ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701070038
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NORA VILLAGRAN KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Ann Olsen thinks manufactured housing is here to stay.
``I've heard people say they're going to buy a manufactured home until they can afford something better,'' says Olsen, 61, who lives in a Sunnyvale, Calif., manufactured home and loves it.
``Twenty years later, I'll bet you they'll still be in that manufactured house. It's the greatest.''
Manufactured housing, says Jim Irizarry, is ``the wave of the future. It's tomorrow's home today.''
Perhaps Irizarry, of Terrace Homes in Redwood City, Calif., is right. Lower costs and increased standards of quality have brought manufactured housing - sometimes called ``pre-fab,'' though never within the industry - a new acceptance.
Factory produced under tight inspection and regulation and trucked on site, manufactured housing represents about one-fourth of all new single-family homes sold in the United States, says Irizarry.
Manufactured houses can be found almost anywhere: in well-established communities alongside traditional site-built homes, as well as in neighborhoods of manufactured houses and in mobile home parks.
Meadows at Parkside is a new subdivision being developed of 61 single-family manufactured homes in South San Jose, Calif. Prices range from $236,990 to $269,990. Homes vary in size from three to five bedrooms, with an area of from 1,300 square feet to almost 2,200 square feet. Amenities include tile counter tops, fireplaces and solid handrails on stairways.
Yet there remains a lingering bias about manufactured housing, as well as some concerns about structural safety.
``You used to hear people say `trailer trash,''' says Olsen.
``But anyone who still has those ideas changes their mind when they visit someone who lives in a manufactured home,'' she says.
``Friends from out-of-state came last summer and they couldn't believe it. They said, `This is a house.' And, basically, it is.''
That's right, say those in the industry. After the house is assembled and secured to a foundation, it looks pretty much like a traditional site-built house.
What's more, manufactured housing offers home buyers savings from 20 percent to 40 percent over the cost of traditional site-built homes, says Irizarry. This is critical in such a high-priced market as the Bay Area.
More than 90 percent of the housing stock in Japan and Sweden comes from factories, he adds.
A 1991 report by the California Manufactured Housing Institute contends that ``while only 19 percent of California's families can now afford to purchase the median-priced new single-family home, 52 percent of California families can afford to purchase a single-family manufactured home in a residential manufactured home development.''
But even though Judy Phillips says she's ``grateful'' that her manufactured house in San Jose, Calif., looks like a site-built house, she still has some concerns.
``I'm a little fearful about what's going to happen during an earthquake,'' says Phillips, 49, who moved into her home almost two years ago.
Gordon Perry of Market Strategies in San Jose understands such concern. ``Manufactured housing is built to strong standards,'' says Perry, whose company is the marketing firm for the Meadows at Parkside development.
``When it's trucked from Southern California to Northern California, the home withstands earthquake-type shaking in the truck. When it arrives, the sections are strapped together into a very tight house that feels very solid.''
But ``solid'' is not what Phillips would call the partition walls in her house.
``Some of them are hollow on the inside,'' she says. ``They come up about three-fourths of the way. You can see down into the wall - it's hollow. It's like a Lego.''
It's not that it makes much difference, says Phillips. ``It looks nice, but it does make me feel that [living in manufactured housing] is a step down.''
It can feel like that, says Irizarry. ``It all depends. You have low-end homes and you have high-end homes.'' It's the trimmings that can make the difference.
Ron Lamb moved into a manufactured house in Menlo Park, Calif., he bought from Irizarry for $344,500 four months ago.
``It's absolutely gorgeous,'' says Lamb, a controller and single dad. ``Corian countertops, all-gas appliances, the perfect floor plan, finished garage, three-bedroom, two-bath. The master bathroom is unbelievable: two sinks, sunken tub, shower - the bathroom is bigger than most bedrooms. Fireplace in the living room.''
Other features that improve the look of some of today's manufactured homes are redwood decks, hardwood floors and tiled entryways, Irizarry says.
It was the original lack of a real entryway in her home that bothered Phillips. ``Linoleum going all the way to the front door - that's tacky.'' She opted to upgrade the originally planned linoleum and carpeting in her home - and advises others to do so.
``But [manufactured housing] is great for a first home,'' she says.
For Olsen, manufactured housing is great for one's ultimate home. She already has her eye on a manufactured house in Oregon that will be her retirement home in a few years. But she concedes that the interior can make a difference.
``We no longer have that dark wood paneling,'' she says. ``You'd walk into a beautiful [manufactured] home - and get that `down' feeling because the paneling would make it such a dark room. But now that most manufactured homes have dry walls, you can really work with it.''
Perry shares Olsen's enthusiasm for manufactured housing.
``It can be built faster and with more precision. It's about a month in the factory. It takes a week roughly to transport the four modules [that make up the house]. A day for the crane to set them in place. And then roughly about three to four weeks to tie the house together and set in place all the systems - plumbing, electrical and heating.''
Foremost, says developer Grant Denmark, is that manufactured housing offers home buyers a true alternative.
``Building a house with hammer and nails is a very outmoded way to do things,'' Denmark says. ``Factory-built housing will continue to become more a part of the marketplace.''
Glenn Gilliam, of Advantage Homes in Sunnyvale, Calif., and San Jose, agrees. The industry has come a long way from what he calls the ``wobbly box.''
``Materials [used in manufactured homes] are the same as site-built construction,'' Gilliam says. ``Copper plumbing, wood studs, fiberglass insulation, dual-pane windows.''
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