I have always believed the best way to change someone’s opinion of factory-built housing is to invite them inside a home. Champion Homes is giving policymakers that opportunity at HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase on the National Mall, September 22–24. Its two featured homes put something tangible in front of the people discussing America’s housing shortage: places families could actually call home.
Adding a Story is Quite a Story
The model that caught my attention is the New Horizon, a two-story, HUD-code manufactured home designed for narrow urban infill lots. It is approximately 1,700 square feet and includes three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, with the second-floor chassis removed. To me, the interesting part is the opportunity to think vertically about manufactured housing and make better use of smaller properties.
Champion’s other showcase home, the New Frontier, offers approximately 1,750 square feet, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an open floor plan. I like seeing affordability presented alongside the features buyers want. Families shopping within a tight budget still deserve a home they are proud to invite their friends and relatives into.
Of course, I want to see what happens after the tours end. Champion’s announcement doesn’t provide a complete, property-specific purchase price, and that is the number I want builders and buyers to examine. What will the home cost with land, site preparation, utility connections, delivery, and installation? A promising design starts the conversation; an attainable total price turns that conversation into a home purchase.
Gary’s Observation
I see real promise in bringing a two-story manufactured home into the urban housing conversation. But I would challenge every policymaker touring these homes to go back to their community and ask one practical question: Where could we build these? Then identify what it would take to make that happen. The lasting value of a housing showcase should be measured in families moving into homes long after the displays leave Washington.
Read Champion Homes’ full announcement on Business Wire.
