George Allen / EducateMHC Blog Mobile Home & Land Lease Community Advocate & Expert

Blog Posting # 831; Copyright 14 February 2025. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, with variations of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describe the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial 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 (A copy of which belongs in every land lease community nationwide), & 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MH’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

MH Inside Information No One Else Will Tell You!

You likely know manufactured housing is represented by two different national trade entities, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’) & Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’). But did you know, during its’ long (70 years) history, the latter advocate has cycled through nearly a dozen salaried leaders; while the former body, founded in 1985 as an offshoot of MHI, has had only two, its’ present CEO, and founder Danny Ghorbani, who’s now retired and is an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee.

But there’s more to know, and much ‘came out’ during the first week in February in a Press Release from MHARR. Its’ title? ‘MHARR Initiates Action with Trump Administration On Major Industry Bottlenecks.’ An interesting but humdrum title. What made this lengthy communique intriguing, were several unsubstantiated premises and position statements. Here we go…

First, “Manufactured housing must be – and must remain – federally-regulated pursuant to uniform standards, uniform enforcement and robust federal preemption which result in cost savings that are passed to homebuyers.” Now, for newbies to the MH business model, this statement is emblematic of the proverbial phrase: ‘When life gives you lemons, make them into lemonade!’ Meaning here, when the federal government foisted a regulatory lemon (i.e. the HUD-Code) on the manufactured housing industry in 1976, over time, MH businessmen and women turned that lemon into marketing lemonade, using its’ uniform standards and federal preemption to sell more homes! But is that still the case today?*2 So, ‘Why must we continue to be federally-regulated?’  Some, if not many, say: ‘Federal regulation appears to be doing little, today, to sell more manufactured homes!’ Perhaps being able to openly market as offsite housing – housing built within factories, might be more attractive to potential home-buyers, especially those not wanting a steel chassis under their new home.

Second. “It is beyond dispute that today’s federally-regulated manufactured homes are the industry’s best homes ever, offering high quality and inherent affordability….” Once again, the question begs answering: What’s driving our housing market? Federal regulation or the quality and inherent affordability of our product? Frankly; neither. It’s the paucity and lack of access to personal property or chattel (a.k.a. ‘home only’ loans) financing for new manufactured homes going directly into land lease communities and sited on vacant rental homesites.

Third. “The industry largely wasted its opportunity during the first Trump Administration to remove the three principal bottlenecks that have impaired the industry’s growth and expansion while simultaneously harming homebuyers.” What were those bottlenecks?

• “Forcing HUD to fully implement the enhanced federal preemption of the 2000 Reform Law to end the discriminatory zoning exclusion of HUD-Regulated manufactured housing from entire communities.”

• “Forcing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to serve the dominant manufactured housing personal property consumer financing market in accordance with Duty To Serve (‘DTS’)…” This sentence makes no sense as penned; perhaps rewrite in part:’ Forcing (the GSEs) to dominate the manufactured housing personal property consumer financing market….’

• ‘Eliminating DOE’s draconian, destructive and discriminatory manufactured housing ‘energy conservation’ standards.” No argument here.

The Press Release goes on to criticize MHI for spending the years 2016-2020 “…pursuing speeches, exhibitions, displays and other public relations stunts that ultimately did nothing substantive to change the diminished status quo for (SIC) the industry…a wild goose chase of wasted opportunities.” Dealing with Washington bureaucrats and regulators has to be a constant education process, given attrition, elections, and more. There’s really no way of telling how much good the MHI-hosted ‘Homes on the Mall’ did for our industry, but it needed to be done.

In another premise, the writer decries ‘ceding market share to other types of construction.’ Just what is manufactured housing’s ‘market share’ in today’s overall housing market? Frankly, no one really knows! Why? Because manufactured housing, modular, panelized & Park Model RVs are not included in the U.S. Census Bureau’s monthly total of residential single-family, site-built housing starts (because most MHs are not permanently sited on scattered building sites conveyed fee simple, and no one tracks the other types of offsite construction). It is this writer’s contention that the total housing market starts in the U.S. should include residential single-family, site-built housing, HUD-Code manufactured housing, modular & panelized (i.e. pre-fab) housing, as well as Park Model RVs. Until that happens we will not be able to accurately calculate what percentage of the national housing market truly belongs to HUD-Code manufactured homes.*3

The most outspoken recommendation in this Press Release has to do with the contractor used by HUD to supervise the manufactured housing program. Here goes: “….MHARR…calls for strong HUD action to remedy endemic (*1) mismanagement of the HUD manufactured housing program, including its unprecedented, destructive and inexcusable dependence on an entrenched ‘monitoring’ contractor which has held a de facto sole-source contract for 50 years without any of the legal safeguards normally required for non-competitive federal contracts.” Whew! Aside from wordiness, this commentary does raise this strong and valid point: Why no change in monitoring contractors, where manufactured housing is concerned, over 50 years?

Another bugaboo appears to be “…last-minute (a.k.a. ‘midnight’) Biden Administration appointments to the statutory Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (‘MHCC’).These appointments, announced four days before the inauguration of President Trump, continue HUD’s tactic – since at least the Obama Administration – of undermining the independence of the MHCC by manipulating MHCC membership…” e.g. refusing representation for smaller, independent producers of manufactured housing. It’d be interesting to learn the names of these last minute appointees, to ascertain ability to perform, experience in MH, and political persuasion. MHCC has, in my opinion, long been a political quagmire. For example, I’ve tried since 1980 (i.e. 45 years!) to be named to this august body, and its’ predecessor the Manufactured Housing Advisory Council (‘MHAC’), all to no avail.

There’s more, to be sure. But I wanted to give you a hefty taste of what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ where the regulation of HUD-Code manufactured housing is concerned. Once again, if you have information or opinions on these matters and are willing to communicate them to me, please do so via gfa7156@aol.com

End Notes.

1. endemic. ‘peculiar to a location or a people’

• 1976 = 246,120+/- new HUD-Code homes produces, compared to 2024 with but 103,314 new homes produced and shipped (per IBTS data)

• Given 1,588,404 ‘total U.S. housing starts’ in 2024 (including onsite & offsite housing types), divided by 103,314 new HUD-Code homes produced during 2024, estimated national market share for manufactured housing is 6.5% (i.e. .065)

Official Historical Record Available to You for Free!

As some of you already know, I recently updated the ‘Official Historical Record of HUD-Code Manufactured Housing Production’, the seminal document featured in the industry text, SWAN SONG. Now this official record extends from 1955 through year 2024 (i.e. 69 years). Here’s how the first and final data entries read:

1955 = 111,900 new mobile homes produced & shipped

2024 = 103,314 new HUD-Code manufactured homes produced & shipped

Boy, at first glance it does not appear we’ve made any production progress during the past seven decades, but that’s not the whole story. To learn more, request a FREE electronic copy of this document via gfa7156@aol.com  Between the 69 annual performance entries and 27 historical footnotes, you’ll read quite the story!  GFA

George Allen

Blog Posting # 830; Copyright 7 February 2025. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction).Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and with variations of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate secured mortgages), describe the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial information source. Contact EducateMHC via 9317) 881-3815l email: gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com, to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (A copy of which should be in every land lease community nationwide), & 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrine, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

‘TOTAL U.S. HOUSING STARTS’ IN DECEMBER 2024

This Total U.S. Housing Starts report, unlike the U.S. Census Bureau’s Monthly New Residential Construction Report of ‘new single-family, site-built, privately-owned housing starts’ INCLUDES offsite construction (a.k.a. factory-built) units such as HUD-Code manufactured housing, modular & panelized (or ‘prefab’) housing, and Park Model RVs!*1

Here’s the basic data. In December, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Monthly New Residential Construction Report estimated 1,499,000 seasonally-adjusted privately-owned new housing starts for the year 2024, or 124,916 during the month of December alone. However, when 11,060 offsite construction units are added to that U.S. Census Bureau total, it increases it to 135,976 for the month of December, and when annualized, results in Total U.S. Housing Starts during year 2024, calculated to be 1,631,712 seasonally-adjusted privately-owned new housing starts.

