02:48 PM EDT, 03/24/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Mobile home prices in the US fell last month, offering prospective buyers a much cheaper alternative to acquiring or renting traditional site-built houses, News Corp's ( NWSA ) Realtor.com said Tuesday.

The median listing price of mobile homes dropped 5.7% year over year to $141,450 in February. In contrast, the median single-family home was priced at $410,000, while the median condo or townhome was priced at $365,000, according to the online real estate portal.

Monthly principal and interest payments on the median mobile home amount to $678, assuming a 6% rate on a 30-year mortgage with a 20% down payment. On the median non-mobile home listing, that payment would be $1,918 under the same assumptions, the firm said in a report.

"While the broader market remains a challenge for many, the mobile home sector is currently offering one of the most efficient entry-points into the market," Realtor.com Senior Economist Joel Berner said. "For those who prioritize flexibility and lower cost burdens, the current price dip in the mobile home sector provides a compelling window to move from renting to owning."

New mobile homes are built in a factory to a complete or almost-complete status. They're then loaded onto a trailer and hauled to their destination, where they may be placed on a foundation and the components are joined together, Realtor.com said.

Manufactured mobile homes offer lower prices and more flexibility of location versus traditional site-built houses. Prices of mobile homes surged during the post-pandemic buying frenzy, growing faster than the market as a whole, according to the report.

Values of mobile homes with land have jumped 70% over the past seven years, outpacing the roughly 59% appreciation of traditional single-family homes. The median $1,667 rent across the top 50 US metros is more than double the typical monthly mortgage payment for a factory-built home, according to the Realtor.com report.

There were more than 80,000 mobile homes listed for sale in the US last month, less than a tenth as many as the non-mobile homes captured in the firm's standard monthly metrics. Mobile home inventory is heavily concentrated in the Sun Belt, with Florida as a primary hub, the report showed.

Regulation covering mobile homes is likely to be updated with a proposed legislation seeking to modernize standards by removing the permanent steel chassis requirement for manufactured homes, according to Realtor.com.

"This would create direct material savings on manufactured homes while maintaining national standards that facilitate easy, low-cost installation, even of multistory homes," Berner said.

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