An increasing number of Americans are open to the idea of living in modular housing, a recent survey conducted for Amherst shows.
The survey, conducted by Wakefield Research, concludes that modular housing can contribute to bridging the supply/demand gap for single-family homes.
The ongoing lack of housing supply has Americans seeking alternative options.
As a result, Americans are more excited about modular homes – whether that means living in one themselves or seeing more built in their neighborhoods
In the survey, four out of five respondents, or 81%, would live in a modular home – and more than 70% are interested in seeing more alternative types of housing in their neighborhood.
“While the offsite construction process has been around for decades, it has yet to be adopted as a mainstream way to generate high-quality housing supply at scale,” says Sean Dobson, chairman, CEO and CIO of Amherst, in a release. “As a result, homebuilding remains overdue for disruption and innovation. Amid ongoing supply constraints in the U.S., we think modular construction is an important part of the solution.
”We are encouraged to see from this data that the majority of Americans welcome the idea of living in a modular home, especially as they continue to value the quality and durability of their home in addition to its impact on the environment,” Dobson adds.
While there are misperceptions about what modular housing is – 44% of those surveyed think a modular home is a mobile or manufactured home, installed on a temporary foundation – more than two-thirds of Americans are somewhat or very familiar with modular homes.
The appeal of modular homes to Americans, most notably construction time and precision, is driven by the controlled building environment. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents find faster construction time appealing, and a majority (56%) of Americans are impressed by the flexibility of exterior and interior designs. 41% believe more inspections and precision tool technology leads to better quality homes.
Photo: Richard Horne