What is the difference between a mobile home, manufactured home and a modular home?

Mobile Home

The term ‘mobile home’ refers to homes built prior to June 15, 1976, when the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards (HUD code) became effective.

Manufactured Home:

A factory built home that is 98% complete when it is transported to the home site. Manufactured homes are required to comply with the HUD Code, which became effective in 1976 and has been upgraded numerous times since its inception. The HUD Code is performance based and provides standards for design and construction, strength and transportability, fire resistance, energy efficiency and quality for conformance. No manufactured home may be shipped from the factory unless it is HUD Code compliant and released for shipment by an independent HUD- certified third-party inspector.

Manufactured homes are exempt from following state regulations and local building codes because of the chassis substructure that enables transportation and interstate travel. 66% of all factory built homes are manufactured homes.

Modular Home:

A factory built home that is ordinarily 85% to 95% complete when it is transported to the home site. Modular homes usually consist of two or more 3-dimensional boxes that are shipped complete (or nearly complete) from the factory and are connected together on the home site. Units may be single or multi sections. Modular Homes are required to conform to state regulations and local building codes enforced in the state of the home site location.  Some advantages of modular homes are the reduced construction time on the site and lower costs than conventional site built homes.

Are factory built homes safe?

Please watch this YouTube video about the safety of factory built homes.