Bottom line? Without including offsite construction in its’ monthly report of new housing starts, the U.S. Census Bureau routinely underestimates annual U.S. housing starts, in this case, by 132,712 units! So, which ‘total’ are you inclined to want to reference going forward? U.S. Census Bureau’s 1,499,000 new housing starts or, including offsite construction, 1,631,712?

What follows here are descriptions of offsite construction housing (again, a.k.a. factory-built housing) types, and how they’re calculated for inclusion in this ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ report.

HUD-Code manufactured housing, when installed on permanent foundations on scattered building sites conveyed fee simple, are identified as ‘single-family, site-built housing’. Manufactured housing not permanently installed, is oft sited in land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) on vacant rental homesites – though in some instances, said sites are conveyed fee simple in subdivisions like Stardust Hills in Cloverdale, IN. So, one way or the other, all types of manufactured housing are included in this ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ report. Where does HUD-Code manufactured housing production & shipment data originate? Monthly, via the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), on a subscription basis.*2 Annual production & shipment’ totals are not published by IBTS, but calculated and referenced by the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’), and EducateMHC.

Unfortunately, the annual production & shipment totals reported by these manufactured housing advocacy entities rarely agree! Here’s how the 2024 December and year end production & shipment totals have been recently reported:

IBTS                 7,078 MHs produced & shipped during December 2024; no annual total given

MHI                 7,048 MH shipments in December                 103,571 MH shipments during 2024

MHARR           7,078 MHs produced in December                103,314 MH produced during 2024

EducateMHC  7,078 MHs produced in December                103,314 MH produced during 2024

For record-keeping purposes, relative to this (December) ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ report, we’ll be featuring the 7,078 and 103,314 HUD-code housing totals in the next edition of the manufactured housing industry’s historical record: SWAN SONG, available for purchase via www.educatemhc.com

Then there is modular & panelized (‘prefab’) housing, two more types of offsite construction (again, a.k.a. factory-built housing), neither tracked by anyone! Why? Offsite construction units like these are built to local building codes (e.g. International Code Council or ICC), so are nearly impossible to research and categorize. However, some housing professionals suggest this formula: 2% of seasonally-adjusted annual housing starts, per U.S. Census Bureau reporting, then reduce to a monthly figure (e.g.1,499,000 X .02, divided by 12 months) = 2,498 modular & panelized units fabricated during December 2024.

Park Model RVs (‘recreational vehicles’) production is tracked and reported monthly by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (‘RVIA’) via their online publication RVIA News (e.g. 273 Park Model RVs produced during December 2024). Why Park Model RVs? An increasing number of Park Model RVs are being used as permanent housing, particularly in Sunbelt regions of the U.S. And it appears some HUD-Code housing manufacturers are routinely fabricating Park Model RVs, some even in compliance with the HUD-Code, blurring the lines between these two types of offsite construction.

Now to pull the four pieces together (i.e. ‘single-family, site-built housing’, and three types of offsite construction or factory-built housing), beginning with the latter category – all during December 2024:

• HUD-Code manufactured housing unit production/shipments        7,078
• Modular & panelized (‘prefab’) formulaic estimate (2%/12)            2,498
• Park Model RVs produced                                                                      273
• Offsite construction subtotal for December 2024                             9,849

• U.S. Census Bureau site-built housing ‘starts’ during December   124,916
• (+) Offsite construction subtotal for December 2024                       + 9,849
• Grand total of all U.S. Housing Starts during December 2024        134,765
• (-) 2498 Modular & panelized units, to offset double count           132,267

Bottom Line: True ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ during December 2024  =  132,367

End Notes.

1. Offsite construction. ‘Refers to the planning, design, manufacture, and assembly of building elements at a location different from their final location, to support the rapid spread of and efficient construction of a permanent structure.’ Wikipedia

• Production & Shipment totals of MHs by IBTS are usually mirror totals in the institute’s monthly reports to subscribers.

STOCK MARKET REPORT FOR 3 FEBRUARY 2025*1

BRK-A                          Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (Clayton Homes)                           $697

SKY                              Skyline Champion Corporation                                              $92.09

CVCO                           Cavco Industries, Inc.                                                             $520.80

LEGH                           Legacy Housing Corporation                                                  $25.65

NOBH                          Nobility Homes                                                                       $30.00

ELS                               Equity Lifestyle, Inc.                                                                $65.76

SUI                               Sun Communities, Inc.                                                           $127.18

UMH                           UMH Properties, Inc.                                                              $18.05

TSC                              Flagship Communities, Inc.                                                    $20.84

MHPC                          Manufactured Housing Properties, Inc.                                 $.62

Manufactured housing/land lease community Composite Stock Index (‘CSI’) @ 3 February 2025 = $1,000.00; up from $929, and still well above the $790.07 base established in January 2022.

End Note.

1. Five manufactured housing manufacturers and five portfolio land lease community owners/operators

CORRECTION

Last week we introduced you to the RV/MH Hall of Fame Class of 2025, but inadvertently omitted one name and spelled another incorrectly. SO, here’s an accurate list of the manufactured housing/land lease community members of this Class of 2025 enshrinees:

Mark Rukar. Longtime independent (street) MHRetailer and owner/operator of several land lease communities in Michigan.*1

Bill Poynter. Manufacturer/MHRetailer with Guerdon Industries in Lexington, KY

Kurt Kelley. Insurance executive and founder of Mobile Insurance, also publisher of Manufactured Housing Review online newsletter, in Spring, TX.

Nelson Steiner. Veteran landlease community portfolio owner/operator, founder of Steiner Communities in Tampa, FL.

Steven Schaub. Senior executive of YES! Communities in Denver, CO., a longtime portfolio community owner/operator of land lease communities throughout the U.S.

Why not use this CORRECTION notice as a motivating reminder to buy your banquet tickets now, to attend the RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on 18 August 2025. You’ll be dining with more than 500 of your peers from the MH & RV industries at the beautiful RV/MH Hall of Fame museum and library facility in Elkhart, IN. Contact via (574)293-2344 or via website online. I certainly plan to be present to enjoy meeting many many friends in our unique business environments. GFA

End Note.

1. Are these three trade terms unfamiliar to you? Well, the ‘independent (street) MHRetailer’ moniker was coined by longtime Iowa-based MH/RV industry consultant William Carr. And the ‘owner/operator’ label originated with David Helfand, past senior executive with ELS & ARC REITs. And the ‘land lease community’ moniker is fairly common parlance today, originating around year 2010.

