Blog Posting # 851; Copyright 18 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 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) 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 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 (“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.
An Outsider’s Introduction to Manufactured Housing & Land Lease Communities
Though retired since 2021, I continue to receive requests from folk new to manufactured housing and land lease communities, asking me to ‘walk them thru the basics’ of the two closely-related business models. What follows here is what I routinely email them as an attachment. Even though you probably know most of this information, consider making a copy to later use in your communication with neophytes of your own.
Manufactured housing & land lease communities are two sides of the same offsite construction (factory-built) housing & multifamily rental community coins.*1
Manufactured housing, since 1976, unlike modular and panelized housing variants subject to local housing market building codes, is fabricated in compliance with the federally-regulated, performance-based HUD-Code. Its year-to-year performance is measured, not by new home sales volume, but by shipments, e.g. acme year 1973 = 579,940 mobile homes; 1991 = only 170,713+/-; 1988 = 372,943+/-, nadir year 2009 = 49,789+/-; and 103,314 in year 2024.*2
According to the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), “20.6 million people live in manufactured homes, and have an estimated annual median income (‘AMI’) of $30,000.” National average AMI during 2017 was $60,366. “Manufactured homes account for 10% of all single family housing starts at $81,281 average new home price.”
85 percent national market share of manufactured housing is provided by the Big Three C firms: Clayton Homes (50%), Skyline-Champion (20%), and Cavco Industries (14%).
Manufactured housing is characterized by singlesection and multisection configurations; featuring Community Series Homes, and recently, the CrossMod™ model. Furthermore, new home distribution changed around year 2005, away from independent (street) MHRetailers & ‘company stores’, to in-community sales & seller-finance; and of late, some subdivision infill.
Land lease communities, previously, mobile home parks & manufactured home communities. Seven shelter types are now installed on rental homesites therein.*3 There are 45,000+/- land lease communities nationwide, with 85% @ 100 or fewer rental homesites. Remaining 15% consolidated into 500+/- known private and public (i.e. real estate investment trusts or REITs) property portfolios. During year 2024, national occupancy average = 95% & operating expense ratio @ 41% per 31st annual ALLLEN REPORT via www.educatemhc.com
Trends? Today, 40% of new homes go directly into communities, up from 24% in 2009… More mixed in-community placement of MH & RV units; reemergence of rental units onsite, and increasing conversion of ‘for profit’ properties into resident-owned cooperatives (a.k.a. ‘ROCs’)
Manufactured housing finance. Homes on scattered building sites conveyed fee simple are mortgaged using conventional real estate mortgages. Homes on rental homesites in land lease communities are financed using personal property loans or ‘home only’ loans (a.k.a. chattel $).
Anything else I should include in this ‘Outsider’s Intro to MH & land lease communities’? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com
End Notes.
- Offsite construction = HUD-Code MHs, modular & panelized units, & Park Model RVs.
Onsite construction = all new homes built onsite, a.k.a. stick-built construction
- Why the +/- notation? Because the Institute for Business Technology & Safety, a HUD contractor, tallies MH shipments each month; and while MHARR publishes that number as reported, MHI adjusts it based on the number of Destination Pending units on hand.
- HUD-Code manufactured homes, ‘mobile homes’, modular homes, Park Model & other forms of RVs, stick-built homes, and various types of Accessory Dwelling Units or ADUs.
George Allen