Following on the heels of Miss South Carolina’s line in the Miss America Beauty Pageant about factory-built homes in her home state, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) asks rather rhetorically why so many Americans live in these dwellings. Based on U. S. Census figures, 20 million Americans occupy 8.5 million manufactured homes, 57 percent of which have a full time employed head of household, and 23 percent are retired. As MHProNews knows, seventy percent of all new homes sold priced under $125,000 are manufactured homes. Household income of MH residents is roughly half the national average, and the top five states with the most factory-built housing are South Carolina, New Mexico, West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama. Mississippi is the only one of the five that is also among the poorest states. While the stigma of manufactured homes persists in much of the country, elaborate homes in some Florida retirement communities and along the southern California coast certainly defy that image.
