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

January 24, 2025

LOUISVILLE MHSHOW RETROSPECTIVE

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 7:29 am

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

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