HUD HOC Reference Guide

A. Eligibility & general requirements - Title II

A Manufactured Home is a structure that is transportable in one or more sections. In traveling mode, the home is eight feet or more in width and forty feet or more in length. A Manufactured Home is designed and constructed to the Federal Manufactured Construction and Safety Standards and is so labeled. To be eligible for FHA mortgage insurance, all manufactured homes must comply with the following:

• have a floor area of not less than 400 square feet;
• be constructed after June 15, 1976, in conformance with the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, as evidenced by an affixed certification label in accordance with 24 CFR Section 3280.8; (manufactured homes produced prior to that date are ineligible for insured financing);
• be classified as real estate but need not be treated as real estate for purposes of state taxation;
• the mortgage must cover both the manufactured unit and its site and shall have a term of not more than 30 years from the date amortization begins;
• built and remains on a permanent chassis;
• designed to be used as a dwelling with a permanent foundation built to FHA criteria; and
• the finished grade elevation beneath the manufactured home or, if a basement is used, the lowest finished exterior grade adjacent to the perimeter enclosure, shall be at or above the 100-year return frequency flood elevation; Flood Zones A or V.

Modular construction is also a factory-built home, but is treated the same as stick-built housing.

For information on FHA Insurance under the Title II Program, see HUD Handbooks 4150.2 Chapter 8; HUD Handbook 4145.1, Rev-2, Section 3-4 and Appendix 11; HUD Handbook 4155.2 Chapter 4; Mortgagee Letter 2009-16; and Permanent Foundations Guide for Manufactured Housing (HUD-7584), dated September 1996 (Mortgagee Letter 1997-36). The latter is a revision of HUD Handbook 4930.3G, dated August 1989. The guide and software may also be obtained by calling: 1-800-245-2691.