Prefab housing: As a real estate consultant, I have recommended several such proposals in the past. Best way to do it is to set up a fabrication plant in the New Orleans area staffed by existing home fabricaters from outside the area. FEMA could provide startup capital for training local labor and setting up the plants for a lot less than paying for cruise liners.

Back in the late 80s I designed 16 different homes in the prefab construction designs suitable for the rebuilding of the towns in the Katrina area. Even 4 2 story homes. These homes are built like in an auto manufacturing plant, sections placed on my special trucks, sent to the building lots and erected fully ready to move into within less than a month. I have tried to get the funding to erect and start making these homes, but alas, noone seems to be interested in funding my dreams. Projections at the time were for 1,000 homes a year from one shift, and other shifts could be added to make more homes.
Look at my designs on the computers, move the interior walls around to suit your needs, but then the numbers are sent to the plant, the house constructed in wall pannels, lifted into my special trucks. Even the foundations are manufactured in the plant. Full erection of the basic house of 1,000 sqft would take only two days and allow another week to finish the interior with cabinets, rugs, tiles, etc, and then moved into within the two weeks allowed....finished. I designed them to be built so that they could be taken apart and moved and reerected again at a dfferent locations. The sections fit together like a picture puzzle...each part helping to hold the other in place so they do not destruct in a hurricane, tornado, or flood.
I still have the plans if anyone might be interested. Steel studs, rafters, steel floor trusses. Electric designed like auto plugs and wiring; Plumbing prefabbed to fit each different house.
I would let the designs be used by others...the only thing I would ask for in return is a small royalty on each house built(mainly because I am too old to do the work myself and want the income.)

where are the pictures of the trailor prefabs and is chaney and Halabirten ahead of it

WHOA!!! If the [yellow]house in the photo is one of the pre-fabs costing $100.00 (and up) per s/ft, somebody is getting screwed big time!!

You can buy modular homes (much better than 'manufactured' aka: mobile homes) for less than $70.00 per s/ft.

'Contempry Homes' (Pickneyville, IL) built a 1900 s/ft home for under $70,000, several years ago, that rivaled many of the $100,000 site built homes.

Modular construction has been around a long time, and is vastly superior to site built structures for a multitude of reasons.

I suspect that these prices have been inflated grossly based upon one simple human fraility: GREED!

The "pre-fab" home, or manufactured home is a affordable solution for a quality home, especially if people are replacing a destroyed structure. My husband and I purchased a triple section modular home, built to IRC codes, a little over a year ago in a rural area near Colorado Springs. Our 2640 sq ft home was built in Nebraska and shipped via tractor trailer, removed from the trailer and placed on a concrete crawl space. It cost us, with the foundation, $62 a sq foot (didn't include the land, well, septic tank and electricity). We even did about $15K worth of construction upgrades, including upgraded inulation and house wrap, concrete fiberboard lap siding, flat 9' ceilings and a 6-12 pitch roof. It certainly doesn't look like a "manufactured" home; everyone who visits is surprised to find out it is. We also own a site built home, on a basement, that wasn't built as well as this house. The material and contruction quality are superior and we wouldn't hesitate to purchase another; in fact, we are considering doing just that to add a guest house to our property.

There is this company I found in New Orleans that makes Modular homes that look just like the old historic homes of New Orleans. This may be a great solution to Katrina not just for New Orleans but the entire gulf coast. Yall should check out hometimellc.

That was several years ago! It may as well be 100 years ago. Prices for building materials have gone up tremendously in 2 years. Say 30% to 40% and then add labor costs also increasing at least 15% to 20% per year due to insurance fraud, lawsuits and dead beat unemployment costs. You get to $100 per foot.

There is another option for building;
WWW.CONTAINERCITY.COM

I called FEMA in Washington D.C., the office of senator John McCain,and the staff of Senator Orrin Hatch about this web site. NOBODY gave me an opinion on this concept.

I am a builder in high priced Oregon where labor is a lot more expensive. I build custom homes for less per sq ft than these pre-fabs. Somebody is ripping someone off and probably at the tax payer's expense. Who's pockets are we lining this time?