George Allen

Blog Posting # 829; Copyright 1 February 2025. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, along with a couple types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describe the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH Historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial 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 (A copy of which should be in every land lease community nationwide), & 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institutes (‘MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

RV/MH HALL OF FAME’S MH CLASS OF 2025

This time every year RV & MH aficionados anxiously wait to see who will be selected for induction into the prestigious RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN.  Well, here’s the list of manufactured housing pioneers and business leaders who’ll be enshrined Monday evening, August 18^th, 2025:

Bill Poynter. Manufacturer/MHRetailer with Guerdon Industries in Lexington, KY

Kurt Kelly.  Insurance executive with American Insurance Alliance, & publisher of Manufactured Housing Review online newsletter, in Spring, TX.

Nelson Steiner. Portfolio community owner/operator, founder of Steiner Communities in Tampa, FL.

Steven Schaub. Portfolio community owner/operator, with YES! Communities in Denver, CO. Successor to Gary McDaniel, who was inducted in 2014.

I encourage you to plan now to attend this gala affair in mid-August. Always more than 500 people present. And, besides the five individuals identified above, there’ll be five more who’ll be inducted from the RV industry. For more information visit RV/MH Hall of Fame website or phone (547)293-2344.

On another RV/MH Hall of Fame matter. Were you at the recent Louisville MHShow, during early January? If so, you noticed the half dozen or so individuals wearing bright green blazers during the first day of the show. These were all RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinees, and the purpose of wearing their distinctive green RV/MH blazers was to increase awareness of this individual legacy honor for the RV & MH industries.

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Quoting from SWAN SONG (History of land lease communities*1), page 30: “The year 1998 was truly pivotal for the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry! That year 372,843+/- new homes were shipped from factories to throughout the nation.” But “… home manufacturers (began) saturating local housing markets, with more ‘Big Box = Bix Bucks!’ homes than said markets could bear” leading to finance abuses affecting the industry to this day. So, “…predatory lending practices led to the industry’s loss of easy access to chattel capital from independent third party lenders.” For example, this mantra was popular: “We have no down (payment), no job, no problem (housing) deals for you!” Just how bad did get at the dawn of the century? Read ‘Upside Down in a Mobile Home Park’, circa 2000, Figure G in this text.

Fast forward to year 2025. What’s changed? Well, while we await year end MH production total for 2024, (Industry shipped only 89,169 new homes in 2023, but 100,000 are expected for year 2024), and continue our search for more ‘home only’ loans for manufactured homes sited in land lease communities, federal regulation once again rears its’ head. How so? Without naming the firm, here’s how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (‘CFPB’) recently (1/10/25) lambasted the manufactured housing industry for ‘setting borrowers up to fail in manufactured home loans’.

And how did all that happen? The CFPB cites three major ways:

“Manipulated lending standards when borrowers did not make sufficient income”. Here the firm “disregarded evidence borrowers did not have sufficient income or assets to pay their mortgage and cover recurring obligations and basic living expenses, like food and health care.”

“Fabricated unrealistic estimates of living expenses.” Here the firm used “artificially low estimates of living expenses that made no adjustment for higher expenses in different geographic areas. These families were left with little or no buffer to cover unexpected expenses.”

“Made loans to borrowers it projected could not pay.” Finally, the firm “made loans to borrowers who, even under the company’s overly-optimistic estimates, did not have enough income to cover the mortgage and basic living expenses.”

It is important to note here, only one independent MH finance firm is being challenged at this time. Hopefully there will be no further revelations.

In summary, it appears some of the same nefarious lending practices used in 1998-2000, to keep new MH production at 372,943+/- per year, are allegedly being used again today when we’re below 100,000 new manufactured homes produced per year. No wonder our industry – and realty asset class component; ballyhooed on one hand as this nation’s most affordable type housing, continues to suffer from a perennial poor reputation and image-tarnishing practices like those just described, as well as unduly escalating rental homesite rate hikes, and continuing sad lack of professional property management! If we want to experience another renaissance for manufactured housing production and land lease community lifestyle popularity, we know where we must improve performance – and sooner the better! GFA

Postscript. Does anyone in the manufactured housing industry and throughout the land lease community realty asset class see, as I do, the ongoing need for better national and regional leadership – both volunteer and paid, to step forward and challenge everyone in these two business models to get their act together and treat our customers and residents as fellow stakeholders? Right now, the only criticisms and pleas for market improvement come from online ‘influencers’, an occasional trade publication editorial, and a few pundits (i.e. ‘learned men & women’). We need to hear and see more leadership from our national and state industry and asset class advocates! For example, is this matter even on the agenda of at MHI’s upcoming winter meeting? I don’t know, as I’ve not been invited to attend and speak these issues.

Your thoughts on these timely – and some would say self-defeating, trade practices? Let me know via agfa7156@aol.com Your responses are kept confidential unless you indicate otherwise.

End Note.

1. SWAN SONG is available for purchase via www.educatemhc.com

George Allen

Blog Posting # 828; Copyright 24 January 2025. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction_. Land lease communities (a.k.a.) manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, along with various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describe the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial information source. Contact EducateMHC vis (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com, to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (A copy of which should be in every land lease community nationwide), & 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 & authoring 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (“MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

LOUISVILLE MHSHOW RETROSPECTIVE

Ok, this was the biggest, coldest, best Louisville MHShow ever! The homes exhibit area was large enough to imagine walking through a luxury land lease community anywhere in the U.S. And the home designs, inside and out, were impressive (e.g. interiors featured textured and wood accents on walls, even wood shelving in closets). Supplier exhibiters were everywhere, or so it seemed – even several toters (a.k.a. transporters) or primary haulers. Everyone from OEM (original equipment manufacturers) to aftermarket suppliers of products and services was represented. Public educational and information-sharing sessions were more often packed to capacity than not. And finally, enough food vendor trucks to supply show attendees well!

With that said, here’s how one industry veteran businessman and show attendee summed up his experience at this year’s MHShow:

“I was encouraged to see more homes at the Louisville Show designed for the community market. There also seemed to be more ‘buzz’ about the community segment of the industry. A year or two ago there was NO talk whatsoever about new raw land development. Nowadays I’m hearing more and more. Perhaps (hopefully!) some of the old dysfunctional ‘trailer parks’ will go the redevelopment route and more attention will go to filling all communities. Another trend I noticed at the Show was the number of next generation community owners/operators getting into the business. I also HOPE I accurately perceived apprehension on the part of newbies about paying the dumb, outrageously high prices for communities that brokers and sellers have been promoting for several years.” (Lightly edited. GFA)

My further comments here confirm what you just read, and take matters a step or two forward:

Small homes, large homes, homes with many windows and front-loaded porches. Every one of these would be an attractive addition to any community with a vacant rental homesite large enough for installation. This underscores SECO’s (a supplier booth presence) MH2X project, whose goal is to encourage community owners/operators to ‘buy more new homes’ and see the industry’s annual new HUD-Code housing production total double by year end 2025. This means growing from 100,000+/- in 2024 (total isn’t official yet), to nigh 200,000 in 2025. How?*1

And yes, for the first time in years there were several firms represented who specialize in new community design and construction, as well as redevelopment. The only thing that bothers me about this renewed interest is that there hasn’t been a new text describing HOW TO develop new land lease communities since J. Wiley & Sons 1992 classic, Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities. Used editions sometimes available online.

