Looking for Cheaper Housing Options? Consider Manufactured Homes

Priced out of the expensive housing market? Consider manufactured homes. This alternative housing option may just be the answer you need towards homeownership.

The continued scarcity in housing inventory is putting enough pressure on the market to cause a rapid increase in home prices. Many homebuyers are priced out of the market and are forced to either look elsewhere or delay home buying altogether.

Yet, only few have considered alternative housing.

A cheaper option

A manufactured home is one of these alternative housing options that only few borrowers may have considered. Quality, upfront cost, and the lack of the option to customize are some of the reasons why many have shied away from this option in the past.

However in the last few decades, manufactured homes have gone a long way in terms of design, efficiency, and functionality. And if you juxtapose the cost against today’s national price averages, you’d no doubt get yourself a deal if you take this unconventional choice.

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Nowadays, you can hardly differentiate a manufactured home from one that is built on-site. However, if you look at the price difference, you will be awed at how much savings one can get in purchasing a manufactured home.

The median cost of a manufactured home is $71,600 while a newly site-built home costs $372,900 on average. That’s a five-fold difference.

Manufactured home mortgages

Seeing the potential of this housing option to help the country’s many cash-strapped buyers, Freddie Mac, in partnership with Next Step, a housing intermediary based in Kentucky, offers assistance to help you get financing to purchase a manufactured home.

This initiative is spearheaded by 33 retailers of manufactured homes along with lenders, retailers, not-for-profits, and public stakeholders who are advocating for the usage of energy-efficient manufactured homes in the state.

Interested of this opportunity?

For buyers who are interested in learning more about the program, you will be assisted by either the Frontier Housing or the In Charge Debt Solutions, the two housing counseling agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to carry out the goals of the program. These agencies will help you obtain a full understanding of how the purchase process proceeds which is different from buying conventional site-built homes.

Next Step and eHome America developed an exclusive curriculum for the initiative to help the buyer understand the full extent of this option. This curriculum is accessible online and the buyer can complete it at their own pace. Furthermore, the agencies also offer one-on-one homeownership counseling.

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About Next Step

Next Step Network, Inc. mobilizes a national network of nonprofits to provide affordable housing tailored to the needs of communities that they serve. Their system — Manufactured Housing Done Right® — connects responsible financing, comprehensive homebuyer education and delivery of high-quality, ENERGY STAR certified manufactured homes at scale, creating a model that brings more value to the customer. Learn more at NextStepUS.org.

About Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac makes home possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since its creation in 1970, Freddie Mac has made housing more accessible and affordable for homebuyers and renters in communities nationwide. Their goal is to build better housing finance system for homebuyers, renters, lenders and taxpayers. For more information, you can visit Freddie Mac’s website at FreddieMac.com, Twitter @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac’s blog.

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