Prefab Homes, or a Home in a Hurry
AUGUST 2006 - Postwar Americans faced a housing shortage. Government regulations, increasing costs, labor troubles and shortages of materials forced house hunters and REALTORS® to adapt. Enter the prefabricated home.
In August 1951, the National Real Estate and Building Journal interviewed Harry H. Steidle, manager of the Prefabricated Homes Manufacturer's Institute. "The prefabrication of homes is now well recognized as the chief means of providing better housing values," Steidle said, calling prefabs "the most profitable and most economical way of providing housing for middle and lower income families."
But the public was skeptical, due in part to poorly built prefab housing in the years just after World War II. According to the Journal government-sponsored prefab housing projects, heavily underwritten during this period, ended in chaos. "Builders with little or no previous experience erected prefab homes in monotonous looking subdivisions that drew ridicule from the general public as well as from qualified members of the building industry."
Minds changed over time though. Steidle cited "improvements made in engineering, advanced styling, and the use of superior materials and equipment." He said that in 1950 one of every 20 single-family dwellings built in the U.S. was a prefab home.
