Modular Homes in Louisiana: Builders, Prices, and Flood Zones

A buyer in Bossier City and a buyer in Lake Charles are shopping for two different things, even when they both type “modular homes Louisiana.” North of I-10, on dry ground, a modular home is mostly a question of which dealer and which floor plan. On the coast it is a question of base flood elevation, wind rating, and how much an elevated foundation adds to the bill. Same product, very different buy.

Most pages that rank for this search are selling you a specific home. This one is not. It maps the builders working in Louisiana, the prices they actually quote, and the two rules, flood and wind, that decide whether modular makes sense on your lot.

What counts as a modular home in Louisiana

Three terms get used as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the gap between them changes how you finance, insure, and resell.

A modular home is built in sections in a factory, to the Louisiana state building code, which uses the 2015 International Residential Code as its base. The plans go to your parish or city for review, the sections ship to the site, and a crew assembles them on a permanent foundation. Once it is down, it is real property. A bank treats it like any other house.

A manufactured home is built to the federal HUD code instead. It rides on a permanent steel chassis, and that chassis never leaves. You can title it as personal property, like a vehicle, or as real property if it is permanently fixed to land you own. The choice follows you for years.

A mobile home, strictly, is anything built before June 15, 1976, when the HUD code took effect. None have been made since. Plenty of Louisiana sellers still use the word loosely for any factory built house, so read past the label and ask what code the home meets.

The reason to keep these straight is money. A modular on a permanent foundation, or a manufactured home titled as real property, qualifies for a normal mortgage and tends to appreciate. A manufactured home on leased land, titled as personal property, is stuck with chattel financing and usually loses value. Two homes that look identical in the showroom can be very different assets five years on.

Flood zones and wind zones change the math

Louisiana is one of the harder states in the country to site a factory built home, and it comes down to two maps.

The first is the flood map. Much of south and coastal Louisiana sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area, the FEMA term for land with a one percent or greater annual chance of flooding. Put a home there and it has to sit at or above the base flood elevation drawn on the local Flood Insurance Rate Map. State law RS 51:912.22 sets the foundation rules for manufactured homes in these areas and points to FEMA’s installation manual. Modular homes follow the local floodplain ordinance, which is built on the same base flood elevation. Parishes can go further and require extra height, called freeboard, on top of the FEMA number. At the permit stage you have to document both the base flood elevation at the site and the finished floor height you are building to.

That elevation is not free. An elevated foundation in a flood zone commonly adds $15,000 to $50,000, sometimes more, depending on how high you have to go and what the ground is like. It applies to modular and manufactured homes alike, and it is the single line item that narrows modular’s price advantage on the coast.

The second map is wind. Most of the southern half of the state is Wind Zone II. Southeastern coastal Louisiana is Wind Zone III, the highest rating in the manufactured housing system. A manufactured home installed in a coastal parish has to be a Wind Zone III home. A home built to a higher zone can go in a lower zone area, never the reverse, so a Wind Zone III unit is the safer spec if you are anywhere near the coast. Modular homes meet the equivalent IRC wind loads for their region, which run well above 100 mph in south Louisiana.

The Office of State Fire Marshal regulates manufactured housing in the state. A manufactured home is inspected and approved by OSFM before anyone moves in, the purchase contract has to spell out warranty, delivery, and installation costs, and a formal installation contract covers transport and setup. New Orleans and Jefferson Parish add their own permitting layers, so verify the local rules before you sign anything in those areas.

What a modular home costs in Louisiana

Real numbers first. Bear Creek Modular in Shreveport lists single section homes starting around $96,995 for the Mercer and $102,995 for the Dewey, up to $239,995 for the larger Clarkson. Gulf Coast Home Builders advertises homes built on your land from $169,000. Those are the figures dealers put their name to.

Around those points, a working range holds up well. Modular homes in Louisiana tend to run roughly $80 to $140 per square foot for the home itself, before the land and the ground work. Site prep, foundation, and utility hookups usually add $15,000 to $50,000, and a flood zone foundation pushes that toward the top of the range or past it. A standard three bedroom, two bathroom modular, turnkey, lands somewhere between $120,000 and $280,000 once everything is in.

Against a site built house, the gap is real. Industry cost comparisons for Louisiana put a new modular build well below a comparable site built home, often by $100,000 or more at similar size and spec. The difference comes from the factory: the build runs on a schedule, indoors, out of the humidity, with less waste. The gap is widest inland on dry lots and narrowest on the coast, where the elevated foundation cost lands on both types.

