Blog Posting # 777, Copyright 26 January 2024. EducateMHC
Parallel Perspectives. HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable, attainable factory-built housing! And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH! EducateMHC is the online advocate, historian, trend tracker, and text resource for these two related business models. Reach EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, or visit www.educatemhc.com, to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry. This is the sole professional property management text in print today! SWAN SONG is a 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 and community ownership/management, and as an author & freelance consultant.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, is the only emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding board member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, Vietnam veteran & retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, as well as author/editor of 20 books & chapbooks re MH, communities, business management & prayer.
Louisville MHShow Potpourri
Most frigid weather, for me anyway, since I started attending this annual manufactured housing show in 1978. Brrr. And what made the weather even worse was having to arise at 6AM the first two days of the show to be present for the State of the Industry panel Wednesday morning and Manufacturers’ Panel on Thursday. My ‘take’ on these presentations?
- In the first instance, four state MH association execs or officers expressed opinions concerning the State of the Industry today; specifically, what is happening in their Midwestern state. No executive presence or input, however, from Ohio & Wisconsin.
- Manufacturers’ Panel. Salaried (not senior executives) individuals from the Big 3-C firms, plus one, held forth on what their firms are doing for the industry and buying public these days. Some talk about the much vaunted CrossMod manufactured home – but when asked how many had been produced annually to date, no one had an answer.
One of many highlights of the MHShow for me was meeting with ROC-USA founder Paul Bradley, and his team, especially those helping to launch a new subsidiary, Integrity Community Solutions. ICS plans to acquire and operate ‘but for’ land lease communities before reselling them to homeowners/site lessees. ‘But for’ communities include portfolio transactions, and value-to-add properties in local housing markets where new affordable (manufactured) homes are needed. For more information about ICS, contact Jessika via jessicap@icsmhc.com
I was also heartened to learn of and meet with individuals interested in acquiring and relaunching the Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) land lease community property management training and certification program. I started the MHM curriculum in 2001. By the time I retired in 2021, we’d trained and certified more than 1,000 MHMs! Today the program is dormant, but the textbook, ‘Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry’ is in many communities across the U.S. and still marketed via EducateMHC.com
One pleasant surprise at the MHShow was to learn of the Fourth Annual MHInsider (magazine) Industry Awardees. I was honored to be named the INFLUENCER Award winner, along with three friends. Byron Stroud, with Skyline Champion Corporation, who was honored as ADVOCACY Award winner. And longtime friend Debra ‘Dee’ Pizer, MHM, of Zeman Homes, was tapped as LEADERSHIP Award winner. Especially pleased to see Ted Boers, founder of DATACOMP, designated as VISIONARY Award recipient! For more information about these awards and individuals read the January/February 2024 issue of MHInsider magazine.
SHOCKING STATISTICS
Quoting from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies report titled, ‘Home Price-to-Income Ration Reaches Record High’. (22 January 2024)
“In 2022, the median sale price for a single-family home in the US was 5.6 times higher than the median household income. As recently as 2019, the national price-to-income ratio was just 4.1”
And a few days earlier, the JCHS (on 19 January 2024) shocked homebuyers and Realtors with this news: “The number of cost-burdened households in the US rose dramatically during the pandemic, and in 2022 reached levels not seen since 2011. In total, 42.0 million households were cost burdened in 2022, paying more than one third of their income for housing. This is an increase of 1.5 million households from 2021, and 4.9 million since 2019.”*1
End Note.
- “Cost-burdened (severely cost-burdened) households pay more than 30 percent (severely-burdened = more than 50%) of their income on housing.”
George Allen, CPM, MHM