The original focus of this form of housing was its mobility. Units were initially marketed primarily to people whose lifestyle required mobility. However, beginning in the 1950s, the homes began to be marketed primarily as an inexpensive form of housing designed to be set up and left in a location for long periods of time, or even permanently installed with a masonry foundation.

Previously, units had been eight feet or less in width, but in 1956, the 10-foot (3.048 metre) wide home ("ten-wide") was introduced, along with the new term mobile home.  The homes acquired a rectangular look, made from pre-painted aluminum panels, rather than the streamlined look of travel trailers, which were usually painted after assembly.

All of this helped solidify the line between these homes and house/travel trailers. The smaller units could be moved simply with a car, but the larger, wider units usually required the services of a professional trucking company, and, often, a special moving permit from a state highway department. In the 1960s and 70s, the homes became even longer and wider, making the mobility of the units more difficult. Today, when a factory built home is moved to a location, it is usually kept there permanently and the mobility of the units has considerably decreased.

Many people who could not afford a traditional site-built home or did not desire to commit to spending a large sum of money on housing began to see this factory built homes as a viable alternative for long-term housing needs. The units were often marketed as an alternative to the apartment rental.

However, the tendency of the units of this era to rapidly depreciate in resale value made using them as collateral for loans far riskier than traditional home loans. Terms were usually limited to less than the thirty year term typical of the general home-loan market, and interest rates were considerably higher. In other words, home loans resembled motor vehicle loans far more than traditional home mortgages.