When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing

In an article for The Daily Yonder, Pat Raia describes the kit homes once sold in Sears catalogs that offered an affordable homeownership option for many Americans in the early and mid-20th century.

In an early iteration of modular housing, kit homes were sold by companies like Sears and Montgomery Ward complete with “all the materials that a kit home purchaser needed to build the home, including at least 10,000 pieces of precut lumber to suit the model of the home, drywall, asphalt roof shingles, carved staircases, and the nails, door knobs, drawer pulls, paint and varnish needed to do the job. Electrical, heating systems, and plumbing materials could also be purchased at extra cost.”

At a cost of roughly $659, Sears kit homes cost roughly one year-s salary for the average U.S. worker. Sears later started offering financing for building materials and lots.

Today, a growing interest in modular housing could lead to a new resurgence of kit homes.