Cautious optimism surrounds the builders of manufactured and modular homes, according to ocala.com, as demand has led some producers to hire more employees and others to expand product lines. Christine Stump of Southern Structures, Inc. in Silver Springs Shores, Florida says before the housing bubble she and her husband had 100 employees making custom modular homes, but that number fell to “single digits” in 2009, and has since returned to 30 workers. “Most of our work is down in the Keys and everybody is just really wanting to start committing again,” she says, adding the company which her father-in-law began in the 1960s expects to hire more employees soon.

Terry Decio, of Elkhart, Indiana-based Skyline Corp., (SKY) producer of modular and manufactured housing, says although business is improving, there are no current plans to expand, although he is looking for “as many builders as I can get” at the Ocala facility, which the family opened in the 1950s. Terry Trexler, of Nobility Homes (NOBH), also in Marion County, FL says his company, founded by his father in 1967, is looking to hire ten building trades workers, in addition to the hundred now employed, and have added new product and floor plans to their line. He says job growth and improving housing markets in the north allow retirees to sell their homes and head south, as MHProNews.com has learned. ##

(Photo credit: Joe Kelly/Iowa State Home Show–Skyline Corp. modular home)