ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- Elkhart County isn’t just the RV capital of the world; it’s also the modular home production capital of the U.S.
Modular homes, not to be confused with trailers, are prefabricated modules built in a factory setting and then transported to a buyer's property. From there, the house is pieced together and assembled on-site.
According to Adam Cobane with Modway Homes, modular housing is typically 10-20 percent cheaper on a monthly payment basis than a traditional site-built home. In some cases, modular homes can be built from start to finish in three to six months, half the time of a typical on-site build.
ABC57’s Dante Stanton tags along with Jeff Tanner, Head of Sales for Cavco Home Building, at their production facility in Nappanee, where some local modular models are made.
According to Tanner, it can take as little as two weeks from when the floor is first put together, to when it’s ready to be shipped to the property when built in a factory setting.
The production facility we toured is based on a series of stations. First, the floor is installed on a carrier. Then, cabinets are put in place, and the exterior walls are added. From there, interior work begins alongside plumbing and electrical.
Our team also sat down with Terica Bergan, a Buchanan resident, who moved into a modular home over the summer. She explains how modular housing was a much more affordable option than an on-site build.
“Bottom line is, if it wasn’t for this modular home option, we wouldn’t have been able to get the forever home we wanted to have.” said Bergan.
Bergan also spoke highly about her options when it came to customization and how a modular home blends in with on-site builds.
Cobane tells our crew that modular housing owns about 5-7 percent of the local marketplace but is growing at a rapid pace. They expect to have garnered 15-20 percent of the market in the next five to 10 years as they continue to battle a stigma that modular homes aren’t held to the same quality standards as regular homes.
That’s a misconception the industry has been battling for years. In reality, modular homes are held to the same codes and standards as on-site housing. Cobane hopes that their growing popularity in recent years will help the general public understand their industry and how it’s changed over the years.