Long Overdue: Some Style In Manufactured Homes
Now, I will confess to be a lover of quite modern home designs, but with that in mind, I really think that this design is a breath of fresh air in manufactured homes. A lot of people are buying these as vacation homes or cottages for land they have bought, either permanently or as a temporary solution until they build their dream vacation home (Don't click the "decor" button though - it seems that furniture design for manufactured homes is still stuck in the 50's).
HTRN:
It's an intrigueing Idea, but it's still very small. That's why double wides became so popular in the first place. What I notice conspicously absent is a price, or even a price range. The whole point of the things was that they're cheap.
March 31, 2008, 1:23 pmjr in WV:
The manufactured housing market in Germany is great, with the product indistinguishable from houses built on site. Modules are built indoors, with the right tools, temperature and light then transported to site and assembled. For example:
http://hautenature.blogspot.com/2007/03/manufactured-housing-german-design.html
http://www.baufritz.co.uk/gallery.asp
http://209.85.135.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.platz.de/deutsch/qualitaet/index_qualitaet.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dplatz%2Bhaus%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Wish we had more options in the U.S...
April 2, 2008, 4:29 amDouglas2:
on options in the US:
We spotted a listing for a 3-bed-2-bath country home in a location convenient for my commute, and our realtor warned us away from it because it was a "manufactured home", although you wouldn't know it from the neighboring ranch homes by appearance. But reading the glossy books on modern stylish modular homes, there is a theory that mortgage lenders have been burned by the very portability of the home. They lend on the home and land, but upon default discover that they are somehow only holding the land.
Anyway, the resale value suffers because if the difficulty in getting a mortgage. It may not have been a problem for us, but we kind-of want the broadest possible market in case we ever want to sell.
We recently bought a sub-800 sq ft home in a lake community near my other job, a former rental property very badly maintained. Within the first year we will have dumped 20k into needed repairs, so a dropping a manufactured or modular in its place is beginning to look very appealing.
April 4, 2008, 3:14 pmAndy:
I'll bet a 40' ISO container and a Lowes/Home Depot card will get you set up for a lot less than what Glassic wants to sell you one of theirs. After being outfitted & beautified, a trucking company and container handling unit can park it anywhere you want it in the US for relative chump change. Heck, make that two 53' containers and an enclosed patio/sunroom and you'll have 1,200 sq ft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_container_architecture
April 5, 2008, 11:20 am