Manufacturers, experts endorse off‑site construction accelerator and propose credit facility in testimony
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Summary
Industry and housing experts testified in favor of H.775’s off‑site construction accelerator and related financing tools, urging pilots for bulk purchase, preapproved designs and a revolving credit facility; experts warned production and site logistics must be addressed for cost savings to materialize.
Testimony to the House General and Housing committee on Feb. 4 focused on H.775, a bill that would create an off‑site construction accelerator and related financing tools to support manufactured, modular and panelized housing production.
Jason Webster, co‑owner of Huntington Homes (a Vermont volumetric modular manufacturer), told the committee that standardization and bulk purchasing can lower costs but cautioned that market actors rarely align to place identical orders. "If I knew that, we would run faster," Webster said, explaining manufacturers need predictable, sequenced orders to smooth production across seasonal cycles. He urged pilots and design standardization that prioritize rural communities and smaller typologies.
Jeff Lubell, senior fellow at the Terwilliger Center for Housing at the Urban Land Institute, outlined four off‑site construction types (manufactured/HUD‑code homes, volumetric modular, panelized and kit homes) and cited the Move In New York pilot as a comparable model. Lubell said Move In New York’s cross‑mod example came in at about $250,000 per unit (excluding land) and recommended the committee pair an off‑site construction accelerator with a credit facility that could operate as a revolving fund to finance short‑term bulk purchases. "The Off‑site Construction Accelerator is a really important step forward," Lubell said, and he urged the committee to consider model off‑site codes to streamline inspections and improve economies of scale.
Both witnesses supported testing multiple typologies: high‑end manufactured cross‑mods for lower per‑unit production costs and modular/panelized approaches for duplexes and missing‑middle housing. Witnesses and members discussed practical barriers — site identification, sequencing orders to avoid winter delivery delays, and the need to assemble municipal and nonprofit demand to reach meaningful volumes.
The committee did not vote on H.775 during this session; members asked follow‑up questions about durability, long‑term appreciation of cross‑mod homes, and how sites would be identified and aggregated for pilots. The testimony will inform the committee’s forthcoming markup and potential amendments.
