Manufactured homes (formerly referred to as "mobile homes") have changed a lot over the years. They are on longer trailer houses being pulled down the road or rusting exteriors next door to an automotive dump. However, these images have been hard to overcome. Today's manufactured home is efficient, practical, and affordable housing for 8% of Americans. Some are even luxurious.

Today, the manufactured home park is a combination of individual home ownership and homesite rental. It is usually an orderly, well groomed entity and sometimes is indistinguishable from a more traditional development. Once the manufactured home has been moved to the site, most are never moved again, as their value comes from the desirability of the community.

Manufactured housing can be purchased for far less than it costs to build a traditional home. This is appealing to those with lower incomes, including the elderly on fixed incomes. Today's manufactured home is larger than ever before; 83% of the manufactured homes have three or more bedrooms and the average single-wide has been growing in size more than 2% per year. More than 1 million Californians live in manufactured homes and there are more than 2000 manufactured home parks in New York State.