A sweeping federal housing bill that became law last Saturday contains some big benefits for Americans poised to buy or rent new manufactured homes — the same families who often struggle to make ends meet and can least afford the rising cost of heating fuel and electricity.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — a rare feat of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. — gives the Trump administration one year to issue updated minimum energy-efficiency standards for the construction of manufactured homes, which account for about one in 10 new houses across the country and are especially prevalent in the U.S. South.
The provisions on prefabricated housing mark a surprising turnaround on energy policy.
The forthcoming standards — if they’re as strong as energy-efficiency advocates hope — will be crucial for Southern households.
Of the 4.7 million prefab homes delivered nationwide in recent decades, more than half are in 10 Southern states. Texas leads the country, with nearly 600,000 units, and North Carolina is second, with over 330,000, the U.S. Census shows. The “East South Central” region, which spans from Kentucky to Alabama, has the highest concentration of manufactured homes in the country, at 9.3%.
The dwellings are exempt from state and local energy codes, and older models are notoriously energy inefficient, with thin insulation, drafty windows and doors, and often outdated modes of heating and cooling.
“It’s easy to see, with an older … home, a $300 or $400 heating bill in the wintertime,” said Brad Rouse, executive director of the Asheville, North Carolina–based Energy Savers Network, which works to install energy-savings measures for modest-income households in the region.
High monthly costs tend to be especially difficult for manufactured home residents to handle: Their median income is $40,000, less than half that of families living in site-built houses. The Southeast, meanwhile, is the most energy-burdened region in the country, with one in three households struggling to pay their energy bills.
Residents of modular homes often “don’t have money left over,” Rouse said. “To have high winter heating and cooling bills can really hit them pretty hard in the pocketbook.”
The recently passed law includes two major provisions to unleash more manufactured housing across the country, said Mark Kresowik, senior policy director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
