Today’s homebuyer wants a home that is modern, stylish, sustainable, and affordable. But are some of these needs and wants at odds with each other? Can builders construct homes that have expert craftsmanship while also being affordable? The answer is certainly yes, but to achieve those objectives, builders must consider how they are building these homes.
One way to achieve this is through a manufactured home. Here homes are often constructed in an off-site location, which means the builder can achieve greater efficiencies in production, which ultimately means cost savings for the homeowner.
We see this occurring in the new Encore home from Clayton, which will begin production in the coming months. The company says this will offer modern manufactured floor plans that use high-end materials and have energy-efficient features for homeowners.
Encore floor plans are constructed in an indoor home building facility, meaning Clayton ultimately gains the efficiencies in production that leads to cost savings. Homeowners choosing Encore will gain luxury that is still budget-friendly and personalized to unique tastes and styles.
Let’s look inside. While the homes have various personalization options and regional design aesthetics, there are some common features such as French doors, glass cabinets, pendant lighting, quartz countertops, tile backsplash, free standing tub, and full glass and tiles showers.
The homes are also built to the U.S. Dept of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home specifications. The homes are eBuilt, which are estimated to save homeowners up to 50% in annual energy costs compared to a traditional manufactured home. This allows the homeowner to possibly save thousands of dollars. eBuilt homes are optimized with energy-efficient features, including a hybrid water heater, low-E windows with argon gas, energy-efficient appliances, LED lighting, a smart thermostat, and additional insulation.
Energy efficiency in the home is growing in popularity in recent years. Market Research Future says we will see an 18% growth rate between 2023 and 2032 for the global smart-home energy management device market.
Here on this blog, we have talked at length about the rise of smart, connected, and energy-efficient homes. Consider another example from Dvele, which says new homes are self-powered by solar energy, meaning they use 84% less energy per square foot than traditionally built homes and can generate more energy than they consume. These homes are also constructed with more than 200 sensors from energy management to security to lighting to climate control and more.
One of the biggest hurdles to smart homes in the past has been the cost for the homebuyer. If we want to achieve this level of connectivity and sustainability in homes, do we also need to consider affordability alongside it? Do we need to consider manufactured floor plans like we saw with Clayton? These are all questions homebuilders should be considering, as we set out to build the next generation of homes.
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