Blog Posting # 853; Copyright 1 August 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 parks’) 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) constitute 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 SmittyAlpha6 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 9”MHIi’), 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.
MH Evergreen Issues Update from 2018
Evergreen Issues? Relative to trade journalism and broadcasting, evergreen content (issues) are not time-sensitive or wholly reliant on current events. The term originates from evergreen trees.
Seven years ago I posted blog # 511 (2 December 2018) bore the title ‘Evergreen Issues of Manufactured Housing’. Then, during December 2021 (the year I retired), we revisited the subject, to see what changes, if any, had occurred among evergreen issues. Ready to go?
Manufactured housing’s Achilles Heel continues to frustrate. Specifically, WHO today is truly responsible for the proper, safe and secure installation of HUD-Code manufactured homes on scattered building sites conveyed fee simple, and on rental homesites within land lease communities nationwide? HUD inspectors, state inspectors, local building code enforcers, HUD-Code housing manufacturers, land lease community owners/operators, home buyers, or homeowners/site lessees? Get the idea? No single source fully takes that responsibility!
If the Department of Housing & Urban Development (i.e. HUD) truly believes what it says when proclaiming HUD-Code manufactured homes to be AFFORDABLE (i.e. ‘Most affordable type housing in the U.S.’), why doesn’t the federal agency aggressively promote it as such? As it appears today, HUD comes across as the ‘reluctant bride’ in this half century long relationship! The same juxtaposition exists with the two GSEs (i.e. Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) treating manufactured housing as an unwanted stepchild when it comes to ‘not’ aggressively planning and implementing Congress-mandated Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) measures in our behalf!
DAPIA, given nearly 50 years of service, enjoys a tenured relationship with HUD and manufactured housing. Is this healthy? IMHO, ‘No’ it is not. Why has there been no change in contractors during these five past decades?
What is holding manufactured housing production back from its’ full capacity? Manufactured housing stock continues to age and disappear faster, in quantity, new HUD-Code homes can be fabricated, shipped, and installed. In 1973 we shipped 579,940 new ‘mobile homes’; in 2009, our nadir year, we shipped only 48,789 new HUD-Code manufactured homes (‘MH’); in 2021 we eclipsed 100,000 homes for the first time since 2006; and we dropped back to 89,169 MHs in 2023, only to creep back to 103,314 in 2024. Since 40+ percent of new HUD-Code homes are shipped directly into land lease communities, the lack of sufficient to chattel capital (a.k.a. ‘home only’ loans) is part of the answer to this conundrum. Since one finance source controls 70+/- percent of that market today, there’s a dire need for additional sources of personal property financing.
Some manufactured home salespersons continue to position prospective homebuyers to fail. How so? By not including household utility expenses within the standard 30 percent Housing Expense Factor (‘HEF’) along with PITI (loan principal, interest, taxes, insurance). By not doing this, at the end of any month, when the 30 percent HEF payment has been paid (Again, principal, interest, taxes, insurance), the extra dollars paid out for household utility expenses – when added to the 30 percent, can increase the total percentage to 40 or more percent!
And the list of evergreen issues continues.
The same size and featured HUD-Code manufactured home permanently-sited on a scattered or subdivision privately-owned building site will oft times be valued differently (i.e. more $) than a twin home sited on a rental homesite in a land lease community (i.e. less $). Why? Value and nature (i.e. permanence & lack thereof) of the underlying realty. This handicap would be ameliorated given widespread use of long term written leases in the latter instance.
Continued absence of two manufactured housing secondary markets: one valuing and marketing of resale homes; the other, marketing seasoned chattel capital ‘home only’ loans – to free up capital for new financing. Yes, there’re ‘fits & starts’ in both these areas but no real progress to date. How do you think this timely and important matter should be addressed?
Has the CrossMod™ HUD-Code manufactured home lived up to its’ expectations or not? Depends on who you talk to these days….
Why do GSEs (i.e. government-supported enterprises) Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac continue to ‘slow walk’ Congress-mandated Duty to Serve (‘DTS”) programs relative to shortage of chattel capital?
Why continued local housing market intransigence regarding zoning and rezoning raw land in support of manufactured housing placement, land lease community development, and other forms of affordable housing? This is a perennial issue addressed at all levels of government.
And we continue to have two national trade associations in and around our nation’s capitol vying for the dues and attention of businesses involved in manufactured housing and land lease community ownership/operations. Perhaps the time has come for one such organization to represent only HUD-Code housing manufacturers, and the other one – everyone else in MH-related business models. What do you think? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com
Big 3-C firms control more than 70 percent of the national market share of HUD-Code home shipments. Is this healthy for the industry at large? Virtually all the sole proprietor-founded manufacturers have been absorbed by one or another of the Big 3-C firms. OK with you?
Forget about professional property management! It barely exists among land lease communities nationwide. I fought this battle (i.e. PM training & certification) for nearly 50 years. And today we have maybe 100 CPMs in play, and a couple hundred lesser ‘players’. Sad!
And once again, what is the national Economic Impact (& Analysis) or EIA of manufactured housing and land lease communities going forward? Our sister industry, recreational vehicles already has this researched and figured out and is using EIA to influence state and federal legislation. And MH wonders we continue to play second fiddle in every housing program promotion.
Finally, there’s a new evergreen issue to add to this august, though little discussed list. It has to do with the refining housing-related trade terms. Today, onsite construction refers to site-built housing erected on homebuilding sites, and reported monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau. On the other hand, offsite construction refers to various types of factory-built affordable housing: HUD-Code manufactured housing, modular and panelized housing, as well as Park Model RVs. Offsite construction housing is NOT included in the aforementioned U.S. Census Bureau monthly statistical reporting (except for permanently-sited HUD-Code homes). There are two issues here. First, getting housing professionals, across the board, to agree upon and use the onsite and offsite construction differentiations. Second; getting the U.S. Census Bureau to include HUD-Code homes, modular & panelized housing, and Park Model RVs in their monthly reporting. That way we’d have a far better handle on just how much new affordable attainable housing is indeed being built throughout the nation. Quite an evergreen issue awaiting resolution!
George Allen