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Housing board outlines gains and limits of modular and mobile‑home strategies; financing and scale are central hurdles
Summary
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board told the House committee that panelized and modular construction are being used more widely and can lower on-site costs, but officials cautioned that scalability, market demand and financing terms determine whether factories and bulk orders will reduce prices enough to expand affordable supply.
At a Feb. 6 House Committee on General and Housing hearing, Gus Silo of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board described the state’s recent experience with panelized construction, modular homes and mobile‑home park interventions, and urged careful planning when using factory-built housing to expand supply.
“What panelized construction means is you're getting panels and walls essentially delivered on-site rather than having to construct them on-site,” Silo told the committee, describing panelization as a way to speed production. The board said 32 post‑2020 projects involving roughly 900 apartments have used panelized construction, and developers estimate savings of about $5 to $7 per square foot in many projects.
Silo reviewed past Vermont…
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