WSLS in Virginia reports Nationwide Homes in Martinsville is backlogged with orders for modular homes through January. Dan Goodin, sales vice president for Nationwide, says he intends to hire 20-30 people starting next month to keep up with a 30 percent increase in demand. Martinsville has the highest unemployment rate of all cities in the Virginia Commonwealth. “2007 is when the housing bubble burst and things started to get worse so it’s been a downward roller coaster since then,” he says. “Now I think we’ve started to climb back out of it. We’re very optimistic and think we’ll even get more activity next year.” Nationwide ships its modular homes all over the Southeast from its plants in Martinsville.

(Photo credit: Nationwide Homes)