Modular construction: affordable homes built in four months, not a year

PONTIAC. The Community Housing Network put up two single-family homes here using modular construction, whole sections built in a factory and trucked in for assembly. The nonprofit has also finished a project in Eastpointe: two quadplex rental buildings, eight units total. Over 25 years, CHN says it has helped more than 400,000 people across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.

A modular home takes about eight weeks to build in a climate-controlled factory, then another eight weeks to install on site, roughly four months start to finish against a year or more built the traditional way. The Community Economic Development Authority of Michigan, known as CEDAM, held a webinar on the approach as material costs keep climbing and construction labor stays hard to find. One catch: factories want half the money down before they start, which CEDAM says keeps the option out of reach for smaller developers.