Manufactured Home Appreciation Trends in California & Arizona (2015–2025)

Between 2015 and 2025, two things show up clearly in the public record. Prices for manufactured homes sold together with their land more than doubled nationally, according to a federal index. And the average price of a new manufactured home rose in both states, by about half in California and nearly double in Arizona.

What no public source tracks is the resale price of homes on rented spaces in communities, which is the setup many buyers in both states are looking at. So the sections below keep to what each source measures, how California and Arizona differed, and how to check values for the place you care about.

Three sources, and what each one measures

The public data on manufactured home prices

Keep the last column in mind as you read. Each figure below is accurate for what it measures and says little about anything else.

Homes sold with their land: the national index more than doubled

In October 2024 the Federal Housing Finance Agency began publishing a house price index for manufactured homes. It follows repeat sales of the same homes over time. The index stood at about 132 at the end of 2015 and about 320 at the end of 2025, with the first quarter of 2000 set at 100. The steepest climb came between early 2020 and the middle of 2022, and gains have been slower since.

Three limits apply. The index includes only manufactured homes that are real property, meaning the home and its land were sold and financed together. It pools sales from the whole country, so it cannot tell you what happened in Riverside County or Pima County. And FHFA labels it developmental, which means the method and the numbers may be revised.

New homes: prices rose in both states, mostly in 2021 and 2022

The Manufactured Housing Survey, which the Census Bureau runs for HUD, reports the average sales price of new manufactured homes each year. Nationally, the 2025 average was a little under twice the 2015 average. About two-thirds of that increase arrived between 2020 and 2022, and the 2025 figure was about the same as the one for 2022.

The two states followed different paths, according to the survey’s annual state tables:

• Arizona. The average price of a new home nearly doubled between 2015 and 2025. It peaked in 2022 and was lower in 2025.
• California. The average rose by about half over the decade. It started from a much higher level than Arizona’s and, unlike Arizona’s, was higher in 2025 than in 2022.

In both states the 2025 average was above the national one.

California and Arizona did not move in step

Alongside the survey, the Census Bureau publishes annual counts of new homes shipped to each state, compiled by the Institute for Building Technology and Safety. These are counts of homes, not prices, but they show how differently the two markets behaved.

New manufactured homes shipped to each state (Census Bureau)

California receives more new homes, but it finished the decade about where it began. Arizona’s yearly count grew by roughly half. Both states peaked in 2022, and both remain far below earlier decades: California received more than 10,000 new homes in 2005, and Arizona more than 8,000 in 1999.

Population growth differed too. Arizona grew at nearly twice California’s rate between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, according to the Census Bureau’s population change tables. The shipment counts do not say why shipments rose or fell, so no cause is offered here. What demand means for someone shopping now is covered in what buyers should know about demand for manufactured homes.

The record-keeping differs as well. California titles and registers manufactured homes through HCD, not the DMV. Arizona titles are handled by the MVD, generally one title per section. A home on a rented space changes hands through one of those agencies, not through a deed recorded with the county, and those transfers are not gathered into any public price index.

How financing works in each state is covered on the California manufactured home loans and Arizona manufactured home loans pages.

What the data leaves out: homes in communities

A home on a rented space has no land in its price. Its value depends on the home’s condition, the space rent, and how the community is run, so it can move with or against the trends above. Those drivers are explained in what drives a manufactured home’s resale value.

The evidence that does exist is local: what homes in that community have actually sold for. In California, Santiago Financial, Inc. offers comparable sales reports that list the sales reported in a park you choose over the past two years. A report is not an appraisal. The service covers California only, so for an Arizona community, ask the listing agent or an appraiser for recent sales in the same community.

How to check the last few years where you are buying

Reading a local market for yourself

1. Decide which kind of home you mean A home with its land and a home on a rented space are different markets, even in the same town.
2. For a home with land, look at recorded sales The county assessor or recorder keeps them, and a local agent or appraiser can pull sales of similar homes with land.
3. For a home in a community, get that community’s sales Sales in the same community reflect the same rent and the same rules.
4. Ask for the space-rent history in writing A rising rent can hold resale prices down while the wider market climbs.
5. Compare like with like Match the year, the number of sections, the size and the condition before you read anything into a price difference.

For the wider picture in one city, the same approach is laid out in how to judge a local market. This article is general information, not investment, legal or tax advice, and past price changes do not predict future ones.