Years ago I penned a feature article for Manufactured Home Merchandiser magazine identifying dozens of families well into their second and third generations (one in its’ fifth) of ownership. Perhaps it’s time to revisit that phenomenon. Just think: Zeman, Landy, Partrich, Casenhiser, Fannon, Leichtman, Voss, Vukovich, Hames, Follett, Young, Steiner, Cohron, Newby, Shouhayib, Thomas, Scoular, Farren, and Blank, to name a few.

It’s about time common sense returns to valuing land lease communities. For too long, land lease community owners have been greedy selling their income-producing properties. Let me tell you about individuals who went this route while emotionally attached to their holdings – the personal consequences were seldom pleasant. And realty brokers/lenders facilitating overvaluing; they’ve turned this real estate asset class on its’ ear, and we’re now subject to all sorts of landlord-tenant legislation from coast to coast. Time to return to the old IRV formula!

If you missed this year’s MHShow you missed a very good one. Plan now to attend during January 2026.

End Note.

1. Via attending the SECO Conference in Atlanta, 8-10 September; participating in a daylong MH2X ‘HOW TO’ conference; and, using SECO’s exciting ShowSearch telephone application = ‘a new digital means of identifying factory sources of new HUD-Code homes nearby one’s community.’ Visit secoconference.com

New York City’s Big Ideas for Lowering Housing Costs

Last Sunday’s edition of the NEW YORK TIMES newspaper showcased this headlined feature:

BIG IDEAS FOR LOWERING NEW YORK CITY’S SKY-HIGH COST OF LIVING (Eliza Shapiro). Amongst the ideas were a few that just might be fare for HUD-Code manufactured homes and other forms of factory-built housing, a.k.a. offsite construction.

CONSTRUCT AFFORDABLE HOUSING ON PUBLIC HOUSING PARKING LOTS…Here quoting Rev. David Brawley, pastor of a church in Brooklyn. “We’ve identified New York City Housing Authority parking lots that could create about 15,000 homes for seniors.” This way, seniors moving out of NYCHA developments into these new homes would free up public housing for families on NYCHA waiting lists. Anyone in New York City paying attention?

ALLOW HOUSING IN BACKYARDS. “Homeowners should be able to allow their adult children to erect a foldable, tiny home in their backyards with a simple permit.” This has already become lawful and a commonplace practice in the state of California, but small footprint HUD-Code manufactured housing would be much more commodious than ‘foldable tiny homes.”

FIND SPACE FOR 12,000 NEW APARTMENTS THAT ARE ACTUALLY AFFORDABLE…”Trickle-down housing policies do not work, and so the city should invest in building at least 12,000 new units of deeply-subsidized affordable housing per year for five years, with half of those units targeted specifically for homeless households and half for extremely low-income households.” Again, small footprint HUD-Code manufactured homes would easily meet this affordability challenge!

USE MODULAR CONSTRUCITON TO HELP BUILD ALL OF IT. “Minneapolis and other cities are using modular construction to reduce costs and speed up timelines in affordable housing construction.” Yes, that’s indeed the case with HUD-Code manufactured homes, modular and panelized units, as well as possibly with Park Model RVs and ADUs (accessory dwelling units) such as customized steel shipping trailers, even sophisticated sheds.

MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO CHARGE MORE THAN 30 PERCENT OF HUEHOLD INCOME FOR RENT. Once again ‘rent control’ raises its’ progress destructive head. So much of this argument is hopelessly confused by what constitutes one’s gross and or net income, and just what household expenses to include in the equation.

These were just some of the interesting suggestions offered by the author of this idea list.

MEI Replaces DEI

Well there’s a new ‘sheriff’ in town. Donald Trump returned to the U.S. presidency on 20 January 2025 and took less than a day of ‘shock & awe’ to neuter many of his predecessor’s liberal policies and $-wasting directives. Probably chief among these changes was the official death of cultural and employment DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). So, what fills the void? Simply, MEI, short for Merit, Excellence, & Innovation. Nuff said.

Oh, the next day on Facebook, I saw a sign that ‘says it all’, where former president Biden’s family and friend pardons are concerned:

INNOCENT PROPLE DON’T NEED PARDONS!

George Allen

Blog Posting # 827; Copyright 17 January 2025. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (i.e. a type of offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, along with various forms of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), characterize the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & tend tracker, as well as perennial 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 (A copy should be in every land lease community office nationwide!) & 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (”MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

INDUSTRY ‘WATCHDOG’ BARKS AGAIN!

If you weren’t aware the manufactured housing industry has a regulatory ‘watchdog’ alive and well, working on its’ behalf in Washington, DC., you haven’t been paying attention! The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’), a 1985 spinoff from the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), routinely and faithfully represents the regulatory-related interests of regional, independent HUD-Code manufactured housing producers.

What follows here are excerpts from a recent communique by MHARR titled: ‘TRUMP 2.0 – THE INDUSTRY’S SECOND CHANCE’, January 2025, penned by association executive Mark Weiss.

Following a detailed review of what the writer called ‘Trump 1.0’; a recitation of failed attempts to revitalize manufactured housing, MHARR offers this summary: “…at the conclusion of Trump 1.0, the industry remained in the crosshairs of a still-dangerous DOE energy standards directive, nothing of substance regarding the HUD program, and its preemptive regulatory authority, had changed, (as) localities were still targeting manufactured homes and manufactured homeowners with discriminatory and exclusionary zoning, and DTS remained an unfulfilled promise with absolutely no support forthcoming for the vast bulk of the manufactured housing consumer financing market….”*1 (Lightly edited. GFA)

With that said, MHARR challenges the manufactured housing industry to encourage Trump 2.0, “as a second Trump presidential term (begins), with a renewed and even more vigorous emphasis on regulatory reform and  availability of affordable housing being two of the central features of that impending administration…” And how “…the entire industry should be focused on tackling, addressing and, most importantly, resolving and remedying, once and for all, the three principal bottlenecks (identified) by MHARR in a May 2, 2024 News Release…” Those three bottlenecks being:

• Destructive and discriminatory DOE energy regulation

• Discriminatory and exclusionary state and local zoning laws; and

• Non-implementation of the DTS mandate with respect to manufactured housing personal property consumer loans.

If you want to learn more about these three bottlenecks, and you really should, reach out to MHARR via (202) 783-4087

Here’s how this MH trade advocacy entity ends this multipage challenge to the manufactured housing industry:

“…a second Trump presidential term provides the industry with a remarkable second chance! A second chance to clear away unnecessary and debilitating regulation. A second chance to eliminate (or significantly reduce) the discriminatory and exclusionary zoning edicts that have wrongly restricted its’ availability , a second chance to demand – and push through to fruition – much needed federal secondary market and securitization support of the vast bulk of manufactured home consumer chattel loans in accordance with DTS.”

End Note.

