Cavco Industries, Inc. will unveil Grande Arbor, the company’s first manufactured home model built without a permanent steel chassis frame, this week in Washington, D.C.
The new model, built to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) code, will debut between September 22 and September 24 on the National Mall, as part of the 2026 Innovative Housing Showcase, an annual HUD-organized event that highlights innovative housing designs and technologies.
Cavco’s new model introduction comes just over two months after the passage of the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which eliminated the permanent chassis requirement for manufactured housing.
While Cavco and other manufactured housing leaders say the benefits of the change will take time to materialize, they argue that eliminating the permanent chassis requirement will spur development of better, more flexible designs, higher-density housing and greater deployment of manufactured homes in urban and suburban infill markets.
The next iteration of manufactured housing
According to the Niskanen Center, eliminating the permanent steel chassis requirement reduced manufactured home construction costs by $5,000 to $10,000 per home. While potential cost savings exist, executives from Cavco Industries indicated that this widely reported number is misleading.
Savings from eliminating the permanent steel chassis will be at least partly offset by the need for additional structural materials, such as wood, said Cavco Industries CEO William Boor, during a Q1 2027 earnings call on July 31. Boor also points to the strong likelihood of higher installation costs since more homes will require cranes rather than simply being rolled into place. These factors would greatly offset at least some cost savings from removing the permanent chassis.
The real opportunity lies in the potential for greater design flexibility.
“For us, we’re not really viewing it as a big cost savings element, as we are viewing it as a product innovation element and something that’s going to allow us to make products that will continue to help break down those zoning barriers and get into urban areas and things like that,” Boor said during the call.
Cavco’s new chassis-free home model, the Grande Arbor, introduces a double grande suite floor plan, placing two primary suites at opposite ends of the home. These private areas are connected by a shared kitchen, dining, and living space intended to meet the needs of households looking for multigenerational housing options.
But the exterior design of the home is arguably the most noteworthy new feature. Removing the permanent chassis allows the home to sit much closer to the ground, with no steps or ramps required at entry. This gives the house a look very similar to a traditional stick-built home.
Manufactured housing leaders argue that this improved design will make city councils and municipal planning boards, who often still hold long-outdated negative perceptions of what manufactured housing is, more open to the idea of allowing manufactured homes in their communities.
Cavco Industries Vice President of Sales Eric Coulter told HousingWire TBD that showcasing the latest manufactured home models, like Grande Arbor, is the best way to combat such stigmas and show how far the industry has come.
“Much of the stigma around manufactured housing comes from perceptions that haven’t kept pace with the product,” Coulter said. “The best way to challenge an outdated perception is to let people experience today’s homes firsthand.”
The market opportunity at hand
Cavco Industries’ homes are currently concentrated largely in rural communities, but it and other manufactured home enterprises believe there’s a significant opportunity for them to penetrate denser urban and suburban markets. The chassis-free designs, like Grande Arbor, could help facilitate that expansion by fitting more naturally into existing neighborhoods and infill sites.
“If you put it in one of those communities, it would be very, very difficult to tell the difference,” Coulter said.
Another HUD proposal, which would allow upper-level sections of multi-story manufactured homes to be transported and assembled without a permanent chassis, could complement Cavco’s chassis-free designs by making multi-story manufactured housing more practical to build. Last year, HUD implemented another rule change allowing multi-dwelling manufactured homes, from duplexes up to quadplexes.
Together, these changes could give manufacturers like Cavco Industries greater access to serving high-cost, high-density submarkets where the need for attainable housing is particularly acute. The Manufactured Housing Institute reports that manufactured homes can cost up to 50% less than comparable site-built homes, highlighting the opportunity to deliver more attainable housing in these markets.
“What we are doing has been the solution for this affordability problem for many, many years, and I think we’re starting to get recognized for that,” Coulter said. “Our value proposition is pretty simple. It’s a quality home at a more attainable price. By building in a controlled factory environment, we can reduce waste, streamline construction, and limit weather-related disruptions. And those efficiencies help a buyer’s dollar go further.”
While Cavco Industries is taking the wraps off its Grande Arbor model in D.C. this week, it could be some time before the home officially reaches the market. HUD must first implement and finalize the removal of the permanent chassis requirement. The agency typically takes 18 to 24 months to finalize rulemakings, though industry leaders expect the process could move more quickly for this particular change given the urgency of the nation’s housing affordability crisis.
