HUD unveils a plan to overhaul the 50-year-old manufactured home code — what chassis-free design means for buyers

What happened

On October 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan. The announcement came after HUD Secretary Scott Turner spoke at the agency's Sixth Annual Innovative Housing Showcase in Washington, D.C.

The plan is HUD's response to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which became law on July 11, 2026. The ROAD Act removed the longstanding permanent-chassis requirement from the definition of a manufactured home — a constraint that had been embedded in federal housing law since 1974. A permanent chassis is the steel underframe that previously had to remain permanently attached to a manufactured home even after it was set on a foundation, physically distinguishing it from site-built and modular homes even when the two looked identical.

Removing that requirement created a design and regulatory gap that HUD must now fill. The October 7 action plan is the department's public roadmap for doing so.

The seven things HUD says it will do

The action plan outlines seven specific priorities:

1. Update energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes.
2. Remove barriers to building chassis-free homes by addressing design and construction rules that assume a permanent chassis.
3. Maintain safety by establishing foundation, anchoring, and installation requirements that work without a chassis.
4. Create construction pathways for innovative housing types that remain within the federal manufactured housing regulatory framework.
5. Develop a performance-based code for larger buildings — a potential federal framework for larger-scale factory-built residential structures.
6. Develop resources for chassis-free construction to help stakeholders navigate design, transportation, foundations, installation, zoning, appraisal, lending, insurance, and market acceptance.
7. Open the federal system to more manufacturers by providing resources for existing modular and off-site construction builders who want to operate under the HUD Code.

Point seven is the most significant for the foldable-home market: HUD is explicitly signaling that it wants to bring state-modular and other off-site manufacturers into the federal system, which would give buyers a single national approval path rather than a patchwork of state-by-state certifications.

What this means for buyers — and what it does not

This is a plan, not a finished rule. HUD's action plan does not rewrite a single technical standard today. Each of the seven priorities requires subsequent rulemaking, public comment periods, manufacturer testing, state certifications, and in some cases acts of Congress to fund or authorize. The timeline for when a chassis-free manufactured home could actually be built, shipped, and financed is years away.

HUD Code vs. what foldable homes use now. Every model currently in the Foldable Home Store catalog is either state-modular-seal certified (Boxabl Casita), ANSI A119.5 park-model certified (MagicSlide), or carries no U.S. residential certification (most Chinese-manufactured expandable container homes). None of them are HUD Code manufactured homes. The October 7 plan does not change the certification status of any model we catalog.

• Boxabl Casita: Approved under California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and South Carolina state modular programs. HUD Code modernization is a parallel track; it does not affect Casita approvals or pricing.
• Chinese expandable container homes (CHOMEX, JEEZOO, PackPrefab, Chery, etc.): These carry no HUD or U.S. residential certification. The action plan's goal of bringing more manufacturers into the federal system is long-term and voluntary; no Chinese wing-fold manufacturer is currently in or near the HUD system.
• ANSI-certified THOWs (MagicSlide 2X): Built to RV/park-model code, not HUD Code. Unaffected.

The buyer who benefits in the near term is a HUD Code manufactured-home buyer. If you are comparing a traditional single-wide or double-wide manufactured home with a foldable or expandable prefab, these reforms signal that future manufactured home designs may look more like site-built housing, be easier to place in suburban lots, and qualify for conventional mortgage financing (since chassis-free siting on a permanent foundation is the key to real-property title treatment).

The financing angle

When a manufactured home is permanently affixed to land the owner also owns, it can often be converted from personal property (chattel) to real property — enabling conventional mortgage financing and traditional equity appreciation. The permanent-chassis requirement had complicated some of these conversations because the chassis itself was a physical reminder of the home's "mobile" heritage.

A chassis-free manufactured home, installed on a permanent foundation with no steel underframe to deal with, should be easier to classify as real property from day one. HUD's action plan specifically calls for developing resources on zoning, appraisal, lending, and insurance — the exact friction points that have kept manufactured homes at a financing disadvantage.

What to watch next

HUD's next step will be publishing proposed rules — likely in 2027 — that update specific HUD Code sections to accommodate chassis-free construction. Watch the HUD Office of Manufactured Housing Programs website (hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/) for proposed rulemaking. For buyers considering foldable or expandable prefabs available today, current certification status and state approvals remain the deciding factors.