your niece was fortunate. i live on acreage but i wouldn't be permitted due to zoning and septic to put a double wide on my property-if i wanted to live on site it would be a travel trailer type situation which would get real old real quick.
even with 'actual replacement cost' coverage that includes modifications homeowner's policies still have a dollar cap. recent data from the u.s. census bureau shows construction prices increased by 17.5% year-over-year from 2020 to 2021, the largest spike from year to year since 1970. 2021’s costs were also more than 23% higher than pre-pandemic 2019. the price of softwood lumber alone has jumped about 85% in just the past three months after the u.s. doubled tariffs on canadian lumber and wildfires disrupted lumber production.
the average under-insurance amount is about 22%, though some homes are under insured by 60% or more. data also shows only 30% of insured homeowners have purchased more insurance or increased coverage limits to compensate for rising building costs and among insured homeowners who completed renovations or remodels during the pandemic, less than half (40%) updated their home insurance to account for those changes.
ONLY reason i know this is b/c i know people who have been personally impacted by it. thought they had great coverage (and they did-for prepandemic prices) but between paying the difference between temp housing per diem and actual rents (after struggling to find) and then finding out they were going to have to finagle financing to cover the difference between their existing mortgage and the high 5 figures their insurance was short....it has not played well with their mental health or long term financial planning.
