It's a great idea in theory but it's just too damn expensive. Period. I looked at prefab extensively when I built my own home and nixed it because I could build it myself for 3 times cheaper, even with the savings in time.

it has not stuck because it is too damn expensive. DAh

When I moved to Upstate NY, I bought an awesome home built in 1920 by Kate Gleason as part of an experiment in mass produced housing. She made several developments (Concrest, Marigold Gardens) of tiny poured concrete homes with cool built-ins. They were cozy and unique (not at all what you would think when you think concrete homes). Sadly, I just moved to CA and am in the process of selling mine. I don't know why everyone assumes mass produced housing has to lack character. I find most of the "stick built" homes to be boring, cold and entirely lacking personality.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2817715996_e5b0f63b3e.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3206/2817712952_662bbd35b3.jpg

My lender absolutely does not do financing/mortgages for pre-fab homes. Since this is Texas, they probably think of pre-fab as just trailers and those plastic-looking manufactured homes you see advertised on rural highways. So that complicates the problem. Even if the issues with cost and sustainability get resolved, banks -- particularly in this economic climate -- are less inclined to take risks to finance the pre-fabs.

While building it yourself (either meaning you're playing general contractor or swinging a hammer) it probably always going to be the cheapest way to build a house but you are not in the majority of people taking something like that on.

The cost is an issue because of 2 issues-

First, the economy of scale, if only a few people buy them they are going to cost a lot more. If you were going to produce 200 cars a year I doubt you could make something that could compete with a Honda Accord, maybe you'd get the quality but not for the same price. There needs to be some subsities to get the ball rolling and I believe that tying sustainability with prefab is the way to push that forward.

The second is related to the first and is the issue of the designers of the prefab, they are really designed to cater to the type of people that are buying them now and not to the mass market because there is no mass market. Either the market will embrace them or they need to adapt to the market. The ipod was a niche expensive thing when it came out but didn't really change when it crossed over to mass appeal.

That said I think they are still cost comparable to conventional homes with the promise that they waste less and take away a lot of inefficiency in building. They are also inherently smaller than homes built today and people need to learn to live with less- but higher quality space.

Wesfs, I disagree. At the time I built my home, builder spec houses (built by a contractor) were in the $110-$120/sq foot range in my area. Custom homes were in the $150-200/sq foot range. My costs to build what ended up being a custom house was $115/sq foot. All of the prefabs I looked at were in the $250 /sq foot range.

I'm not someone who is going to diss these houses because of quality because I think it's not true. I think these are great designs, and have the potential to be quality, depending on who is making them. I'm very pro pre-fab, I really wanted one but they are too expensive. Maybe if you live in a formerly over inflated housing market (which is now in a serious crash) $300/sq foot is a good deal, but not for me.

If the modular/pre-fab housing movement wants to gain some traction, it is simple. Put your money where your mouth is...

I love them, I would buy one if I could, but from a general marketing standpoint, the country knows so little about them. The builders of these newer pre-fab designs need to start developing the same way that companies like Ryland Homes, Pulte Homes or other regional developer/builders do. I would love to see a 100 acre development of nothing but modular, pre-fab homes. That would show people that this technology is just as good as "stick built".

MatD- I can't argue with you I checked the prices on the Wee house and it was about $130 sqft but that would be without a site and foundation so it's proabbly right about the cost you were quoted. It definitely needs to come down to $150 or lower to be even remotely mass marketable.

I would rather not see any 100 acre developments in the conventional sense but- but why not at least try it. If you built 10 indentical or slightly variable prefabs there must be some economy of scale.

I will take it and the lot too, sigh.

Prefab is... well, FAB!!!

Around here they're considered little better than house trailers. Mostly because the quality is ... little better than a house trailer. Prefab houses have a lot of bad stereotypes to overcome.

Most of the designs I have seen are too modern for my liking. Until there is some diversity in design and improved education on the product and process, there is a lot inthis segment that still needs to evolve.

Just another voice chiming in that prices are prohibitive.

This is an idea that will have it's time, though.

I get the feeling that the cost effectiveness may depend on what area you live in. They're completely cost prohibitive for our area in Georgia, costing almost twice as much as a contractor built house in some cases.

Yeah, and I'd also like a wind power turbine for electric, raidant heated floors, etc. MONEY IS THE ISSUE. I've see pictures of some prefabs that I like but are not practical for my part of the country or they're not available in a configuration that meets our lifestyle needs (one bedroom, two bathrooms minimum and a three car garage). We need minimum of 2x6 studding, lots of insulation, basements for protection during storms and flat roofs are a no-no in heavy snow country. Unless you want a concrete/steel roof and then . . . it's probably still leak like our local schools. Until the housing market becomes a seller's market again, I have to stay put.

