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There are a variety of factory fabricated housing products. They are not as easily pigeon-holed as one might realize.

"Mobile homes" in the industry definition of the term have not been made in years, decades in fact. The only mobile homes being built these days are actual travel trailers.

A modular home is factory fabricated in sections which are then transported, usually on a trailer as opposed to having the tongue and axles attached to them to create a trailer, then assembled on site. Modular homes can be indistinguishable in the marketplace from site-built housing or they may be readily identifiable as manufactured. It just depends on how the thing is done. There are modular homes in many areas which the market regards equally with site-built housing and which do not show a measurable difference in market reaction or values to site-built housing of comparable quality. They are functionally the same as site-built homes, at least as durable, and indistinguishable visually from the exterior and interior. In addition, in many if not most jurisdictions, modular housing of this type is considered real estate as opposed to personal property immediately for legal and financing purposes. Modular housing is often regarded as suitable and legal for residential-zoned areas which otherwise exclude manufactured homes. They often have expected building lives in line with site-built housing in the areas where they are placed. So, a modular home is not automatically the same thing as what most people think of as a mobile home. Is some areas, they may occupy a slightly lower rung in the ladder, in some areas they may not, but they are different than a manufactured home.

A manufactured home is a factory fabricated unit which to most of us is going to look like what the general public still refers to as a mobile home. These are often more or less a rectangle in the form of a single, two or three wide building (i.e. single-wide, double-wide, etc.). They usually arrive on a site with axles and a tongue which may or may not be removed once installed (these days the axles usually leave). Even if they are a triple wide or have tip-outs, in most cases they are easily distinguished within the marketplace in terms of visual cues, market perception and values. Manufactured homes often do not appreciate at the rate of site-built housing (and in the case of single-wide units often do not appreciate at all). They often must be confined to specifically-zoned areas, and they are often financed in a different manner and at different rates from other housing. They have a lower expected physical and economic life compared to many site-built structures.

This said, the lines are being blurred by the manufacturers as they fight for market share and refine their products. There are manufactured housing communities in quite a few states where the finished products do not have any visual cues that they are factory built. They can have numerous offsets, attached garages, tile roofs, even multiple levels. Their developments can have pools, club-houses and look like any other garden home community. These properties are best considered by a local expert in terms of what they mean in the marketplace.

In terms of strength of construction, there was a subdivision some years back which had a mixture of modular homes and site-built homes north of downtown Birmingham. It was a section which local geography and weather patterns for a few years seemed to place in the path of tornadoes on an annual basis. Finally, one stayed on the ground through this development. The modular homes were glued (and nailed) together in their pre-assembled sections, along main structural junctions. As a whole, these homes actually fared better than the site-built homes which were only nailed together. Not that they were able to completely withstand an Alabama tornado, many were destroyed, but many more were only damaged and they were damaged in such a away that it was obvious that the structural members that were glued together their entire length held the entire structure together where others were obliterated.

A local appraiser or broker/agent might be a good source to determine how modular housing of the type being considered is treated within that market. Subjectively, I would prefer a modular home over a manufactured unit.