Founder, Mark Turnbull in The Wall Street Journal on the New Federal Housing Law

The Wall Street Journal published New Housing Law Boosts Prospects for Factory-Built Homes on August 18, 2026. Reporter Lily Belle Poling covered a new federal housing law meant to make modular and manufactured homes easier and cheaper to build. MBS founder and CEO Mark Turnbull was quoted on the size of the opportunity. The story ran in the August 19 print edition as "New Law Gives Factory-Built Homes Lift."

"America's really, really behind, and this is a huge, huge opportunity in America, especially with the roughly around seven million home-unit shortage that the country faces right now."

Mark Turnbull, Founder and CEO, Module Building Systems, in The Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2026.

What the new law changes

The Journal reports three things worth knowing.

• One provision drops the requirement that manufactured homes carry the permanent steel frame used to transport them. Andrew Justus, a housing policy researcher at the Niskanen Center, told the Journal that saves roughly $5,000 to $10,000 per home. On some homes that is more than 10% of the original cost.

• HUD is directed to identify the financing barriers that hold modular housing back.

• HUD is also directed to study a federal standardized building code for modular housing, similar to the one manufactured homes already have.

The financing point matters more than it sounds. A traditional construction loan releases money in stages as a house goes up on site. A factory needs a large share of the cash upfront to buy materials and start the run. That mismatch, plus lenders who do not know how to price an unfamiliar product, is a real reason offsite construction has stayed small.

The numbers behind the story

Census Bureau figures cited in the article: 102,700 manufactured housing units shipped last year, and 37,528 modular units completed in 2024. The Journal puts the national offsite construction market share at about 3% of completions, and flat.

Three percent, against a shortage measured in millions of homes. That gap is the whole argument for building differently.

A national code is still the missing piece

The law does not create a national building standard for modular construction. It directs HUD to study one, with no deadline and no requirement that a standard follow. Michael Tillman, CEO and co-founder of developer PTM Partners, told the Journal that code fragmentation across cities and municipalities is what blocks scale economics, and read the financing provisions as a signal rather than a policy change.

He has a point. Sweden and Japan run factory-built housing at volume because a unit approved in one city is approved in the next. In the United States, a factory can end up redesigning the same house for every jurisdiction it ships to. That is a manufacturing problem, not a design problem.

Where MBS fits

MBS is not a volumetric modular builder and not a manufactured home producer. We build advanced panelized construction. Wall and floor panels are manufactured in our 40,000 square foot CNC facility in St. Louis and arrive finished, with windows, doors, cladding, insulation, sheathing, and MEP already installed.

That difference matters against the constraints in the article. Panels ship flat-packed and vertically on standard flatbeds within 1,000 miles, so there are no oversize load permits or route escorts. Panels also assemble into a code-compliant building under whatever code the local jurisdiction enforces, which softens the fragmentation problem instead of running headfirst into it.

The delivery numbers: up to 30% lower project cost, 50% faster delivery, up to 90% less waste. MBS manufactures a 1,500 square foot home in one week and assembles it on site to weather-tight lockdown in 4 days. See the full range of MBS panelized solutions and panelized building products, from ADUs and single-family homes through townhomes, mixed-use, and 1 to 6 story multi-residential.

Questions this raises

What did The Wall Street Journal say about Module Building Systems?

In its August 18, 2026 report on the new federal housing law, The Wall Street Journal quoted Mark Turnbull, founder and chief executive of St. Louis-based Module Building Systems, on the scale of the opportunity in factory-built housing and on the roughly seven million home shortage the country faces.

What does the new federal housing law change?

One provision removes the permanent steel frame requirement for manufactured homes, which the Niskanen Center estimates cuts roughly $5,000 to $10,000 per home. The law also directs HUD to identify financing barriers to modular housing and to study a federal standardized modular building code. It does not create that code.

How is panelized construction different from modular?

Volumetric modular ships finished three-dimensional boxes on oversize loads. MBS ships flat-pack panels that arrive finished and travel on standard flatbeds. More detail is on the MBS FAQ.

Read the article

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal: New Housing Law Boosts Prospects for Factory-Built Homes by Lily Belle Poling, August 18, 2026.

Build with MBS

Developers, contractors, municipalities, and non-profit developers work with MBS on fixed factory pricing and a four-day lockdown. Get a quote or email info@modulebs.com. Learn more about MBS.

Module Building Systems. A Better Way to Build for Tomorrow. Advanced Panelized Construction. 921 N 20th Street, St. Louis, MO 63106.