Sustainable Homeownership Through Factory-Built Housing
Next Step has proven how sustainable homeownership can work for working families. A decade ago, we met Robert and Chasity Woody, first-time homebuyers, a young family with two beautiful daughters, then ages 4 and 1, who loved to play and didn’t hesitate to invite us to join them with their dolls and tea set in their new bedroom. This family put down roots in what became their forever home.
Robert, a Navy combat veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom aboard aircraft carriers, works in corrections in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Chasity is a stay-at-home mom and an avid photographer. The Woodys had been renting, and the situation was difficult and straining their budget. Imagine paying $400 a month just to keep the lights on, while a landlord ignores your maintenance calls. It was cramped with their growing family in a small rental unit, and they knew it was time to move
forward.
They took action and went to their local USDA office to figure out how to get a home loan. They completed homebuyer education and secured their $200,000 loan preapproval. Robert noted that going through the homebuyer education process made them feel prepared to take the next step on the journey to homeownership. However, their local market was hot, with affordable homes hard to find. After exhausting the existing-home search, they received a tip from their USDA loan officer, who introduced them to Mountain Housing Opportunities (MHO), a local nonprofit developer and Next Step Network member. Joe Quinlan and the MHO team introduced the Woodys to the idea of factory-built homeownership. They pivoted from searching for existing homes to building a new modular home on land MHO was developing in Mars Hill, just north of Asheville.
The Woodys were pleased with how much they could customize their new modular home — colors, design features, and the specific layout for their growing family. The day the house arrived, they carried their belongings from the road to the new home before the driveway was even finished. They could not wait to start nesting in their new place. And what they learned was that their home was remarkably efficient. Because the lumber and materials were never exposed to the outdoor elements during construction — instead built indoors using engineered processes — the Woodys’ home achieved a much tighter building envelope and earned ENERGY STAR® certification. Precision construction without warping, without air leaks, combined with efficient mechanical systems, translated directly into cash in the homebuyer’s pocket. The Woodys’ overall utility costs dropped by more than 75%, from $400 a month to under $80. Their new mortgage payment was significantly less than their previous rent. They began putting money aside for family trips and their daughters’ education.
In July 2022, we returned to visit the Woodys at their home. An appraisal confirmed the home had appreciated from their original purchase price of $179,500 to $315,000 — $135,500 in wealth built in six years. This significant appreciation challenges a persistent misconception about factory-built housing, that these homes do not build equity the way site-built homes do. The Woodys’ home proves otherwise. Factory-built homes, delivered through a trusted ecosystem, produce the same wealth-building outcomes working families deserve.
The Woodys’ story proves what’s possible when the factory-built housing ecosystem works — when a USDA loan officer knows to refer a family to a trusted nonprofit developer, when a Next Step network member knows how to deliver a high-quality factory-built home, when homebuyer education prepares families for sustainable ownership, and when the home itself performs on energy efficiency, affordability, and appreciation. This is what Manufactured Housing Done Right® looks like in practice: a system of responsible financing, comprehensive homebuyer education, and delivery of high-quality, energy-efficient factory-built homes that give families a real pathway to stable, wealth-building homeownership. The Woodys’ outcome is not the exception. It is the model, and it is one Next Step is ready to scale so more families can put down roots the way the Woodys did.