Manufactured homes and building-code limits spotlighted as part of broader housing affordability discussion

Manufactured-housing advocates and builders urged the Regulatory Reform Committee to ease zoning and regulatory barriers that they say limit affordable housing supply.

John Lindley, president and CEO of the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association, told the committee manufactured and modular homes are an underused source of attainable housing that can be delivered faster and at lower cost than many site-built homes. Lindley and Marge Burns, owner of Germano Management, said modern factory-built homes meet federally required HUD standards and state construction codes and can cost substantially less than comparable site-built houses. Lindley noted the association represents about 650 members across the supply chain; Burns said her firm manages two manufactured housing communities that together serve about 880 households.

Lindley cited statistics from a presentation and video included with the testimony: the average price of a new manufactured home in Michigan in 2023 was about $112,000; the median price of a single-family site-built home was described in the presentation as nearly $275,000. The video also said factory-built homes shelter nearly half a million Michiganders; Lindley later said manufactured homes provide homeownership opportunities for about 250,000 Michiganders. He and Burns asked the Legislature to use incentives and zoning reforms to broaden where factory-built housing can be placed and to correct local rules that effectively exclude such homes.

Speakers described common local barriers: zoning rules that impose minimum lot sizes, minimum home footprints, mandated roof pitches or baselines for basement construction, or outright exclusion of manufactured homes. Lindley and Burns said those rules can force developers into litigation or lengthy appeals and block communities that would accept manufactured housing.

The Home Builders Association of Michigan (HBA Michigan) followed with bipartisan testimony about the state's housing shortage and the regulatory drivers of cost. Dawn Crandall, HBA Michigan executive vice president for government relations, said the state needs an "all-of-the-above" approach addressing supply, labor and regulatory costs. She provided association figures showing single-family building permits that fell from a 2005 peak (54,000 permits) to a 2009 low (6,900), with preliminary 2024 permits at about 15,137 and a modest 2025 forecast. Crandall said HBA's statewide estimate of unmet housing need is about 44,000 units and cited MSHDA estimates placing shortages between about 40,000 and 90,000 units depending on the report.

Builders at the table gave practical examples. John Beitley (Sable Homes) and others said regulatory fees and zoning restrictions often add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a home. Beitley and fellow builders said national research showing average regulatory costs of about $94,000 per home underscores the local impact. They cited permit reviews, impact fees, required site improvements and zoning-imposed design constraints as cumulative contributors that can put homes out of reach for many buyers.

HBA and individual builders also pressed officials on code-adoption questions. Several witnesses said the choice of which edition of the residential building code a municipality must adopt affects cost; they urged legislators to prefer the more flexible 2024 code language over prescriptive elements in the 2021 code that they said raise costs without equivalent gains in energy or safety outcomes. Builders described specific code-driven costs they regard as questionable — for example, indoor sprinkler mandates that would add thousands to a small home's price, and energy requirements that drive long payback periods for upfront expenditures.

Panelists highlighted workforce and demographic concerns: HBA said about 58,011 licensed builders are in Michigan with an average license-holder age of 56 and relatively few new entrants in the 18-to-34 range. Crandall described the Skill to Build Michigan Foundation and other workforce-development efforts aimed at attracting young workers into construction trades.

Several lawmakers asked about quality, resale and financing of manufactured and modular homes; witnesses responded that modern factory-built homes meet HUD and state residential code standards, have comparable materials to site-built houses, and are eligible for some conventional mortgage programs when they meet lender requirements. Panelists also described common financing structures for manufactured-home purchasers including land-lease community models, rent-to-own arrangements, and lender programs requiring down payments that vary with credit history.

The testimony did not include formal committee action on policy measures at this hearing; lawmakers and witnesses identified zoning reform, permitting streamlining and code-adoption choices as policy levers the committee could pursue.

Ending: Witnesses asked the committee to consider targeted reforms that would expand permissible locations for factory-built homes, reduce duplicative permitting costs, and adopt building-code language that balances safety and energy goals against upfront affordability.