Last month, Congress passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, one of the most significant federal housing bills in recent years. The legislation includes several housing reforms, but one provision may have a particularly meaningful impact in Vermont: changes to federal standards for manufactured homes.
Under the Act's Housing Supply Expansion provisions (§301), manufactured homes will no longer require a permanent chassis underneath the structure. Manufactured homes are factory-built homes constructed to federal HUD standards and transported to their site. For decades, the chassis requirement has been a defining feature of these homes. Removing this requirement is expected to decrease costs for off-site construction and allow for greater innovation and flexibility for future home designs.
Manufactured homes are different from “modular homes.” Both are built at off-site factories; however, modular homes are not confined to meet the same HUD-mandated standards of manufactured homes (aka single-wide and double-wide dimensions). Modular builders typically do not operate at the same scale as standardized manufactured home distributors. The policy change, combined with a federal study of the modular home industry, may allow these two similar industries to move closer together and expand overall access to off-site construction for affordable housing.
Other key pieces of the legislation include revisions to the Housing Choice Voucher apartment inspection schedule, increases in Community Development Block Grant funding for dense housing construction, and changes to standards regarding investor construction & purchase of single-family rental housing, among other reforms. For a comprehensive summary, read this primer prepared by the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA).
Manufactured Homes in Vermont
There are more than 16,000 manufactured homes in Vermont according to the 2024 American Community Survey. Approximately 13,000 of those homes are owner-occupied and 3,000 are renter occupied. Manufactured homes are typically more affordable for homebuyers. The median sales price of a manufactured home with land in Vermont was $166,000 in 2025, more than $200k less than the median "stick-built home." Half of the manufactured homes in Vermont (7,000-8,000 homes) are located in manufactured home communities or ‘mobile home parks’. In these situations, the home is typically owned by the resident, but the land and utilities are owned by a private, non-profit, or cooperative entity. The median sales price of a manufactured home without land was $86,000 in 2025.
VHFA recently published a map of the 240+ manufactured home communities in Vermont, demonstrating the importance of these homes in the state’s rural areas as an essential piece of the affordable housing network. The visualization available on HousingData.org was created through VHFA analysis of the Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) Manufactured Home Park Registry dataset which manages the Manufactured Home Park Registry for Vermont.
VHFA & Manufactured Homes
VHFA has a long history of investment in the state’s manufactured home communities through financing for infrastructure improvements. Some recent investments include the Tri Park Cooperative in Brattleboro, the Milton Mobile Home Cooperative in Milton, Breezy Acres & Hillcrest Cooperatives in Colchester, in total supporting hundreds of Vermont homeowners through vital projects such as water system upgrades & flood resiliency improvements.
Additionally, VHFA uses state affordable housing tax credits to fund the Manufactured Home Down Payment Loan program (administered by Champlain Housing Trust) that has helped more than 400 Vermonters purchase a new manufactured home since 2012.
To explore off-site construction broadly as a strategy to address Vermont’s housing challenges VHFA published a report in January 2025 titled "Using Off-Site Construction to Meet Vermont’s Housing, Workforce, and Climate Goals,” which can be found in the publications section of VHFA.org or HousingData.org.
Readers interested in learning more about manufactured housing in Vermont may also find value in reading the 2022 article, Upward Mobility: With Housing in Short Supply, Mobile Home Parks Are Having a Moment. For Good Reasons, It Turns Out, published in Seven Days.
This post is part of a series highlighting new features and data indicators recently added to VHFA’s HousingData.org. VHFA manages HousingData.org to support data-informed decision making in state and local housing policymaking. For more information about HousingData.org, visit the site or follow the VHFA News Blog.
Image: HousingData.org map with overlay of Breezy Acres Mobile Home Park fall photo