In response to the South Carolina beauty contestant at the Miss America pageant who made fun of her home state’s bounty of manufactured homes, as MHProNews covered Sept. 16, 2013, Brian Hicks with The Post and Courier says the line— “I’m from the state where 20 percent of our homes are mobile, because that’s how we roll”—was probably composed by the show’s writers. The actual rate is 17.9 percent, tops in the nation. And while some fellow residents may be upset, Mark Dillard, executive director of the Manufactured Housing Institute of South Carolina (MHISC) says the phone has been ringing more than usual, and he is using the occasion to educate people who call about manufactured homes. “These homes don’t roll, except from the factory to your land,” Dillard says, noting this is no longer 1975, before the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) began putting strict controls on their production. One SC manufactured housing business put up “Thank You Miss South Carolina” on its electronic reader board. Hicks tells MHProNews manufactured homes are indistinguishable from subdivision homes and subject to the same regulations. But as Dillard remarks, “Who’s smarter, or more financially savvy: a person who buys a house they can afford, or a person who gets in over their head by trying to buy a McMansion?”
