The blue and white house arrived on two flatbed trucks in this modest Syracuse, N.Y., neighborhood in mid-July. A week later, the three-bedroom manufactured home, with two bathrooms, an open-concept floor plan and an island in the kitchen, was assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, bringing a burst of color to a vacant lot on a street of aging homes.

Built on an assembly line in a nearby factory, the house sits on a 60-by-120-foot lot owned by the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, a nonprofit that aims to return vacant and abandoned properties to productive use. It goes on sale Monday for $175,000.

This house, along with one in Schenectady, N.Y., and another in Macomb, N.Y., a small town in the Adirondacks, marks the start of a $50 million investment by New York State to deliver 200 modular and manufactured homes to low-and middle-income families over the next year, part of a $1.5 billion housing initiative secured in the 2026 budget.

The program, Move In NY, is aimed at addressing an acute housing shortage in suburban, upstate and rural New York that accelerated during the pandemic. Between August 2019 and August 2025, the median home price rose much faster in the suburbs and in rural areas than in urban centers — 74 percent in suburban counties and 73 percent in rural counties, compared with 51 percent in urban counties, according to Redfin.

To address the shortage and keep up with population growth, the state needs to build 800,000 housing units by 2030, according to the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit civic organization. While 200 homes won’t begin to close the gap, Gov. Kathy Hochul sees the potential in manufactured housing.