• DTS = Duty to Serve. A congressional mandate for Government Sponsored Enterprises (‘GSE’) Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac to better serve underserved housing initiatives

George Allen

Blog Posting # 826; Copyright 10 January 2025. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable –attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (CRE’) component of MH; and, along with various forms of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describe the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial information source. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email gfa71562@ao..com, and www.educatemhc.com, to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (A copy should be in every land lease community office nationwide!), & 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

‘TOTAL U.S. HOUSING STARTS’ IN NOVEMBER 2024

Yes, you read that correctly. I’ve thoughtfully changed the heretofore ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ to ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’, per reporting month – this time November 2024. Why? Because, unlike the U.S. Census Bureau’s Monthly New Residential Construction report of only the volume of new single-family, site-built housing starts, this ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ also includes offsite construction housing types (Some say factory-built) that includes HUD-Code manufactured housing, modular & panelized (or ‘prefab’) housing, and Park Model RVs!*1

For example, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Monthly New Residential Construction reports 1,289,000 annualized new housing starts during November 2024, or approximately 107,416 for the month alone. But the  ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ report, building on this Census Bureau data, estimates a grand total of 116,329 new housing starts during November, an addition of 8,913 units! Now that’s the whole housing starts story! Report methodology described in paragraphs following.

Here’re detailed descriptions of the offsite construction housing types (a.k.a. factory-built housing) cited in this ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ report:

HUD-Code manufactured housing, when installed on permanent foundations on building sites conveyed fee simple, are also identified as ‘single-family, site-built housing’. Manufactured housing not permanently installed, is oft sited in land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) on rental homesites – though, in some instances said sites are conveyed fee simple (e.g. Stardust Hills in Cloverdale, IN.). All types are included in the ‘Total U.S. Housing Starts’ report. Where does HUD-Code housing production data originate? With the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), on a subscription basis. IBTS reports monthly data, then the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’), after reporting monthly data, publish an annual total, e.g. 89,169 new HUD-Code homes during year 2023. The sole published compilation of annual MH production figures, going back to 1955, is featured in the SWAN SONG text, available for purchase via www.educatemhc.com

Then there’re modular & panelized (‘prefab’) housing, two more types of offsite construction (again, a.k.a. factory-built housing), neither tracked by anyone! Why? Offsite construction units are built to local building codes (e.g. International Code Council or ICC), so are nearly impossible to research accurately. However, some housing professionals suggest this formula: 2% of seasonally-adjusted annual housing starts, per U.S. Census Bureau reporting, then reduce to a monthly figure, e.g. 1,289,000 ‘starts’ X .02%, then divided by 12 months = 2149 estimated volume of modular and panelized units fabricated during November 2024.

Park Model RVs (‘recreational vehicle’) production is tracked and reported monthly by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (‘RVIA’) via their online publication RVIA News (e.g. 315 Park Model RVs produced during November 2024). Or, simply ‘google’ Park Model RV production. This category of offsite construction is included because an increasing number of Park Model RVs are being used as permanent housing, particularly in Sunbelt regions of the U.S. And reportedly, some HUD-Code housing manufacturers, while routinely producing Park Model RVs in the past, are now fabricating some in accords with the HUD-Code.

Now pull the four pieces together (i.e. ‘single-family, site-built housing’, and the three types of offsite construction or factory-built housing), beginning with the latter category:

• HUD-Code manufactured housing unit production during November 2024:  8,597
• Modular & panelized 9’prefab’) units estimated for November 2024:             2,148
• Park Model RVs produced during November 2024:                                           + 315
• Offsite construction subtotal for November 2024:                                        11,060

• U.S. Census Bureau site-built housing ‘starts’ during November 2024:        107,417
• (+) Offsite construction subtotal for November 2024:                                   + 11,060
• Grand total of all U.S. Housing Starts during November 2024:                      118,477
• (-) 2148 Modular & panelized units, to offset a double count of 2148          116,329

Bottom Line: True total U.S. Housing Starts during November 2024 is 116,329 new homes!

End Note.

1. Offsite construction. ‘Refers to the planning, design, manufacture, and assembly of building elements at a location different from their final location, to support the rapid spread of and efficient construction of a permanent structure.’ Wikipedia

Manufactured Housing Production @ November 2024

IBTS reports 8,597 new HUD-Code homes produced during November 2024, down from 10,283 produced the month before.

Year To Date (‘YTD’) production? As of November 2024, 96,236 new homes produced compared to 82,809 during November 2023. Well on the way to eclipsing 100,000 new homes by year end!

Production value? Again, based on the decades old ‘per unit’ value factor of $43,126/unit, November 2024 production is worth $370 million, and YTD $4.15 billion. Interestingly, if the MH industry does eclipse 100,000 units by year end, the production value alone will be $4.3+ billion. But there may be more to this story. Doesn’t anyone else find it curious that the originators of this value factor (i.e. $43,126/MH) eschew (‘shun’) updating it? For example, if the ‘per MH’ value today is closer to $70,000/unit, then this year’s production value would be $7 billion, a far sight higher than expected now! Methinks the ‘powers that be’ appear intent on understating our industry’s value to the national economy (Why?), rather than showing legislators and regulators how valuable we are. And don’t forget; this has only been about ‘production value’. What happens when we factor in retail value, rental homesite dollar volume, and more? Your input on this mysterious, self-demeaning matter? Gfa7156@aol.com

Stock Market Report for 6 January 2025

BRK-A                          Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (Clayton Homes)                           $681

SKY                              Skyline Champion Corporation                                              $89.60

CVCO                           Cavco Industries                                                                     $451.13

LEGH                           Legacy Housing Corporation                                                  $23.50

NOBH                          Nobility Homes                                                                       $33.00

ELS, Inc.                       Equity Lifestyle                                                                       $66.72

SUI, Inc.                       Sun Communities                                                                   $124.53

UMH, Inc.                    UMH Properties                                                                     $18.66

Flagship Communities                                                            $21.42

MHPC, Inc.                  Manufactured Housing Properties                                        $.62

Manufactured Housing/land lease community Composite Stock Index (‘CSI’) on January 2025 was $929. Down from $995 in December, but well above the base of $790 established in January 2022.

ONE FINAL REMINDER!

The RV/MH Hall of Fame requests all inductees/enshrinees wear their bright green blazers on 15 January 2025, to the Louisville MHShow in Louisville, KY. And continue to wear the blazers that evening at the gala social event. See you there!

George Allen                                                  

Blog Posting # 825; Copyright 3 January 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (i.e. a type of offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, along with various forms of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), characterize the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial 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 (A copy should be in every land lease community office nationwide!), & 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025!

“…the U.S. Census bureau today projected the U.S. population will reach 341,145,670 at midnight EST on 1 January 2025. This represents an increase of 2,640,171 (0.78%) from 1 January 2024, and up 9,696,329 (2.93%) since Census Day (April 1) 2020.” Now you know something few others do!

Will 2025 MH Production Surpass 2024?

It’s fairly certain 100,000+ new HUD-Code manufactured homes will be produced by year end 2024; the first time since years 2021 & 2022. Hopefully that momentum will carry us over into year 2025.  To that end MH aficionados should reread Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies report that debuted on 23 January 2024, titled: ‘Five Barriers to Greater Use of Manufactured Housing for Entry-Level Homeownership’, by Chris Herbert.

“The sharp rise in home prices and interest rates over the last few years has pushed homeownership out of reach for millions of renters. Under these conditions it is more important than ever that affordable homes are available for entry-level homeownership. Thanks to lower production costs; indeed, the construction cost of a basic single-section manufactured home is roughly 35 percent that of a comparable site-built home. While the savings for larger homes is smaller, it is till significant, with a double-section home costing 60 percent, and a CrossMod™ home (which most closely resembles site-built housing) costing 73 percent of comparable site-built homes.”

