Texas Cities Can No Longer Ban Manufactured Homes Outright as of September 1, 2026: What Senate Bill 785 Changes

What Changed, and When

Senate Bill 785, passed by the 89th Texas Legislature in its 2025 regular session, amends Section 1201.008 of the Texas Occupations Code — the section of the Manufactured Housing chapter that governs regulation by a municipality. According to the enrolled bill analysis published by the Senate Research Center, the bill amends Subsections (b) and (d) and adds Subsections (d-1), (g), and (h), and its effective date is September 1, 2026.

The by-right requirement, new Subsection (g). As set out in the enrolled analysis, a municipality with zoning regulations or zoning district boundaries — except as provided by Subsection (h) — must:

• permit the installation, by right, of a new HUD-code manufactured home for use as a dwelling within the municipality’s boundaries under at least one residential zoning classification, type of residential zoning district, or dedicated zoning classification for residential HUD-code manufactured homes;
• have adopted at least one of those classifications or districts so that it applies to an area of land within the municipality’s boundaries; and
• if the municipality has a comprehensive zoning classification map, indicate on that map the areas within its boundaries that comply.

The second point is what closes the obvious loophole: a classification that exists only on paper, applied to no actual land, does not satisfy the statute as the analysis describes it.

No singling out through specific use permits, new Subsection (d-1). The enrolled analysis states that a municipality may not require a specific use permit — or another permit serving a similar purpose — for a new HUD-code manufactured home that was constructed in accordance with federal law and Chapter 1201, if the municipality does not require a specific use permit for other residential property in the same zoning classification.

What the law leaves alone, new Subsection (h). The analysis lists the carve-outs. Subsection (g) does not limit a municipality’s authority to adopt or enforce measures protecting historic landmarks or properties inside a local historic district; it does not affect deed restrictions established before January 2, 2025; and it does not apply to a municipality in which all areas zoned for residential use carried deed restrictions on September 1, 2025 prohibiting the placement of manufactured homes, or that has no areas or districts zoned for business or industrial use.

Scope. The requirement is written around new HUD-code manufactured homes. The Texas Manufactured Housing Association, an industry trade group that maintains a public resource page on the bill, states that the law does not reach pre-1976 mobile homes or used manufactured homes, and that it identifies a small number of cities as exempt under the Subsection (h) carve-outs. Those are the association’s characterizations; the statute and a city’s own ordinance control any particular property.

Who in Texas This Reaches

• Cities across the state, not one region. The requirement attaches to any Texas municipality with zoning regulations, subject to the Subsection (h) carve-outs — East Texas to the Panhandle, the Permian Basin to the Rio Grande Valley.
• Owners of existing manufactured homes that a city treats as “nonconforming.” In Nacogdoches, city officials told the council that the city removed manufactured homes as a permitted use by right around 2004, which left existing homes nonconforming and, in the words of the city’s executive director of development and infrastructure, put “restrictions on homeowners and property owners to potentially replace a manufactured home or upgrade a manufactured home or expand a manufactured home because they’re already non-conforming,” as reported by KLTV.
• Texans priced out of new site-built starter homes. Association officials quoted by KLTV cited a widening gap between new site-built starter homes, which they said can begin at $300,000 to $500,000 in many Texas markets, and manufactured homes at roughly $120,000 to $300,000.
• Scale. The same KLTV report, citing the Texas Manufactured Housing Association, said roughly 40 percent of Texas cities — more than 1,200 municipalities — have zoning codes that effectively bar mobile home parks or manufactured homes, while the association’s executive director said about 60 percent or more of Texas cities already comply and will not need to change their codes. Both figures come from the association, not from a state agency.
• Retailers, installers, community owners, and lenders in the manufactured housing business, and cities and their attorneys reviewing ordinances before the effective date.

What This Changes Legally

• A citywide bar becomes a conflict with state law. As of September 1, 2026, a zoning scheme that leaves no residential classification anywhere in the city where a new HUD-code manufactured home is permitted by right runs against Subsection (g) as the enrolled analysis describes it.
• An extra permit hurdle aimed only at manufactured homes is addressed directly. Subsection (d-1) speaks to the specific use permit requirement that other housing in the same classification does not face.
• Local control is preserved, and that matters. Cities still choose which district, where it sits, and what size and standards apply. Nacogdoches, for example, created a new R-3M district that mirrors its existing R-3 district but permits HUD-code manufactured homes by right, rezoned one roughly 30-acre, 69-lot subdivision into it, and added supplemental rules limiting placement to homes no more than two years old that have never been lived in, anchored under federal HUD foundation guidelines, per KLTV’s account of the August 4, 2026 council votes.
• Meeting the minimum is meeting the law. KLTV reported that rezoning that single subdivision satisfied the state requirement, and that three other areas identified in the city’s future land use plan were not rezoned — a future land use designation signals where a city would entertain a request; it does not by itself change what an owner is entitled to today.
• Private deed restrictions are a separate track. Restrictions established before January 2, 2025 are expressly outside Subsection (g) per the enrolled analysis, so a subdivision covenant can still bar a manufactured home even where city zoning now allows one.

None of this decides any particular lot. Whether a given city’s amended ordinance satisfies the statute, whether a specific parcel sits in a complying district, and what a recorded covenant does to the answer are questions that turn on documents in a specific file.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

This page is information, not legal advice, and it is not a prediction about any property. What a lawyer can review includes:

• For an owner whose manufactured home is nonconforming: a housing lawyer can read the city’s ordinance as amended and explain what, if anything, the change does for replacing, upgrading, or expanding the home on that lot.
• For someone hoping to place a new manufactured home: a real estate lawyer can check which zoning classification the lot carries, whether the city designated that classification under the new requirement, and whether a permit condition being imposed is one the statute addresses.
• For a buyer in a deed-restricted subdivision: a real estate lawyer can pull the recorded restrictive covenants, check when they were established, and explain how they interact with the city’s zoning.
• For an owner whose application is denied on or after September 1, 2026: a lawyer can compare the denial against Section 1201.008 as amended and explain what review or appeal routes exist and what each one requires.
• For a retailer, installer, or community owner: a business or real estate lawyer can review a city’s adopted ordinance and supplemental standards against the statute.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The date is fixed: September 1, 2026. Cities whose codes need changes have until then, and some have already acted — Nacogdoches completed its three required votes on August 4, 2026. Separately, local zoning decisions and permit denials tend to carry short administrative appeal windows set by a city’s own code, and legal challenges carry filing deadlines of their own; which clock applies depends on what the city did and how it did it. Records such as the permit application, the denial letter, the plat, the recorded covenants, and the council agenda packet are easiest to gather while they are recent. It is best to talk with a lawyer early, while the widest range of options is still open, rather than after a deadline has passed.

Sources

1. Texas Legislature Online, Senate Research Center, S.B. 785, 89th Legislature, Regular Session — Enrolled bill analysis (PDF; primary document, including the September 1, 2026 effective date).
2. Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 1201 (Manufactured Housing) — the chapter S.B. 785 amends.
3. Texas Legislative Reference Library, 89th Legislature — Effective Dates for Bills.
4. KLTV, Texas law banning cities from prohibiting manufactured homes takes effect Sept. 1 (July 31, 2026).
5. KLTV, Nacogdoches approves manufactured housing zoning changes to comply with new state law (August 4, 2026).
6. Texas Manufactured Housing Association, S.B. 785 Resource Center (industry trade association; cited above only for figures and characterizations attributed to it).