We have seen/stayed in one of these Ideabox homes and they seem a good balance for a house when you're not a "I want to build my dream castle" kind of person (that's me).
Yeah that's my main pick with all pre-fab proposals that eventually pop-up here and there, some of them even winning awards for "affordable" housing. Every. single. time. the total cost of the project is on the 6-7 figures range ...
And, just to be clear, I am not a build my castle person, but I do want something more modern than the usual cabin in the woods. Hence, Ideabox...
irishvernacular.com/ also has a guide to building a lovely, modest, warm home yourself (with friends, admittedly) for <50k .
In factory built home parlance, generally, a 'mobile' home is built to HUD building codes (which are the same nationwide) and is not considered a permanent residence - often time it stays on wheels even when put in place, and can theoretically be moved at a later date (although they rarely ever are). These are also sometimes referred to as 'trailer houses'. They used to be built very cheaply and were a depreciating asset (think like a car or an RV), but there are higher quality options these days.
A 'modular home' will be built to spec to the local building codes wherever it is being placed (which is usually IRC + whatever peculiarities local government officials have tacked on). They are placed on a permanent foundation, cannot be moved, and are generally treated as equivalent to a site-built home once finished. Again, you can spend a little or a lot on these, some factories will do fully custom designs that would be completely indistinguishable from a high-end site-built home once finished.
Many factories will build either variety, some specialize on one over the other. In rural, higher cost of living areas both varieties are often quite a bit cheaper than a site-built home, both because of the efficiencies and economies of scale a factory can provide, and also because they can be built in an area with lower labor costs and shipped to your land.
In populated, growing urban areas, the cost benefit diminishes a bit because production builders can approximate the benefits a factory has by building 100s of homes in the same neighborhood at the same time.
edit to add: My information pertains to the US, the article references land in Canada. I don't know as much about factory built homes or building codes in Canada.
The materials price increases that are causing factories to raise their prices are also hitting local contractors who do site-built homes.
In fact, if anything, the factories can insulate you from this price volatility more because they have a lot more bargaining leverage with their suppliers than a local contractor who's doing 10 homes a year.
That's what has always steered me clear of doing this. If you need to sell, I've learned that manufactured homes are not lendable by many institutions. Maybe this new class of modular will count as "Stick built" for lending purposes. They seem really nice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/sibihx/first_d...