6.6 Million Americans Live in Manufactured and Mobile Homes

Roughly 6.6 million manufactured or mobile homes are occupied across the United States, according to 2024 estimates from the American Community Survey, the National Association of Realtors reports.

The figure positions factory-built housing as one of the largest affordable segments in American residential stock — and one of the few where the price gap against site-built homes keeps widening in buyers' favor.

How large is the market?

Production is running at significant scale. Census data shows more than 102,700 manufactured homes were shipped from factories last year, according to the report. Of those shipments, 62,200 were sold or leased to live in.

That leaves a substantial share of factory output — roughly 40,500 units — flowing to non-occupancy uses, though the source data does not specify whether those units went to temporary, commercial, or other applications.

Why is the price gap so wide?

Cost is the decisive selling point. In May 2026, the average sales price of a manufactured home was $130,500, Census data shows. The average existing traditional home, by NAR's measure, sold for $582,300.

That is a difference of more than $450,000 — the manufactured home averages less than a quarter of the price of its site-built counterpart.

The comparison, however, comes with an important caveat: manufactured home prices generally exclude the cost of land, while existing home prices include it. A buyer who does not already own a lot must add land acquisition, installation, and utility connection costs to the sticker price.

What does this mean for affordability?

The numbers arrive as housing affordability remains a central constraint in the U.S. market. At $130,500 per unit, manufactured housing is one of the few production channels capable of delivering new homes at a price point far below conventional construction.

The National Association of Realtors and Census Bureau data together sketch a segment that already houses millions of Americans and continues to ship units at a rate of more than 100,000 per year — production volume that many site-built categories do not match.

Whether the segment can absorb more demand may depend less on factory capacity than on land costs, zoning, and financing — the factors not captured in the headline price of $130,500.