Miraculously, no injuries have been reported.
The E6 highway has been closed for the time being.
The landslide was about 50 meters wide and 300 meters long, according to the newspaper Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen.
"We were notified about the landslide at about 3:00 a.m., said operations leader Edmund Toftehagen in the Gudbrands police district to Aftenposten.no.
The occupants of the homes managed to get out before the houses were hit.
Several landslides have been reported in the area in recent days, and there was said to be a risk for more to come.
Sure enough, another landslide hit the area at about 9:00 Friday morning between Otta and Sjøa. There was not much information to be had about the second landslide, except that one farm was to be evacuated. Geologists were expected to come to the area shortly to evaluate further danger.
There are no floods in the region, but the police say there is a lot of water in the ground, which is apparently what caused the landslides, reports newswire NTB.
Most of the evacuated are being quartered in the Otta Hotell, with assistance from the Red Cross.
Landslides have caused a lot of damage in Norway in recent years. In March, an apartment building in Ålesund collapsed after a rock mass loosened from the mountainside behind it. Five people were killed in the Ålesund tragedy.
In Åsane, outside of Bergen, one person was killed in a landslide in 2005.
