Postscript. Blog Posting # 850; Copyright 11 July 2025. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. one of four types of offsite construction), routinely paired with traditional stick-built housing (a.k.a. onsite construction). Plus, land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home park’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH. Various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans, and real estate mortgages) describe the post-production segment of MH.
EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial MH information source. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (This book belongs in every land lease community nationwide!), and SWAN SONG – History of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production totals since 1955.
And my autobiography, From SmittyAlpaha6 to MHMaven, describes personal combat adventures in Vietnam as a USMC lieutenant, a 45 year entrepreneur business career in MH & community ownership, as well as freelance consulting and authoring of 20 nonfiction texts.
George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding board member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, Allen Legacy columnist & editor at large for the popular MHinsider magazine.
TOTAL U.S. HOUSING COMPLETIONS DURING MAY 2025
‘Onsite & Offsite Construction Completion Totals Combined’
This total U.S. Housing Completion Report for May, combines online data from U.S. Census Bureau (i.e. Annual estimated onsite construction completion total divided by 12 months); then, offsite construction completions total via combining 1) manufactured housing production data from the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), 2) modular & panelized units estimated to be 2% of onsite construction completions; and 3) RVIA website report of monthly production of Park Model RVs.
Historic bottom line! Unlike the U.S. Census Bureau Report that tallies only onsite construction completions (i.e. stick-built homes on scattered and subdivision building sites conveyed fee simple), adding four types of offsite construction (a.k.a. affordable, factory-built housing cited above) to this total, presents a far more accurate, albeit all-encompassing picture of total U.S. housing completions for the month of May 2025!
Specifically, rather than there being just 127,167 new onsite constructed homes completed during May 2025, the more accurate, all-encompassing estimated total is 139,344.
The numbers. For the month of May 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau reports 127,167 new single-family, site-built, privately-owned onsite housing completions (i.e. annual estimated tally of 1,526,000 divided by 12 months); while the monthly grand total, inclusive of four types of offsite construction (Again HUD-Code housing + modular & panelized homes + Park Model RVs, totals 12,177 units) is altogether 139,344 for the month of May 2025 – that’s 12,177 more housing units than the onsite housing completion total alone, reported by the U.S. Census Bureau!
Taking all this a step further, the year to date estimated totals compare in this fashion: U.S. Census Bureau total YTD is 648,220 units completed; however, with onsite construction added, the YTD total is 707,468 units completed. It’s obvious which tells the more comprehensive story! Furthermore, divide each of these two YTD totals by five (i.e. five months) and then multiply by 12 (months) to see what the yearend totals might be for the likely-but lesser U.S. Census Bureau tally, and the one combining onsite and offsite construction totals. For example: 648,220 divided by five & multiplied by 12 = 1,555,728 vs. 1,697,923 new homes completed in the U.S.! A difference of approximately 142,195 new homes over the course of a year!
Once again, this ‘Total U.S. Housing Completions Report’ is a work in progress. Please let us know what you think of this all housing inclusive concept, via gfa7156@aol.com
POSTSCRIPT
To further underscore my point about the U.S. Census Bureau underreporting new housing starts each month, here’s a paragraph quoted directly from the bureau’s recent description of New Residential Construction:
“This page provides national and regional data on the number of new housing units authorized by building permits; authorized, but not started; started; under construction; and completed. The data are for new, privately-owned housing units, excluding ‘HUD-Code manufactured (mobile) homes. The data are from the Building Permits Survey, and from the Survey of Construction (SOC), which is partially funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Local building permit data may be found on the Building Permits Survey webpage.” (My emphasis. GFA)
See what I mean? Modular and panelized units, as well as Park Model RVs are not even mentioned in this description of onsite construction. This makes offsite construction the ‘Rodney Dangerfield’ of U.S. housing!