As housing demand continues to outpace supply, new construction methods are reshaping what’s possible. One of the most promising approaches is modular housing. During the Future Is Modular panel at the Groundwork Housing Summit, speakers from the public, private and nonprofit sectors explored how modular housing can accelerate affordability and adapt to local needs.
Modular vs. Manufactured: Understanding the Difference
Manufactured housing is built to federal HUD standards. Modular housing, by contrast, is factory-built to state or local building codes - the same codes used for traditional site-built homes.
The difference is regulatory, not structural. Modular homes are built in controlled environments, often resulting in higher quality and energy efficiency. Because so much of the construction happens indoors, weather delays are avoided and on-site installation can be completed in days rather than months.
Fayetteville’s Path to Removing Barriers
Jonathan Curth, Development Services Director for the City of Fayetteville, shared how local policy can open the door for modular construction. For decades, Fayetteville’s 1970s ordinance effectively made modular housing untenable. The development team led efforts to modernize those regulations to eliminate outdated design standards and allow modular construction for any residential type, from cottages and duplexes to multifamily projects.
“Modular construction is possibly one of the most affordable methods of construction available,” said Curth. “The goal was to make it as easy as possible to remove as many of the high-level regulatory barriers as possible.”
Although no modular projects have yet broken ground, Fayetteville’s ordinance now sets the foundation for future innovation and signals to builders that the city is ready to welcome new approaches.
A Private Sector Shift: Amherst’s Modular Vision
For Genger Charles, Managing Director at Amherst, modular is a natural evolution of the company’s mission. Amherst began in single-family mortgage lending but pivoted after the 2008 financial crisis revealed how fragile and outdated America’s housing supply had become. “We effectively stopped building at the pace we needed due to the consequences of that crisis,” Charles reflected.
With millions of aging homes and untapped infill sites nationwide, Amherst saw modular construction as a way to scale quality housing faster. “It’s a tool in the toolkit,” Charles explained. A video shown during the panel illustrated the concept: a 15-unit project in partnership with the City of St. Petersburg, FL, where modules were set in a single day (video linked below in additional resources).
From factory floor to lease took only 60 days, with homes arriving 80 percent complete and requiring minimal on-site work. The project also leveraged a public-private partnership, using discounted land and density bonuses to make several homes affordable for households earning 80 –120 percent AMI.
Bringing Modular to Rural Communities
Audra Butler of Communities Unlimited described how her organization adapts modular methods for rural settings. Working with Come Dream, Come Build and Better Community Workshop, the team developed a flexible 12 × 24-foot box system that can travel narrow roads and avoid the heavy-equipment needs typical of large modules.
“How do we make [modular] more accessible to rural communities? And how do we make that more accessible to under-resourced communities?” Butler asked.
Each box arrives about 90 percent complete and can be transported on a flatbed trailer pulled by a three-quarter-ton pickup, an achievable setup for small towns. In Pine Bluff, their modular homes cost roughly $100 per square foot to build and sell for $125 per square foot, a promising model for modestly priced infill. Butler emphasized that smaller-scale projects face steep cost barriers because developers rarely take them on, but modular construction helps close that gap by reducing on-site labor and timeline uncertainty.
Overcoming the Roadblocks
Building codes remain a major hurdle in states without unified standards. In Texas, a preemptive code allows modular homes to be built under the International Residential Code with factory inspections, but Arkansas lacks such uniformity. Every municipality can set its own rules but that slows production and limits scale.
Permitting delays and HOA resistance also stall progress. Charles noted that Amherst had fully permitted projects derailed at the last minute when neighbors opposed deliveries. “Modular suffers from a narrative issue,” she said, pushing back on misconceptions about safety. “Toto is not going to go up in the air during the tornado because of modular housing.”
Panelists agreed that state licensure and consistent inspection standards would transform scalability. Butler’s team has worked around the patchwork system by having smaller cities accept Pine Bluff’s inspection process, but she acknowledged this places extra burden on resource-limited communities. “Uniformity of regulations to enable business capacity” is essential if Arkansas hopes to see more local manufacturers.
Reframing the Narrative
Beyond regulation, perception may be the biggest barrier. Amherst intentionally refers to its process as “studio-built housing,” with the factory itself called a “studio.” This language shift highlights craftsmanship and quality rather than the outdated stigma often attached to prefab construction.
Municipal leadership also plays a role in reshaping that story. Curth shared that Fayetteville is exploring ways to modernize manufactured-home park standards and reimagine how factory-built homes can blend into neighborhoods:
“[Manufactured] homes don’t have to fit into one of these two stereotypes over time, either sitting on a large rural piece of property or lined up in rows in a manufactured housing park. Is there an opportunity for them to be developed more creatively in clusters of manufactured housing or inserted into neighborhoods in a way that can be complimentary to other types of housing?”
Building Toward a Modular Future
Each speaker pointed to practical steps that cities, developers and nonprofits can take today. Cities can streamline permitting, adopt consistent inspection standards and publicly support modular pilots. Developers can start by incorporating modular components within existing builds before scaling to full factories. Nonprofits and local partners can anchor new modular facilities in regions with land and workforce capacity.
The lesson from the Future Is Modular panel is clear: the tools exist, the technology is proven and the need is urgent. What’s required now is alignment between cities willing to adapt codes, communities open to new forms and builders ready to invest in the future of housing.
