Gary Fleisher, the Modular Home Coach, observed recently that more and more developers are getting into the offsite construction game by launching their own modular manufacturing factories to meet increasing demand for fast, reliable, efficient building.
This is a good thing for the consumer, and one of the key things that need to happen for modular construction to make a serious dent in the affordable housing crisis.
One of the last remaining legitimate arguments against offsite construction is shipping costs. The solution to this limitation is a large network of manufacturing facilities spread across the country, bringing 80+% of construction activity to within 100 miles (or less) of a factory.
In addition to permanent factories, this network could include mobile (modular!) "pop-up" factories to meet local spikes in demand, due to large one-time build-ups, like Google/Amazon/Microsoft in the DC area.
Developers are uniquely positioned and motivated to create this type of pop-up capacity.