You have to keep on top of house const. prices going up, up, up. When we built our 5000 sq. ft. house 10 years ago it was somewhere around $57.00 sq. ft., when it burned in '03 the insurance policy coverage had not kept up with price increases, in Spring of 05 it was up to around $127.00 sq. ft. so we had to pay out of pocket for the difference to get same size house. When the storm hit it was under construction and was badly damaged by wind and water so now what is it going to cost to start over? I really liked the manufactured home shown and as long as it has all it takes to help survive the next storm then I would certainly consider this as the way to rebuild.

$100/sq ft. is ludicrous for this type construction. In non "rip-off" conditions you can build a luxury home on the coast for these prices. More crackpot solutions from looney tunes types on governor's commission!

I do not mean to sound down on prefab homes, but I strongly doubt that they could withstand sustained category 3 or higher winds without significant damage. Now, if they can pre-fab solid concrete walls with an entirely steel internal structure that is also around $100 per square foot, then there would be less damage and less claims. In South Florida, the only wood frame homes that survive such winds are made out of South Dade Pine. This is a native pine tree that is so dense that in order to drive in a nail, the hole must be pre-drilled. There are few homes left and very little pine trees left to rebuild them.

Most homes are built here using Concrete Block and Steel reinforcement rods.

Prefabs look nice, but just not for Hurricane prone areas (or Tornado areas for that matter).

i'm sitting right now in a 20 yr. old pre-fab house on hatteras island. we've been hit by numerous hurricanes in the 11 yrs. we've lived here. still has 90% of the origional shingles. also the siding and carpeting are original. a few repairs here and there but nothing major. the many old pre-fabs out here are doing as well as the stick built houses. mabey better than some. the proofs is all around us.

Sadness sets in looking at the yellow example of what $100 per sq ft buys. I am reminded of what is called a shotgun house, considered something kin to an instant slum. How did we get here from there?

In my design class for Architecture, we worked on a project for Katrina Housing. All our designs were based on prefab and were under the contraints of having to fit on a trailer bed for easy moving.

hey....it's a HOUSE...much better than a FEMA trailor...right?

nice looking home

may we have a price per s/f of living area

I agree with GDS. I think the Richmond, VA market averages around $100-135 per sq ft for regular stick built homes...that is TODAY pricing. It seems expensive to me.

What about Steel homes. . . inexpensive and go up quickly. . . coatings make them impervious to salt?

Our 15-year-old double-wide in a holler in Franklin County, VA, is looking tired and wearing out. How wonderful to see affordable alternatives to the double-wide! Go ahead, y'all -- looking good. Innovations abound in VA, too: folks at VA Tech coming up with ideas, and a Roanoke, VA, architect headed up a contest/exhibit last year for 21st century homes suited to the southwest Virginia terrain. What was lost to the Gulf Coast in Katrina is heart-breaking; what CAN be built there offers hope.

part of a solution is action. I think that if the prefab houseing can be organized quickly enough, people suffer less stress, and can go on...sometimes is costs a little more to gain a lot more..potatoe salid building projects just can't compete.

Also that price per sf was based on the California Market not the Gulf Coast Market. But there is probably not that much in difference, just because material and labor are at a premium right now.

This custom home, designed by Dennis Thompson and built by Allen Associates (both of Santa Barbara), is a gift from the community of Santa Barbara to a family in Bay St. Louis. It representss what one community has done to help the effort to rebuild the Gulf Coast and, hopefully, will inspire others in this effort.

This idea is not only practical, its universal and can resolve some immediate housing issues throughout the Gulf Coast and it will hopefully serve to bring some Katrina victims out of their tents, trailers (who are currently trying to cope with winter temperatues) and motel rooms (waiting for months for a FEMA trailer) and back to the Coast (home) where they belong! Let's hope this great idea is not extinguished in some political or bureaucratic quagmire!

In my youth I lived in a Central American banana town on the coast. Our home was about 150 yds. from the edge of the ocean. It was built on concrete stilts about 8 ft. high. Under the home, the ground was paved with concrete. This allowed use of the ground floor for lawn furniture, parties, and hamocks strung between the stilts. In the winter stormy season sometime waves would reach all the way to the area under the home. No Problem! Just sweep away the drifted sand.
Now that I am older I can see the disadvantage of having the first floor located so high above the ground. Arthritis makes it hard to climb those stairs to the first floor.
If it were possible to build a home where the home would sit on the ground in calm weather and then be jacked up to a higher elevation in anticipation of flooding, that would be a perfect compromise.