With affordable housing on everyone’s mind, an attractive solution is quietly slipping into neighborhoods in the form of modular housing.

In recent months, the city has issued permits for nearly a dozen modular homes while others are built throughout the Tampa Bay area. Buyers are finding that they can get more house for less money and in a matter of weeks through the factory-built homes.

Affordable-housing groups are also seeing modulars as an effective solution.

“You’ll find increasingly people looking at this alternative,” said Askia Mohammed Aquil, the head of Neighborhood Housing Services. “For people not familiar with modular housing, they are going to be very impressed.”

Aquil submitted a bid last year to build modular townhomes on a city-owned parcel near Mercy Hospital in Midtown. The units could sell for as little as $135,000.

If the bid is chosen, NHS would install 47 units built by Palm Harbor Homes, a Dallas manufacturer with a facility in Plant City.

“The quality of modular housing today is at worst as good as site-built housing,” said Nick Pavonetti, a retired developer who is consulting with NHS and Palm Harbor on the Midtown project. “And the cost is 30 percent less.”

A wide variety of consumers are buying modulars. Such homes are being built in Sarasota and on Anna Maria Island as well as throughout Pinellas County.

“I couldn’t give a more ringing endorsement,” said Jim Laramie, who with his wife, Debby, moved in Thursday to his 1,720-square-foot home on 59th Street in Gulfport. They paid $118,000. “This house is as strong as a horse.”

The advantage of modulars, advocates say, is that they are constructed in a controlled environment where builders can maximize economies of scale on machine and materials. The homes come out clean, strong, fast and energy efficient without the hassles of moving resources to many separate locations.

Completed modulars are hauled in pieces to the site and secured to a permanent foundation. By code and because of transport, modulars are often more hurricane resistant than site-built homes, manufacturers say.

Modulars are being installed along the Gulf Coast to replace housing lost to Hurricane Katrina, but the buildings are suitable for more than emergency or even low-income housing, manufacturers say. Modulars have a longer history in Northern climates where building seasons are short. They are a modern offshoot of mobile homes, which have cast a shadow on them.

“There is that perception for some folks that it’s still a mobile home because it came in on wheels,” said Rick Dunn, the city’s building official. “But they’re not any different than any stick-built home and it creates an avenue to affordable housing.”

Modulars are inspected by the state’s Department of Community Affairs, so they automatically meet all building codes, Dunn said. Because of that, modulars are permitted wherever zoning allows single-family homes, whereas mobile homes must sit in areas zoned specifically for them.

Mike Mitchell of M&M Maintenance is a general contractor who builds conventional homes and installs modulars.

He said his business has shifted lately to almost all modulars because they are so quick and efficient. He said he has done about 20 modulars throughout the area in the past three years.

“It’s mainly been word of mouth,” said Mitchell, who last week installed a Precision modular at 1700 29th St. S next to another he put in a year ago. “Once you do one, you start getting calls for more.”

Pavonetti said he’s working with nonprofit agencies to facilitate more multifamily modular installations.

“In the last six months, we have been contacted by governments, nonprofits and developers,” said Pavonetti, who is also working on projects in Bradenton and Tampa. “People are seeing that modulars’ time has come.”

Laramie said he was skeptical at first but felt better when he watched his house being built in the factory. With a background in construction, he said he was impressed by the care and quality in the building. He said he was also amazed at the speed.

“It took only 28 days to deliver our house,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of money to throw around. Quality and moneywise, this was the best thing to do.”

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com.

Fast Facts:
Good as stick-built
Modular homes permitted in the last six months in St. Petersburg:
644 16th Ave. S
4935 Second Ave. N
1700 29th St. S
1428 Preston St. S
2953 Fifth Ave. S
2935 Fifth Ave. S
3519 14th Ave. S
3527 14th Ave. S
4235 Fourth Ave. S
1520 20th Ave. S
4119 Fifth Ave. S

Paul Swider
Tampabay.com
Published January 21, 2007