Treat all of this as directional. Spec, customization, lot condition, and parish requirements move the number a long way. Get written quotes from two or three dealers for your specific lot before you anchor on any figure.

Modular home builders and retailers in Louisiana

The state has a solid cluster of dealers in the north and center, thinner coverage on the coast, and a handful of national builders that will reach anywhere. None of them paid to be on this list.

Builder	Coverage	Home types	Notes
Bear Creek Modular	North Louisiana (Shreveport, Bossier, Minden) plus east TX, south AR, south OK	Single, double, triple, quad section	Established 1977, published model prices from about $97,000 to $240,000, lifetime warranty on new homes. Does not serve the coast.
Pratt Homes	Statewide, Shreveport to Lafayette to greater New Orleans	Modular, manufactured, tiny homes, cottages	Tyler, Texas base with 25 plus years in Louisiana and in house financing. Prices are quote only.
Impresa Modular	Statewide, including New Orleans, Metairie, Lake Charles	Custom modular, including two story	National builder coordinating a local factory. One of the few routes to a two story modular in the state.
Deer Valley Homes	Dealers in Houma, Alexandria, Shreveport, Ruston, Lafayette	Manufactured, modular, barndominiums, tiny homes	Homes engineered for the hot, humid climate. Buy through the local dealer, not the factory.
Franklin Homes retailers	Multiple authorized dealers statewide	Modular and manufactured	Alabama manufacturer sold through independent Louisiana dealers, so pricing is dealer by dealer.
Regional Homes	Acadiana, Opelousas and Lafayette area	Manufactured, some modular	Local focus on the Acadiana region.
Sunshine Homes dealers	Dealer network statewide	Manufactured and modular	Red Bay, Alabama manufacturer, coverage varies by dealer.
Acadiana Home Center	Carencro, Lafayette Parish area	Manufactured focus	Local single dealer presence.

Two patterns are worth knowing before you call anyone. First, two story options are scarce. Most local dealers build single story HUD code homes, and a genuine two story modular usually means going through a national builder like Impresa. That matches what Louisiana buyers keep asking each other online. Second, coastal parishes have the fewest dealers and the strictest wind rules, so confirm Wind Zone III capability up front rather than at the contract stage.

To line up specs and price ranges side by side, start with our modular home builders directory and the broader modular home buying guide.

How to finance a modular home in Louisiana

One question decides everything else: does this home qualify as real property or personal property? Ask every dealer that, about every model, before you fall for a floor plan.

Real property opens the normal doors. A modular home on a permanent foundation, or a manufactured home permanently fixed to land you own and titled as real property, qualifies for conventional mortgages, FHA Title II loans, VA loans, and USDA Rural Housing loans. USDA matters here because much of rural Louisiana is eligible, and the home only has to be real property with an income inside 115 percent of the area median.

Personal property closes most of them. A manufactured home on leased land, or one kept titled as personal property, is limited to chattel loans. Those carry higher rates, shorter terms, and bigger down payments than a mortgage, so the monthly cost runs well above an equivalent home financed as real estate. FHA Title I exists for these homes, with 2025 limits around $105,532 for a single section home and up to $237,096 for a multi section combination loan, but it is still not a mortgage.

Louisiana has its own help for buyers. The Louisiana Housing Corporation runs first time buyer programs that pair a fixed rate mortgage with assistance: the MRB Home program adds an optional grant of up to 9 percent of the loan amount, with no interest and nothing to pay back, and MRB Assisted offers a forgivable second mortgage. Both need a credit score of at least 640 and an income inside the program limit, and both allow modular and manufactured homes. For a first time buyer, that grant can cover most of a down payment.

Is modular the right call in Louisiana?

For most of north and central Louisiana, on dry land outside the flood hazard areas, modular is an easy yes. You get a house for well under the cost of building on site, finished in four to six months instead of a year, with the quality control that comes from building indoors. On owned land it appreciates like any other home. The savings are not a trick of the spec sheet, they are real.

The coast is where you slow down. Wind Zone III is non negotiable in the southeast parishes, and the elevated foundation in a flood zone adds $15,000 to $50,000 or more, which eats into the price advantage over a site built house. None of that rules modular out. It means you budget for the foundation honestly and you pick a dealer who has installed in your parish before and can show it.

The honest weak spots are two story choice and coastal coverage. If you want a two story modular, your realistic options narrow to a national builder. If you are buying near the water, expect fewer local dealers and confirm the wind rating yourself. Neither is a dealbreaker. Both are easier to handle when you know them going in rather than at the closing table.