Blog Posting # 834; Copyright 7 March 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, including types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describes 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 (Copy of which should be in every land lease community nationwide!) & SWAN SONG – History of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production 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.
Have You Heard of the ‘3-3-3 Plan’?
Following information is quoted directly from the February 2025 issue of NEWSMAX magazine (p.6). There one reads of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s trifecta of growth “…to supercharge the (U.S.) economy and bring the Mount Everest-sized debt down to more manageable levels.” Specifically,
- Increase economic growth to 3% per year for four years
- Cut the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product (‘GDP’)
- Raise U.S. energy production by 3 million barrels of oil per day
Now, all it will take is for Congress to cooperate, and these goals will likely be met.
Just thought you’d like to know. I’m certainly encouraged by these goals.
Manufactured Housing’s ‘Watchdog’ Barks at HUD!
In a recent communique, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’) encouraged HUD Secretary Scott Turner to thoroughly review ‘fraud & abuse’ of the HUD manufactured housing program, with emphasis on:
- HUD’s 50 year dependence on the same ‘monitoring’ contractor – despite various corporate names.
- HUD’s bypassing legally-mandated sole source safeguards to continue said contract
- HUD’s use of monitoring contractor to perform inherently governmental functions.
- HUD’s alleged mismanagement of the manufactured housing program via, among other things, manipulation of the statutory Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (‘MHCC’) and appointments thereto.
- HUD’s alleged consistent favoritism toward the industry’s largest manufacturers.
- HUD’s alleged failure to federally preempt discriminatory zoning exclusion of manufactured housing per existing federal law.
Why is all this important? Because, as MHARR points out in the same communique, “…the manufactured housing industry, in 2024, produced 103,314 new HUD-Code homes.” Yes, worth acclamation, but not much. Why? Because during the first year for which annual MH production data is available, circa 1955, annual ‘mobile home’ production reached 111,900 new units! That’s 8,586 more ‘mobile homes’ than manufactured housing units today! One answer is less regulation on the federal level!
ALERT. Read blog # 837 on 28 March 2025
Most years around this time I’m asked to reflect on and share experiences and lessons learned in combat nearly 60 years ago in the Republic of Vietnam. I recently shared what author Ronald Winter wrote in Victory Betrayed, about my presence and activities during February 1969 in the Ahsau Valley, participating in Operation Dewey Canyon. But ‘what’s to come’ is different. It’s far more personal than having someone else talk about you. My hope is that these reminiscences will be as poignant for you as they are for me. GFA
George Allen