“Despite these savings, manufactured housing production remains depressed. During the 1980s and 1990s, more than 250,000 homes were produced on average each year, amounting to 25 percent of the volume of single-family construction. In recent years manufactured home production has just topped 100,000 units annually, about 10 percent of the volume of new single-family homes.”

“Given the cost advantages and unmet need for more entry-level housing, why has production of these homes remained so low?” – and what needs to be done to address said barriers?

Well, that’s what Harvard’s JCHS report purports to do; but first a couple comments on the quoted paragraphs above:

• Once again MHI’s CrossMods™ design is hinted to be an answer to HUD-Code housing’s production slump of the past 14 years (i.e. since industry’s nadir year 2009, of only 48,789 new homes produced). However, with CrossMod™ production totals being so difficult to ascertain, one wonders just how much of an ‘answer’ this new design is?

• When one pens a line referencing MH production between ‘1980s & 1990s’, insiders wonder: ‘Just how much does this writer know about ‘what really happened’ before and right after 1998, when sloppy MH sales and finance shenanigans were commonplace?’

Without further ado, here’re the five key barriers Harvard’s JCHS identifies for relative to MH production.

Negative Perceptions of Manufactured Home Quality. “Older manufactured homes (specifically pre-1974) were of poor quality and limited aesthetic appeal, and serve as basis of popular conception. However, newer homes are of much higher quality, with multi-section homes often indistinguishable from site-built housing.” I’d add here that the absence of a brick exterior veneer, as well as gutters and downspouts, add to this misconception. “Further, studies have found that when the home and land on which it is sited are jointly-owned, these homes appreciate (in value) at rates very close to site-built housing.” Again, all true enough, but it’s these price margins and degrees of ownership that contribute to the eminently affordable nature of HUD-Code manufactured homes ‘in & out of’ land lease communities. (Lightly edited. GFA) GFA) What would YOU do, if anything, to address this perception barrier?

Restrictive Zoning and Land Use Regulation. “Manufactured homes are often prohibited in zones set aside for single-family housing absent a special permit. State laws preventing the outfight exclusion of manufactured housing can help, but these laws typically do not address  design restrictions that are important barriers, including roof pitch, cladding, foundation heights, lot sizes, and setback requirements.*1 “…a statistically significant association with stricter regulation and a lower likelihood of any (manufactured) homes being sited in a community.” With that said, how to convince conventional homebuyers, paying mortgages on $500,000 houses, to welcome new manufactured homes valued around $200,000 into their neighborhoods – and not be concerned about reducing the value of their housing investment? What would YOU do, if anything, to address this land use barrier?

Market Conditions. While strict land regulation generally results in fewer manufactured homes, this barrier can be – and has been, offset by the trifecta of lower land costs, lower density development, and lower household incomes! So, favorable market conditions like these can encourage a shift from NIMBY to YIMBY attitudes.*2 What would YOU do, if anything, to ameliorate these market conditions?

A Unique and Limited Supply Chain. Manufactured homes are often purchased from independent (street) MHRetailers, before or after they’ve found land of their own – whether scattered building sites conveyed fee simple, or rental homesites within land lease communities.*3 In the former instance homebuyers obtain real estate-secured financing (i.e. conventional finance) or, in the latter instance, as homebuyers/site lessees, obtain chattel or personal property loans, a.k.a. ‘home only’ loans. Another limiting factor in the supply chain has been the location of factories. At the turn of the century there were more than 300 plants, today only 140 . “And factories need to be located within 500 miles of the home site to manage transportation costs.” To this end, the SECO team in Atlanta, GA., has created the ShowSearch telephone app, providing such key information to prospective MH homebuyers!*4 What would YOU do to address these unique and limited supply chain issues?

Access to Mortgage Financing. “A final constraint is the difficulty homebuyers face in accessing mortgage financing.” (This barrier was touched on in the previous paragraph). “Manufactured homes are generally considered personal property unless owners take steps to change the legal designation to real property, which is necessary in order to be eligible for mortgage financing.” Furthermore, “the titling process differs by state, and can be complex and time consuming, requiring the home be permanently affixed to a foundation.” However, “if the home is personal property it must use ‘chattel’ loans that bear higher interest rates and have shorter loan terms which can erode the home’s cost advantages.” And frankly, it’s more difficult to obtain chattel loans for manufactured homes. What would YOU do to address this uncertain access to mortgage financing?

One area that has been receiving increasing attention of late, relative to maximizing the “cost advantages and affordable homeownership opportunities offered by manufactured housing”, has been the role public and nonprofit sectors could play in overcoming some of the aforementioned barriers. What are your thoughts to this end?

I hope some or all this motivates you to consider existent and new ways to address five production barriers to selling and siting more HUD-Code manufactured homes nationwide. To this end, please communicate your ideas and suggestions to me via gfa7156@aol.com

End Notes.

1. Cladding = ‘metal bonded to an inner core of another metal.’ Maybe exterior veneer siding?

• NIMBY = Not in my back yard! & YIMBY = Yes, in my back yard!

• Independent (street) MHRetailer is a trade term coined by MH industry consultant William Carr of Iowa. And, since roughly 2009, land lease community owners/operators, recognizing the paucity of independent (street) MHRetailers, started aggressively marketing, selling, and oft financing new manufactured home transactions on-site within land lease communities.

• For more information, visit SECOconference.com  And know the SECO team also hosts periodic MH2X one day seminars that teach community owners/operators how to market and sell new manufactured homes onsite. The goal of MH2X is to help the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry to double annual production during year 2025!

Postscript. If you’ve read this blog carefully, you see that initiatives originating with the SECO team are 100% manufactured housing industry focused! The ShowSearch telephone application is nothing sort of revolutionary where sourcing new HUD-Code housing is concerned – specifically, a new digital means identifying factory sources of new HUD-Code homes nearby! And the MH2X program’s one day seminars exist nowhere else in the U.S. If you haven’t attended one to date, plan to do so during year 2025! Bottom line? As revolutionary as these two new tools are, you’re only hearing about them here. Why? Because, like other supposed advances in the MH industry (e.g. MHI’s CrossMod™ home design), if it does not originate in a certain manner, it receives scant attention from ‘powers that be’ in this industry.  So, reach out now via SECOconference.com and learn all you can about the ShowSearch phone app, the next MH2X program session, and date of the next national SECO Conference during fall 2025. Also know SECO principals will be present at the Louisville MHShow 15-17 January. If you don’t know them personally, look me up at the show and I’ll be pleased introduce you! GFA

George Allen

Blog Posting # 825; Copyright 27 December 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (i.e. a type of offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) are the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, along with various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), comprise the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as a perennial information source. Contact EducateMHC vis (317) 881-3815;  email: gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com, to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (A copy belongs in every land lease community office nationwide!) and SWAN SONG – ahistory 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

Responses to the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’…

‘Who’d a thought’, that some HUD-Code housing manufacturers are building heretofore Park Model RVs in compliance with the HUD-Code! If indeed true, and I have it on good authority it is, then ‘Park Models’ are no longer just RVs – they’re bona fide housing units, just like single-family houses fabricated as ‘offsite construction’ – or factory-built, then sited on building sites conveyed fee simple, or within land lease communities on rental homesites. Now that’s a mouthful and brain-freeze when you stop and think about it! Hmm. I wonder if the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’) is aware of this, and knowingly or unknowingly including code-compliant Park Models in their monthly tallies of HUD-Code units? I’ll ask and let you know next time around.

