The manufactured housing industry, a cornerstone of affordable housing in the United States, has long been plagued by a fragmented ecosystem that makes it difficult for buyers and homeowners to find the services they need. A new online platform, MHarketplace, launched today with the goal of connecting communities, service professionals, and homeowners in a single, accessible space.
Manufactured housing is a significant sector, with roughly 100,000 new homes shipped annually at an average price of about $115,600—less than one-third the cost of a comparable site-built home. With national occupancy near 95 percent, these communities are effectively full, and experts view manufactured housing as a critical tool for closing the affordability gap. Yet, for first-time buyers making one of the largest purchases of their lives, the industry remains remarkably hard to navigate. Questions about titles, financing, transportation, insurance, land, and communities are answered by dozens of disconnected businesses that buyers struggle to find because no single place connects them.
Jacob Campbell, founder of MHarketplace, understands this challenge firsthand. Having worked in the industry for years, he saw that the expertise exists but is invisible to those who need it. "The problem was never a lack of good people," Campbell said. "I've sat in homeowners' living rooms and worked alongside manufacturers, retailers, lenders, transporters, and community owners. The expertise exists everywhere in this industry. What's been missing is the connection—homeowners simply don't know these businesses exist. MHarketplace makes the ecosystem visible."
MHarketplace offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to address these pain points. Its community directory provides searchable profiles of mobile home parks and manufactured housing communities across the country, organized by state and city. The trusted services network connects users with transporters, installers, contractors, title professionals, insurers, and lenders—all discoverable locally. The platform also includes buyer and homeowner education, offering plain-language guidance on titling, financing, transport, insurance, and community living. Additionally, it features listings and connections for buying, selling, and renting manufactured homes.
The platform's position in the market is deliberately complementary to existing listing marketplaces. While those platforms focus on finding homes for sale, MHarketplace addresses everything surrounding the transaction—education before the purchase and services after. By making the industry's thousands of businesses, many family-owned and decades old, discoverable to homeowners, MHarketplace aims to complete the market rather than divide it. "Visibility isn't marketing—it's opportunity," Campbell said. "Great businesses deserve to be found, and homeowners deserve to find them. Manufactured homes have improved dramatically; public perception hasn't kept pace. Every confident, well-informed homeowner helps close that gap, and that strengthens the entire industry."
MHarketplace is live now at mharketplace.com, launching state by state with national coverage of community directories. Manufactured housing businesses can claim and enhance their listings at launch, while homeowners and buyers can browse communities, services, and educational resources free of charge. The platform's ultimate goal is to simplify the manufactured housing journey, making affordable homeownership more accessible and supporting the businesses that serve this vital sector.
