Chadwick Reed and Daniel McCue of Harvard University. | Harvard University.
Chadwick Reed and Daniel McCue of Harvard University. | Harvard University.
More than one in ten homes in Illinois are manufactured, sold without property attached.
That's according to a study by construction research firm Construction Coverage, which analyzed the U.S. Census' Manufactured Housing Survey and its Building Permits Survey as well the Zillow Home Value Index.
The study reported that 1,260 of Illinois' 9,766 home sales in 2023 were manufactured homes, or 11.4 percent, ranking 21st of 50 states.
The median home sale price of a manufactured home in Illinois was $126,300, versus $252,399 for a home with property.
A January 2024 study by Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University researchers Daniel McCue, James Shen, Chris Herbert and Chadwick Reed said that "manufactured housing holds promise as an affordable form of housing that could expand homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income households" but that "land use regulations that limit the placement of manufactured housing in single-family neighborhoods" have limited its growth.
"Reform of zoning and land use regulations" are needed, the report said. "Local government have a key role to play by reviewing existing regulations to remove unnecessary obstackes to siting good-quality manufactured housing in a broad range of neighborhoods."
According to Construction Coverage, 21.2 million Americans live in manufactured homes.
$150 per year vs. $4,745
Owners of manufactured homes typically don't have to pay property tax bills, dramatically lowering their cost of ownership.
In Illinois, so long as you are living in a manufactured housing community, your home is taxed as chattel, or "personal property."
Thus-- the owner of a 1,000 square foot manufactured home would pay their Illinois county treasurer between $75 and $150 per year,
In April, a property tax analysis by ATTOM ranked Illinois as having the highest tax bills in the U.S., with an effective rate of 1.88 percent, or $4,745 on a median-priced home. That's compared with 0.41 percent for Arizona ($1,034 on same home), 0.44 percent for Tennessee and 0.48 percent for Nevada.
The counties in Illinois with the highest effective property tax rates were DeKalb County (2.51 percent), Kane County (2.15 percent), Lake County (2.10 percent), Kankakee County (2.15 percent) and Macon County (2.13 percent).
A 2020 Construction Coverage study found that only 3.2 percent of Illinois single-family homes were manufactured, ranking 44th lowest of 50 states, behind Hawaii, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Rhode Island.
New Mexico (19.3 percent), South Carolina (18.3 percent) and Mississippi (16.7 percent) have the highest percentage of manufactured homes.
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