The previous paragraph was drafted from just one of the several apt messages received in response to last week’s blog posting titled: ‘Is it affordable housing or offsite construction?’

And then there’s this: “In (our state) Park Model RVs are not considered housing and are treated as RVs. We know the Park Model RV numbers from Statistical Survey, but truly, almost all (such units) are for recreational purposes, in campgrounds, and can only be inhabited 180 days per year.” And frankly, that’s how the majority of folk in the HUD-Code housing business, it seems, view Park Model RVs. But what if there’s ‘more to this story’ than presently meets the eye? Again, I’ll give the matter some time and let you know what I learn, maybe.

On another matter put forth in last week’s blog posting. “I do agree (that) we should be comparing ourselves against other industrialized housing such as modular, panelized, and whatever next fad is in permanent housing. I have not observed a significant amount of container homes, 3D printed homes, and other marginal home building methods.” Agreed. I think what confuses this matter though, is differentiating between the single-family, site-built housing faithfully reported by the U.S. Census Bureau each month, and the whole milieu of what’s now being referred to as ‘offsite construction’, i.e. virtually every form of factory-built housing just named and more – except HUD-Code housing is not included in the official mix. The twain are simply not reported ‘together’ at this time, and the question – in my mind anyway, is should they be or not? And that’s the conundrum (‘hard question’) I’ve been and am dealing with these days. And your input to date has been helpful!

One more response from a blog flogger (‘reader’). “The line between factory-built and site-built housing seems to be graying.  I (often) see MHRetailers selling upscale multi-section HUD-Code and similar modular homes. It is not unusual for the wholesale cost of the home to be $300,000, plus the cost for preparation of the building site, improvements, and installation of the home at another $150,000.” And this, “In a resort are I patronize, new homes generally cost $2,000/sq.ft. to construct, usually at a minimum of 3,000 square feet. Now I’m seeing modular units becoming part of these homes – mostly pre-fabricated modules trucked to the building site.” (Lightly edited. GFA)

So, if the previous paragraphs touch a responsive chord(s) with you, please take time to write and let me know your thoughts on these and related subjects. And keep this in mind; it’s highly unlikely anyone else in the manufactured housing industry and/or among land lease community owners/operators, is going to take the time and make the effort to sort out what’s ‘going on’ in the overall housing segment, rather than broadening our tunnel vision focus on site-built, single-family monthly ‘starts’ reporting. Reach me via gfa7156@aol.com

Homeowners & Renters Between 2019 & 2023

Following information borrowed from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019-2023 American Community Survey, 5-Year Estimates.

“The number of owner-occupied housing units increased by 8.4%, from 76.4 million in 2014-2018, to 82.9 million in 2019-2023….” & “More people owned homes than rented in 3,070 of the nation’s 3,144 counties and county equivalents between 2019 and 2023.”

“Additionally, home values increased by 21.7% between 2014-2018…and 2019-2023 estimates going from a median of $249,400 to $303,400.”

Here’s something you’ve likely not seen before; a comparison of four housing types and who lives therein:

One-unit building detached from any other building: 83.7 owners & 27.1 renters

One-unit building attached to one or more buildings: 5.3 owners & 7.6 renters

Building with two or more apartments: 4.9 % owners & 61%  renters

Manufactured homes/mobile homes: 6.2% owners & 4.2% renters

Now a little from Harvard University’s ‘Joint Center for Housing Studies’ (‘JCHS’), titled ‘Renters’ Affordability Challenges Worsened Last Year’.

“In 2023, the number of renter households spending more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent and utilities hit an all-time high of 22.6 million. This included a record-high 12.1 million severely burdened household that spent more than half their incomes on housing costs.” Note. “Moderately (severely) cost-burdened households spend 30-50% more of income on rent and utilities.”

George Allen

Blog Posting # 824; Copyright 20 December 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (i.e. a type of offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, along with various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), characterize the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial 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 and SWAN SONG – the latter, a history of land lese 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 30 nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.

Is it affordable housing or offsite construction?

Regular readers of this weekly blog are aware of my ‘work in progress’, researching, tracking, and publishing the monthly ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’. During the past couple months I’ve settled on a workable format for this all-inclusive overview of housing ‘starts’ in the U.S… But a need for terminology clarification has arisen, and here I’m soliciting your input. First, however,  just what is the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ per se (‘by itself’)?

Quoting from a previous blog posting: “The Whole U.S. Housing Story is an ongoing monthly collection and summary of ALL types of ‘housing starts’ throughout the U.S. However, since most present-day reports of this nature, via U.S. Census Bureau, cover only ‘single-family site-built housing starts’, the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ offers a bigger picture, one that includes ‘offsite construction’ categories of housing such as HUD-Code manufactured housing, modular & panelized (or ‘prefab’) housing, and Park Model recreational vehicles (‘RVs’).” Blog # 823

Two clarifications: First, HUD-Code manufactured housing, when installed on permanent foundations on building sites conveyed fee simple, are oft identified as ‘single-family site-built housing’. And in time, ‘offsite construction’ might include various types of accessory dwelling units or ADUs, such as Tiny Houses, sophisticated ‘sheds’, customized steel storage containers, ‘capsule houses’, even 3-D printer-produced homes – but not yet.

So, what’s this need for terminology clarification? Some folk within the HUD-Code housing milieu (‘environment’), prefer the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ be reported in terms of 1) single-family site-built housing starts, plus 2) factory-built housing production (i.e. HUD-Code manufactured housing alone). Period. But know what? That’s pretty much the reporting status quo today: 1) single-family site-built housing starts reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, and 2) manufactured housing production reported to HUD by the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’); with the twain never covered in the same report (or story). However, there is a complication, as IBTS data includes new HUD-Code manufactured homes sited in the 500+/- land lease communities throughout the U.S., but not reported by the U.S. Census Bure! Also missing from U.S. Census Bureau data are outlier housing types (e.g. ADUs such as Tiny Houses, sheds, storage containers, capsule units, and 3-D printer-produced homes) – all of which, at one time or another, might well be sited on scattered building sites conveyed fee simple. No one, to date, seems to want to resolve these disparities. Read on…

Furthermore, MH purists, it seems, don’t want anything to do with ‘offsite construction’. Why? The argument goes, ‘Don’t taint MH by associating it with nebulous (‘indistinct’) forms of housing like modular and panelized, as well as various ADUs and Park Model RVs.’ Right or wrong thinking?

Yet another plot twist has to do with factory-built housing, inclusive or manufactured housing, modular and panelized units, ADUs, Park Model RVs. Specifically, would the offsite construction naysayers be satisfied if all homebuilding shifted from offsite construction to factory-built housing? I think not. For one thing, offsite construction has already staked out its’ territory via a website and a slick monthly trade magazine, both sans any mention of manufactured housing.

All this brings us back to ‘why’ I’ve proposed that the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ begin with data compiled and published online by the U.S. Census Bureau each month, then include other forms of housing where data is available from credible sources and by formula. The resulting ‘grand total’ of housing starts in the U.S., month by month, would be more accurate and useful than just publishing housing starts occurring during the onsite building process.

