For various reasons, modular homes are popular in New England (more than 10 percent of all new homes in the northeast U.S. are modular). Even new homeowners in upscale areas like Martha’s Vineyard are taking notice of the benefits of modular construction.

Martha’s Vineyard Magazine did a feature on the rise of modular homes in the island community for its spring/summer 2008 issue. The modules for the home at the center of the story were pulled across Vineyard Haven’s harbor on a barge and transported by police-escorted flatbed trucks to their final destination.

The article discusses the many benefits of modular construction, including the financial perks that have led so many Vineyarders to go modular:

What makes the Vineyard a hungrier modular market than most? Follow the money: Certainly, modular customers everywhere benefit from the economies of scale realized by big factories that purchase basic materials, from drywall to grout, in bulk. For Islanders, the resounding cost differential is labor. “Sixty dollars an hour is what I have to charge for labor here versus fifteen to twenty dollars off-Island,” says builder Ray Maciel, one of several Vineyard contractors whose business today is all modular all the time. After adding the expense of shipping boxes across land and water, and renting a crane to move them into place, Vineyard homeowners report shaving a quarter to nearly a half off the budget for an equivalent stick-built home.

It’s a long article, but one of the best we’ve seen about the modular housing boom. Check it out on the Martha’s Vineyard Magazine website and don’t miss the mention of Excel Homes/Avis America and the helpful how-to section at the end.

The prefab modular home has come a long way since its early days as a temporary housing solution during World War II. It’s come so far that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) is devoting a three-month-long exhibit to prefab history, including the construction of five prefab homes in the museum’s west lot in midtown Manhattan.

The modular modern art display, which MoMA has dubbed “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” doesn’t stop there. In the MoMA gallery, visitors can learn about 84 architectural projects from the last two centuries, thanks to an encyclopedic display of modular history, including films, models, blueprints, photos and marketing materials. The exhibit opened on July 20 and runs through October 20.

As you’d expect from a MoMA exhibit, the modular homes on display in the west lot are decidedly, well, modern. That includes a 76-square-foot micro compact home and an MIT-designed “Instant House” proposed as a solution for the rapid reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. At right is a rendering of the “Cellophane House” also on display.

The MoMA homes may bear little resemblance to the more traditional homes created by Excel Homes and most other modular manufacturers, but they do have a few things in common (besides their off-site modular construction). Regardless of size or shape, modular construction is modern, durable, innovative and, most importantly, here to stay.

Last month, we talked about the first step in the modular home-buying process (research). But after you do your homework and decide to purchase a modular home, the next step is pre-qualifying for a home loan.

Loan pre-qualification is important, especially early in the modular home shopping process, because it’ll give you an indication of how much money you’re qualified to borrow and how much you can spend on your new home. Of course, loan pre-qualification does not guarantee that you’ll get a loan. The actual mortgage process comes later and is a little more detailed.

For the first step in loan pre-qualification, you’ll need to find a reputable lender or mortgage broker. Start by asking friends, family or co-workers for recommendations. If you already have a relationship with a real estate broker, they should also be able to help you.

Remember, when you’re finally ready to take out your home loan, you don’t have to use the same lender that pre-qualified you. The pre-qualification process is based on your personal information and uses standard lending formulas and guidelines. No matter which lender you ultimately choose, your pre-qualified amount should stay roughly the same. When selecting your lender, experience in financing modular homes should be a factor in your decision. 

After you’ve identified a lender, the pre-qualification can begin. It’s a simple process that compares your income to your debts (car payments, credit card debts, other mortgages) to determine your debt-to-income ratio. A lower ratio (less debt, more income) means you can borrow more money for your new home. During the pre-qualification process, the lender can also check your credit score. (Stop back for more information on credit in an upcoming blog entry.)

Armed with all of this information, the lender will be able to pre-qualify you for a loan and give you a letter of pre-qualification. With this letter, you will know how much you can spend on your modular home. The pre-qualification process will also give you an idea of how much your monthly mortgage payments will be.

The next installment of The Modular Process (Step 3): Meeting with a modular home builder.

We don’t all have the budget to build our new homes using the latest environmentally friendly materials and standards, even though we can all agree that doing so would be nice. So you can imagine how surprised most people are when they learn that not only do modular homes often cost less than similar traditional homes, modular is also better for the environment.

How does a modular home get greener for less green? It starts with being smarter about how we use the materials that go into the home. It’s true that modular homes use more materials to build them stronger, but the process also yields less construction waste than the traditional home building process. That’s because most modular builders (Excel included) buy pre-cut lumber. The standardized construction process and specially trained team behind each modular home also increases efficiency and decreases waste.

By the way, modular homes also help the environment by being more energy efficient than standard homes, but we’ll cover that perk in a future edition of “Did You Know.”

Last week, we wrote about the research phase of the modular home buying process. It’s one of the most important steps. Luckily, there’s no shortage of information available online, but if you’re a more traditional learner, you’ll be happy to know that there are several books available that will shed some more light on the modular home buying process.

One of those books is “The Modular Home” by Andy Gianino. Andrew is the president of The Home Store, which is the largest modular home builder in New England. (Many of the homes they build are Excel Homes, but that’s not why we love this book!) 

The best thing about The Modular Home, aside from the wealth of information included in it, is how the information is presented. Andrew goes into an incredible amount of detail in each chapter, but he does it in a way that is clear and understandable for those who might not know much about modular homes or the building industry in general. To make his point, Andrew uses checklists, sketches, hints and even throws in some “what not to do” case studies.

The book includes 11 chapters, such as “Why Build Modular,” “Selecting a Dealer,” “Finding and Preparing a Building Lot,” and “Financing a Modular Home.”

We’ve read a lot of books about modular homes over the years, and whether you’re a home builder or a potential home owner, Andrew’s is by far one of the best resources out there. In fact, we like the book so much, we’re going to purchase three copies and give them away here on Modular Musings to three commenters chosen at random. If you can’t wait to get your hands on a copy, they’re also available on Amazon.com.

Boston Globe blogger and real estate guru, Rona Fischman, wrote last week about her recent modular epiphany. Rona admits that she once confused modular homes with manufactured homes. However, after some research and witnessing some “very attractive” modular homes being built in her neighborhood, Rona is now a tried and true believer in the value and beauty of the modular home.

Rona goes on to list the many reasons why modular homes are smarter choices than stick built homes, including the facts that modular homes are higher quality, less expensive, better for the environment and quicker to build.

Journalists are only human, which is why so many of them harbor the same misconceptions about modular homes that many other people do. That’s why it’s refreshing whenever influential voices like Rona see the light about modular construction and why we’ll feature those  breakthroughs here on Modular Musings whenever we encounter them.

Here’s a helpful video from the National Modular Housing Council about the modular home building process. It gives a general overview of pretty much everything, from how the modules are built in a factory, to the strict inspection standards, to the preparation of the home’s foundation.