Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Manufactured Home Dealer Revenue Benchmark
A manufactured home dealer sells new and used factory-built homes, arranging delivery, setup and often financing and land placement for buyers. High unit prices, manufacturer relationships and the financing arrangements available to buyers shape a trade closer to a car dealership than to a home builder.
Average Manufactured Home Dealer Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every manufactured home dealer with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts, which include the homes sold. Dividing that total by the number of dealers gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$5,364,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
1,817
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $9.7 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $9.7 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 1,817 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $5,364,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: Manufactured (Mobile) Home Dealers, NAICS 459930. The category covers dealers of new and used manufactured homes, also known as mobile homes. Manufactured home communities and RV dealers are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 4599: 459910 Pet and Pet Supplies Retailers; 459920 Art Dealers; 459991 Tobacco, Electronic Cigarette, and Other Smoking Supplies Retailers, and 1 further code. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026
Five-Year Survival in the Retail Sector Sector-level
Federal data does not track survival for manufactured home dealers specifically. The honest closest measure is the sector that contains them: Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45). Here is the most recent fully observed five-year cohort.
59.8 percent of Retail Trade establishments opened in the year ended March 2020 were still operating five years later. Five-year survival was similar across these two consecutive cohorts: 60.7 percent and 59.8 percent.
Read this as sector base rates, not as a promise for this specific trade. This continuation curve is a broader Retail Trade benchmark, not a survival series specific to manufactured home dealers. The sector contains many business types with different economics, and survival for any one of them can sit above or below the curve. Manufactured housing demand moves with interest rates, land availability and local zoning, and a dealer's survival depends on financing partners and a manufacturer's allocation more than on the sector curve.
Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 · Scope Retail Trade sector, national · Observed through March 2025
Source and definition
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈10% |
Payroll share of receipts, Manufactured (Mobile) Home Dealers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 10.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share because each home sold carries a large sum through receipts with a small sales and setup team behind it.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish the cost of the homes or the interest on inventory financing, so nothing on this page shows what a dealer keeps.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 6.6 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.58 |
Scale and ownership, Manufactured (Mobile) Home Dealers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 6.6 people, and the industry averaged 1.6 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be a small sales, finance and setup team on one lot.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
Explore More on BusinessNES
Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.
Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Manufactured Home Dealer: reading a high-ticket lot through the financing behind each sale.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- How are buyers financed? Chattel loans, land-home mortgages and manufacturer-affiliated lenders decide who can buy and at what cost, and a change in lending appetite moves sales more than any marketing. The financing partners behind a lot are its real engine.
- New or used homes? New homes come through manufacturer allocations and factory orders, while used homes come from trade-ins, repossessions and community sales at very different margins. The mix behind a dealer's revenue varies from lot to lot.
- Where can the home go? Zoning, land costs and community lot availability decide whether a buyer has somewhere to place a home, and a dealer often helps solve that problem. Local land rules shape demand in ways a national figure cannot show.
- What does setup and delivery cost? Transport, foundations, utility hookups and finishing turn a factory unit into a home, and a dealer may coordinate or subcontract that work. Those costs and the liability for setup problems sit outside a receipts figure.
- Who finances the inventory? Display homes on the lot are often held on floor plan credit that accrues interest until sold, and each unit ties up a large sum. Carrying cost per home is invisible in an annual total.
- Independent lot or manufacturer-owned? Some lots are owned by manufacturers or large retail chains, while independents buy from several factories. Ownership shapes pricing, allocation and financing, and the census counts both in one category.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each dealership lot with paid staff. Manufactured home communities and RV dealers are counted in separate categories.
The survival curve is a sector-level series from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and describes the whole Retail Trade sector, not this business type on its own.