I hear splashing from the pool outside the common room and laughing voices. Through the window to my right, I see a narrow street with flags and chairs on every porch and friendly signs announcing the first and last names of the owners. Community is the other thing. People enjoy living in neighborhoods, and these tidy homes gathered close together along narrow lanes make a neighborhood. Since then, HUD codes went into effect for modular, panelized, or pre-cut homes.
Manufactured homes are one of the fastest-growing segments of America's housing market.
Tony Lucas, Director of Marketing and Product Development with Patriot Homes, one of the oldest and largest manufacturers, tells me that the industry expanded in a high-growth spurt in the late '80s, when interest rates fell. The humble manufactured home is one viable and versatile solution to the national housing crisis. Patriot Homes and Fleetwood have sophisticated Web sites. On the Patriot site, you can take a virtual tour of every room in their split-level Model Three units, a sort of slowly rolling pan around the entire room, down to the floral patterns in the wallpaper and the green bottle of shampoo in the bathtub corner. To a child with a playroom, to a teenager with her own study, there is little difference between this and a suburban home on your street.