A snapshot of the Industry Benchmark report is now available online.

The I’m HOME Network, an initiative of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, is committed to manufactured housing as an essential strategy for addressing the dual crises of housing production shortfalls and housing affordability facing the United States. Manufactured housing is factory built and constructed to meet a national building code, commonly referred to as the HUD Code. I’m HOME aspires to expand manufactured housing as an option to address housing production and affordability challenges, while ensuring that all manufactured homes are built to high quality standards that result in durable, energy-efficient, healthy, and safe homes that are sustainable and affordable for the long term.

“Manufactured housing is a vital segment of affordable housing in the United States, and one that should not be overlooked,” said Arica Young, associate director of I’m HOME.“We hope this report will be useful in highlighting issues and trends that support the positioning of manufactured housing as a viable and sustainable solution to addressing the national housing affordability crisis.”

While considerable strides have been made to incentivize producing more energy-efficient manufactured homes, such as the expansion of the tax credit for builders of energy-efficient homes (Section 45L) in the Inflation Reduction Act, certain fundamentals of manufactured housing remain unchanged and limit the widespread realization of the “high quality for all” vision. For example, the HUD Code has slowed the progress of most state and local building codes, especially regarding energy efficiency. Higher energy performance standards promulgated by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for manufactured housing have not been adopted and incorporated into the HUD Code.

In response to these observations, I’m HOME has developed the Manufactured Housing Industry Benchmark to better understand market trends and to assess the impacts of policy and home financing programs on high-quality home production. The benchmark tracks indicators within three key areas: manufacturing and production, regulations and policy, and housing finance. By tracking the status of these indicators and observing changes over time, the benchmark reports will contribute to a greater understanding of how to achieve the vision of high quality, sustainable manufactured homes.

Lead image: Manufactured housing park in California. Credit: Nature, food, landscape, travel via iStock/Getty Images Plus.