So, what’s your input relative to the aforementioned terminology clarification? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com or mail your narrative to GFA c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247

GREEN BLAZER REMINDER

Mentioned this to you a couple weeks ago, but it’s certainly worth a reminder here!

RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinees attending the 2025 Louisville MHShow next month, 15-17 January, know that the show organizers/hosts have requested that these folk wear their distinctive green blazer all day on the 15^th and during the evening festivities.

Being inducted into the prestigious RV/MH Hall of Fame is the acme (‘highest’) honor for pioneers and leaders within the recreational vehicle and manufactured housing industries!

To learn more about this honor and the institution preserving RV & MH legacies, visit the website RVMHHallof Fame.com And if you’d like to talk about the RV/MH Hall of Fame selection mechanics in more detail, let’s talk at the 2025 Louisville MHShow.

One More Reason to Leave California…

Quoted and edited, but unverified, from email correspondence from a veteran MH businessman in California to this industry observer:

“…the California courts just denied our (industry’s) request for injunctive relief on a bill”, if passed, will as of 1/1/2025, posit (‘put in place’) “that long term rental agreements are no longer exempt from rent control.”

Now that change would turn the land lease community business model upside down.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to You

Ah Ha! Another positive sign the recent presidential election is ‘Making America Great Again’! Everyone, it seems, is extending ‘Merry Christmas’ greetings this year instead of something less meaningful and merry.

George Allen

Blog Posting # 823; Copyright 13 December 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MJH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. another type of offsite construction). And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’), comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH! EduateMHC is the online advocate, official historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as information resource. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry and SWAN SONG – a history of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production totals since 1955. Also 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 many nonfiction texts.

George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (“MHI’), a founding member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, MHInsider magazine’s ‘Allen Legacy’ columnist and editor at large. He’s a Vietnam combat veteran, retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, author/editor of 30 books and chapbooks on MH, communities, business management, prayer, and figures of speech.

‘WHOLE U.S. HOUSING STORY’ FOR OCTOBER 2024

While the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ continues to be a work in progress, housing professionals have been expressing increased and continuing interest in its’ truly eclectic content, i.e. statistical data from various housing sources. So, just what is the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’?

The Whole U.S. Housing Story is an ongoing monthly collection and summary of ALL types of ‘housing starts’ throughout the U.S. However, since most present-day reports of this nature, via U.S. Census Bureau, only cover ‘single-family site-built housing starts’, the Whole U.S. Housing Story presents a bigger picture, including ‘offsite construction’ categories of housing such as HUD-Code manufactured housing, modular & panelized (or ‘prefab’) housing, and Park Model recreational vehicles (‘RVs’).

HUD-Code manufactured housing, when installed on a permanent foundations on building sites conveyed fee simple, are also oft identified as ‘single-family site-built housing’.

And in time, ‘offsite construction’ might include various types of ADUs (‘accessory dwelling units’), e.g. Tiny Houses, sophisticated ‘sheds’, customized steel storage containers, ‘capsule houses’, even 3-D printer-produced homes.

So, where does monthly housing ‘start’ data originate? The easiest to track is the number of single-family site-built housing starts researched, tallied and published monthly online by the U.S. Census Bureau. Visit census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst/pdf. There, visit the Monthly New Residential Construction website, and you’ll see ‘seasonally adjusted annual’ totals. Divide the monthly ‘start’ total (actually, seasonally adjusted annual ‘start’ total) by 12 months to get a clean monthly average ‘start’ figure. Further details to follow.

Researching the offsite construction category of housing production.

The monthly production of HUD-Code manufactured housing is tracked and reported to subscribers by the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’). While monthly data is what we need for the Whole U.S. Housing Story (e.g. 10,263 MHs @ Oct. 24), annual MH production totals are compiled and reported by the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’). A published record of annual MH production totals, going back to 1955, is available in the SWAN SONG text, available from www.educatemhc.com

Modular & panelized (‘prefab’) housing monthly production is, at this time, tracked by no one! Why? These offsite construction units are built to local building codes and are next to impossible to research accurately. Some housing professionals suggest this formula: 2% of seasonally-adjusted annual housing starts, per U.S. Census Bureau, then reduced to a monthly average, e.g. 1,311,000 ‘starts’ X .02 & divided by 12 months = 2,185 modular & panelized units during October 2024.

Park Model RV production is tracked monthly and reported by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (‘RVIA’) via their online publication RVIA News (e.g. 346 RVs during October 2024). Or simply google Park Model RV production. This category of offsite construction is included because an increasing number of Park Model RVs are used as permanent housing, particularly in Sunbelt regions of the U.S.

Now for the Whole U.S. Housing Story proper.

Format. First, the three categories of offsite construction and a subtotal of same, followed by U.S. Census Bureau estimate of single-family, site-built housing starts during October 2024. Finally, a grand total of all categories, but with the estimated number of modular & panelized units adjusted out, so as not to be counted twice.*1

1. HUD-Code manufactured housing unit production during October 2024                10,263
2. Modular & panelized (‘prefab’) units estimated for October 2024   *2                       2,185
3. Park Model RVs produced during October 2024                                                             346
4. Offsite construction subtotal for October 2024                                                         12,794

• U.S, Census Bureau # of housing ‘starts’ during October 2024 *3                           109,250
• (+) Offsite construction subtotal for October 2024                                                     12,794
• Grand total of all U.S. Housing Starts during October 2024                                     122,044

• (-) 2185 Modular & panelized units in October 2024 =                                            119,659

Bottom Line: ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ for October 2024 is 119,859 new homes started. This compares favorably with the five year average of annual new housing starts in the U.S. at 1,448,620 units; which divided by 12 months = 120,718/month, just 1059 units more than the 119,659 houses started during October 2024.

End Notes.

1. Modular & panelized units, though offsite construction, are usually included in the U.S… Census Bureau ‘starts’ reporting.
2. 1,311,000 X .02 & divided by 12 months = 2185
3. 1,311,000 divided by 12 months = 109,250

Mfd. Housing Production Volume @ October 2024

IBTS reports 10,263 new HUD-Code homes produced during October 2024, up from 8814 produced during September 2024, and 8292 MHs produced during October 2023. 16,040 floors

Year to date (‘YTD’) production? As of October 2024, 86,639 new units produced compared to  75,040 units during October 2023.

Production value? Again, based on the decades old ‘per unit’ factor of $43,126/unit, October 2024 production is valued at 442 million; and, YTD at 3.77 billion.

Stock Market Report for 5 December 2024

BRK-A              Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (Clayton Homes)   $706    Up from November

SKY                  Skyline Champion Corporation                      $104.23Up from November

CVCO               Cavco Industries                                             $479.   Up from November

LEGH               Legacy Housing Corporation                          $25.41 Down from November

NOBH              Nobility Homes                                               $33.00 Up from November

ELS, Inc.           Equity Lifestyle                                               $70.50 Up from November

SUI, Inc.           Sun Communities                                           $126.16 Down from November

UMH, Inc.        UMH Properties                                             $19.87 Up from November

Flagship Communities                                                            $16.08  Down from November

MHPC, Inc.      Manufactured Housing Properties                $62      No change from November

Manufactured Housing/ land lease community Composite Stock Index (‘CSI’): 5 December 2024 = $995. Up from $839 in November, and well above the base $790 established in January 2022.

George Allen