Right. You can basically chose between a crappy rental or crappy home, or a nice mobile home. In general.
The mobile home industry has vastly changed in the last 10-15 years or so. Some of them now have all the upgrades that an upscale site built home has. In my area manufactured homes can go all the way up to over 200K, depending on the upgrades and SF. When I had my real estate business it was nothing for a rich landowner to come in and spec out a manufactured home they wanted placed on their property. The homes were gorgeous, well made and spacious. I even sold two story and tri level manufactured homes worth over 200K with full wrap around porches. Some had vinyl siding while others had cedar siding. These homes are built to HUDs standards just like any site built home, which I also sold. You can buy a 'down and dirty' plain Jane with no upgrades or you can buy a middle line or go all the way to the top of the line. It all depends on what the customer is looking for and can afford.
They are nothing like the 'tin cans' they use to be. Now you can get them with granite countertops, upgraded energy windows, updated stainless steel appliances, tile backsplash, plywood sub-flooring with very nice carpet or engineered hardwood flooring, actual tile in the kitchen and bathroom areas, sheetrock walls, sound proofing in the walls, porcelain tubs and sinks, and they all have wall studs which are on 16" centers like site built homes have. The buyer can even get an upscale furniture package by well known furniture makers. According to where they are going to be located when sold they must meet the code for that area, such as areas which have tornadoes or hurricanes or those which will be located close to a beach, etc. They will be in either Wind Zone 1, 2, 3 etc.
Most of my clients were of average income or very well off. You can deck out a manufactured home with all the upgrades and get far more living space per SF than you can by building the same built home with the same floor plan and extras. Many are having them put on permanent foundations with brick or stone around the bottom. Some you cant even tell they are a manufactured home just by looking at them.
The ones we usually see blown away in tornadoes are the much older trailers which were built like tin cans back then. The older ones like the Rhoden's had. Many back then didn't even tie their homes down nor did they even put up skirting which makes it where the high winds can get up under the mobile home and lift it off its foundation. The homes back then were made much lighter and now they are much much heavier. Although I have also seen many very nice brick homes obliterated by tornadoes as well along with businesses that were also brick and destroyed by tornadoes. LOL! And I have seen plenty of those tin can trailers still standing and holding up well even after 30-40 years.
Like I said, they are nothing like they use to be.