Manufactured Housing Terms

Learn the correct industry terminology.

What’s the difference between a manufactured home and a trailer? Or a modular home and CrossMod®? This glossary explains the terms commonly used to describe each product within factory-built housing so you can shop informed.

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modern manufactured home with black siding and open front porch

Accessory dwelling units (ADU)

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are secondary housing units on single-family residential lots. ADUs go by many different names throughout the U.S., including accessory apartments, secondary suites, mother-in-law homes, and granny flats.

CrossMod®

A new category of manufactured homes, called Crossover Modern Homes (CrossMod®), offers a high-end, energy-efficient yet affordable factory-built housing alternative. CrossMod® homes are classified as real property, affixed to permanent foundations, and have a higher resale value than other types of manufactured homes.

Factory-Built Home

A dwelling unit constructed in an off-site manufacturing facility to be installed at a building site. Both manufactured and modular homes are factory-built, but modular homes comply with the local building codes at the installation site whereas manufactured homes are built to the national, preemptive HUD code.

Manufactured Home & HUD Code

Manufactured homes are built to the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress and became law on June 15, 1976.

The HUD code is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD regulates the design and construction of manufactured homes, formerly known as mobile homes, to a specific performance code. This is called a preemptive code because it preempts all local building codes for single family dwellings.

The Federal program includes the monitoring of independent third parties involved in the design review and inspection process, but excludes the installation of the homes.

Every HUD home has a special label affixed on the exterior of the home, indicating that the home has been designed, constructed, tested, and inspected to comply with the stringent federal standards set forth in the code. No manufactured home may be shipped from the factory unless it complies with the HUD code and receives a certification label from an independent third-party inspector.

Mobile Home

Predecessor of today’s manufactured home.

Officially, the name changed following the implementation of the HUD Code requirements in 1976. Many people still use the term even though the mobile home of yesteryear bears little resemblance to the manufactured home of today.

Modular Home

Sometimes referred to as prefabricated or systems-built homes, modular construction may be panelized (typically, only the walls and/or roof panels are provided, with the remaining components built on-site) or volumetric (each module is a complete “box” with a floor, walls, and ceiling/roof). Modular homes are built to local and state code.

Park Model/Tiny Home

Both products are built to 400 square feet or less. Tiny homes comply with state and local jurisdictions. Park models comply with the ANSI code and are intended for non-permanent use, usually sited in an RV park, community, or as a vacation home.

Trailer

Trailers have become primarily a recreational vehicle. Towed behind another vehicle, these are mobile, non-permanent dwellings. (Prior to the 1976 HUD code, people used the term “trailer” to refer to a “mobile home.”)

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