“Homeowners and landlords in the U.S. spent an astonishing $424 billion on home improvements in 2017, according to Improving America’s Housing 2019, a Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies...” read that portion of a March 12, 2019 report in Money. MarketWatch said that total number may be $450 billion annually.
Home Advisor said this year that “Most homeowners spend between $10,579 and $27,000, with some remodels costing more than $40,000.” Really?
Renovation Junkies said on Oct 28, 2015 that “The average House renovation takes between 4 to 8 months…”
Eliza Real State said “For a gut or non-gut renovation with stock, materials expect to pay at least $100-200-per-square-foot. A non-gut renovation with some customization starts at $200-300-per-square-foot while a gut renovation with customization averages at $400-500,” on Apr 17, 2018. Even the least expensive of those cost-per-square foot tallies would be significantly higher than the price per-square-foot of a brand-new HUD Code manufactured home.
The Remodel Calculator states that “On average, doing a complete house renovation costs $40,000-60,000.” Houzz said on Jun 22, 2016 that “Owners who completed our survey spent an average of $59,800 on renovation projects.” Each of those figures are clearly higher than what Home Advisor reported, but in fairness that could be attributed to the difference between partial and complete remodel jobs.
Compare and Contrast
Contrast that with a new manufactured home would come with a warranty. What about a remodel job? How common are complaints against remodelers?
“The biggest and most frequent consumer complaint last year? Shoddy home repair and construction, according to an annual ranking compiled by the Consumer Federation of America,” according to CBS News on July 30, 2019. “The cost to consumers there can spiral into the hundreds of thousands of dollars when corrupt contractors overcharge for subpar work, and sometimes fail to complete the job altogether.”
“The worst complaints received last year based on the number, the dollar amount involved, the impact on vulnerable consumers, and their sheer outrageousness were in home repair and construction, the [Consumer Federation of America] study said…” in that same CBS News report.
Stop and think. The home remodeling industry is over 53 times the size of the total of all new HUD Code manufactured home sales for 2018. Yet, risks are not insignificant. The home repair industry totally dwarfs the problems that manufactured home retailers and communities face at the retail level. That’s one reason we picked the featured image graphic at top with the typo in the word “repair.” That image symbolically conveys the risks involved in home repairs and improvements.
Plus, at the kinds of costs needed for even a good remodel job, it is conceivable that many who buy a fixer upper, remodel it, and move in would spend far less to own a new HUD Code manufactured home than such extensive projects.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported in July 2019 that the average manufactured home cost of a new manufactured home on their survey reported for February 2019 was $85,000.
This is just one more data-point that informs manufactured housing professionals and investors that the industry could be done much, much better than it currently is. We’ll plan a consumer version of this report for Manufactured Home Living News in the days ahead, which retailers and communities can refer to with their shopping prospects. Stay tuned.
That’s this pre-dawn first look at “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing,” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
Soheyla is a managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. Connect with us on LinkedIn here and here.
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