Yet New York City has fewer than 1,000 factory-built houses.

Ms. Bowles said the choice of a factory-built house that can be mass-produced had been intentional.

It takes three to four months of on-site work to make a factory-built house ready for occupancy.

In the region today, most of the volunteers come from "away," as Mr. Meinert put it, and the group has used some factory-built modular houses.

Housing Problem Tackled Cities are looking at the use of factory-built houses to quickly turn vacant lots into neighborhoods for low-income families.

You will never find doors warping in a factory-built house.

The factory-built houses played to the most popular jargon at the convention: "affordability" and "the family market."

Another important factor in affordability is that construction costs of factory-built houses are about 25 percent less than in conventional methods.

The majority of new factory-built houses are made of multiple sections and average 1,715 square feet.

The venture is the latest to test the concept of factory-built houses, also known as modular homes, in New York City.