One response to rising housing costs in the United States is moving to approve manufactured housing for suburban communities:

For decades, manufactured housing has mostly been limited to trailer parks and rural properties. Now, a few developers are pitching factory-built homes as the way of the future, trying to sell higher-quality homes in a new context: the typical American suburban subdivision…

Stigmatized as low-quality, less-safe housing for the poor, factory-built housing was banned for decades by many towns and cities. But as soaring home prices prompt a search for affordable options, some policymakers have been willing to give manufactured homes a new look.

Villa’s new neighborhood is one of a few dozen similar experiments across the country. The major manufacturer Clayton said it has sold more than 2,000 of its “cross-mod” homes, which are partially factory-built and partially site-built, to 23 subdivisions in 10 states…

“They had a really bad reputation, and a lot of localities put in exclusionary zoning to prevent them from being used in neighborhoods,” said Rachel Siegel, a housing analyst at the Pew Charitable Trusts who believes that modern manufactured homes are of a much higher quality than those of past decades and should be allowed in more places. “We see empty lots that just don’t get filled. We see really old, unrepairable homes not get taken down and replaced because the cost to do a site-built home is just too high. … There’s almost no other way right now to build smaller homes that people can truly afford, that are new, outside of manufactured housing.”

The article suggests this is possibly a new trend or still in experimental mode. The need for affordable housing may push more communities toward changing their zoning and regulations. Many current residents and potential future residents want cheaper quality options. It would be interesting to see more residents and possible residents advocate for this kind of housing.

At the same time, I suspect wealthier and higher-status communities would be slower to approve manufactured housing. Reputations and stigmas can be hard to overcome, particularly if current residents have resources to afford more expensive housing options. This is another way certain communities can distinguish themselves from other suburbs; they are compromising in order to have affordable housing but we do not need to do that.