Until somebody like IKEA enters the business, with pockets deep enough to get the price per square foot down and the marketing it would take to push the product, prefab is going nowhere.

Sears used to sell kit homes back before the Great Depression. Here's a picture of one from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sears_Catalog_Home_Greensburg_Pennsylvania.jpg

Here's another:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diaz_Creek_New_Jersey.jpg

And here's an advert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SearsHouse115.jpg

Here's the full article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home

They got into the mortgage business in the '30s, which proved to be their undoing during the Great Depression. The business never really recovered from the crash (sound familiar), and they exited the space in 1940.

I think the reality for now is that we have such an enormous glut of housing that it'll be decades before there's serious demand for individual homes in the US. The outlook for prefab housing may look better in China and India, though.

Why spend 4x more or how ever much when you can get a house and land for so much less, especially in this economy with all the foreclosures. Isn't that a greener option to refurbish an existing house anyway. Sure the new Prefabs look nice but, just because someone can get one doesn't mean they should.

The problem with prefab is the same as with all these other new technologies. Companies want to make the profits without taking the risks. What if everyone waited for government subsidies to put out good ideas?

Maybe the first few homes have to be done with a smaller profit margin or at cost so that people can see what they'd be getting. Maybe donate a home to Habitat for Humanity as a showcase. I don't know, just be creative.

Wesfs33,

I agree. I'd like to add that with prefab,unless it is a cheap trailer, you are going to get consistency of workmanship and usually a guarantee on the material.

From horror stories I hear on the news and from personal accounts, contractors can cut corners, delay work if on an hourly contract and usually stiff you when possible. There are or course honest contractors but the labor costs will force you also to cut corners. Unless money is no problem, I would prefer the prefab, yet as others have already mentioned, the cost is prohibitive.

Atomicranch 79, Ikea is in the building business already in Scandinavia and the UK, not prefab though: http://www.boklok.com/UK/,

I think availability is another problem. Pre-fab needs to be LOCALLY assembled for shipping to not (a) raise prices and (b) be a strong negative ecologically. So there needs to be a company making prefab houses that regional people like well enough to buy, they need to be green, they need to be built to local codes, and they need to address the market needs of the area (in NE, that would probably mean traditional and modern styles, maybe some Craftsman. In the SE, maybe Adobe/kiva styles, etc.) There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so it's hard to do...

The problem with Prefab is that (when money was plentiful) most people didn't have the vision, the time, finances or all three to purchase a plot of land, try to understand floorplans, then commission and build what is essentially a custom home - it was just easier to drive out to the new subdivisions outside of town, walk through the models, choose a model and perhaps some tile and trim, and get the financing right there: kinda like buying a new car off the lot.

Now of course that money is tight, there's no demand because there's a glut of housing out there and getting a construction loan with 30% down is a near impossibility.

SherryBinNH, I definitely agree with you about building them locally.

One reason for that though, is that I can't help but think of the traffic if everyone were having houses driven to them all over the country if this became the main form of home building. Have you ever been stuck behind one of those extra wide trucks on a road going 20 miles under the speed limit? Maybe I'm just traumatized after 4 years of my 4 hour drive home from college on one lane roads stuck behind slow trucks hauling trailer homes that were impossible to get around--imagine the additional traffic & accidents if there were lots of these on our highways, backroads, stoplights etc; I cringe.

If it weren't for that and prices (not everyone can afford to buy a lot AND a home-that's the appeal of mass produced homes- affordability), I'd go for it. I get sick of all the boring houses that look exactly alike.

Costs aside, current pre-fab offerings are just TOO modern for my tastes. Now, if Sears started selling bungalow kits again, I would be all over that! There's several Sears-kit houses in my neighborhood and I love them.

Yes, prefabs are too expensive in North America. In Sweden, 95% of all new single-family housing is prefab and the prefab companies also do custom houses as well (as in architect designed or special designs for clients). They are also built to very, very high quality standards (i.e. no vinyl siding, triple glazing, radiant heating powered by exhaust air heat pumps etc) and practical designs, both modern and fairly traditional and everything in between.

These (see links below),

http://www.arkitekthus.se/
http://www.norrpada.se/

are two of the more design progressive companies building prefabs.

the problem with prefab in my area is the cost of the site itself. i'm in bc, and land value is through the roof, ergo our small condo. if that wasn't the case, we would have gone prefab for sure.

They are nice but too expensive.