Blog Posting @ 792, Copyright 10 May 2024. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH”) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing! (A.k.a. offsite construction). 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, official historian, trend tracker, and information resource for both business models. Access EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email gfa7156@aol.com, & visit www.educatemhc.com to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry. And 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 & community ownership, as well as non-fiction author and 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 Fam enshrinee, MHInsider magazine editor at large, & Allen Legacy columnist. Vietnam combat veteran & retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, and author/editor of 30 books & chapbooks on MH, communities, business management & prayer.
Signed-on in Support of MH2X Project?
Last week we introduced you to the MH2X project, that grassroots movement whose goal is to motivate and assist the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry in ‘Doubling the Annual Production of Manufactured Homes During Year 2025’! How? By filling vacant rental homesites and upgrading land lease communities with new manufactured homes.
But for this to happen, the project needs nationwide tangible and moral support from businessmen and women in all sectors of the manufactured housing industry. Have YOU signed-on yet? If not, go to www.SECOConference.com. There, click on the MH2X prompt and enter your contact information and indicate what part you would like to play in this project.
So far, industry response has been more than encouraging! Plans are already in the works for training sessions as to how to buy, sell, and seller-finance new homes on-site in land lease communities and elsewhere. And there’s more, much more. But you likely won’t learn of the alternatives if you don’t express interest and participate soon. Visit the website!
‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ for March 2024
Well, did you see it? The ‘first ever’ Whole U.S. Housing Story, as of March 2024. It was distributed nationwide earlier this week to hundreds of GFA ‘insiders’ and industry leaders.
What is the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’? Let me ‘splain’ it this way. Have you ever, while looking at MHI’s or MHARR’s monthly Manufactured Housing Shipment Report, found yourself wondering: “Hmm. Wonder what the rest of the housing industry is doing, relative to modular and panelize homes being built, as well as single-family site-built homes started, even maybe Park Models going into land lease communities this month?”
Well (again), this is why I’ve started cobbling together the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’. Here’re the very basic, first time ever, numbers I’ve come up with for the month of March 2024.
8447 HUD-Code manufactured housing units produced during the month of March.
1155 Modular & panelized (‘prefab’) housing units estimated for the month of March
343 Park Model recreational vehicles (‘RVs’) during the month of March
9,945 composite subtotal of the three previous housing totals; to be added to this:
57,750 Estimated number of single-family site-built housing starts during March, for a total of
67,695 new housing starts in the U.S. during March 2024
Now understand, this is a ‘work in progress’. I plan to work each month towards refining this data, proofing the sources, and presenting as accurate and timely information as possible. Keep in mind, I footnote my resources and formulae in the actual ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ Report. Criticism and suggestions welcome via gfa7156@aol.com
What Should Be But Isn’t!
Another manufactured housing-related conundrum (‘ a hard question, riddle’), goes like this: “Why do we know so little about the economic impact of HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities on local, state, regional, and national scenes? Answer (in my opinion) has to do with the fact that ‘some folk’ simply don’t want that information to get outside our industry and realty asset class. Why? You’ll have to ask them (i.e. leaders of the industry). But here’s an example of a sister industry that does ‘keep score’ and happily lets the public know.
RVs Move America Economic Impact Study (a press release): “the RV Industry Association’s latest economic impact study in 2022 measured the impact the RV economy has on jobs, wages, taxes and spending. The study revealed that the RV industry had an overall economic impact to the US economy of $140 billion, supporting nearly 680,000 jobs, contributing more than $48 billion in wages and paying over 13.6 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.”
The study goes on to show what comprises the $140 billion economic impact figures:
$73.7 billion generated by RV manufacturers and suppliers
$35.7 billion by RV campgrounds and related travel
$30-.5 billion in RV sales and service facilities.
How ‘bout that? Tell me, wouldn’t you, like me, be anxious to read a paragraph as follows, with the blanks filled in, relative to manufactured housing and land lease communities economic impact?
‘The MH industry association’s latest economic impact study in 2023 measured the impact the MH economy has on jobs, wages, taxes and spending. The study revealed the MH industry has an overall economic impact to the US economy of $__________billion, supporting nearly __________jobs, contributing more than $______billion in federal, state, and local taxes.’
Well, it’s not happening – and won’t happen anytime soon; at least not until enough businessmen and women demand to have this sort of information available to them as they influence local and state legislators relative to manufactured housing and land lease communities. All we get now is the estimated production value of new HUD-Code homes produced each month, and that data is based on a formula more than a decade old! Surely, HUD-Code manufactured homes are worth more than just $43,126 per unit produced. But that’s what we’re expected to work with at this time.
So, just what is the economic impact the MH economy has on jobs, wages, taxes and spending here in the U.S.? When will we finally learn that critical information? The challenge is up to you!
Just Another Bugaboo!
Bet you didn’t know this! “The Department of Housing and Urban Development (‘HUD’) is seeking a Deputy Assistant Secretary to lead the Office of Manufactured Housing Programs, which regulates design and construction of manufactured home built in the United States.”
Open & closing dates: 4/22/2024 – 05/13/2024 (Just a few days from now)
Salary: $147,649 – $221,900
Location: Washington, DC
Appointment Type: Permanent, Full-time, Senior Executive
And there’s a whole lot more to the job opening.
Why a bugaboo (‘a fancied object of terror’)? Because this sort of job opening, in my opinion, should be given the widest possible distribution throughout the manufactured housing industry – by both our national trade advocacy bodies. Does it happen? Not in my 45 years of MH experience! No, jobs like this are made known – so I’m told – to selected, favored individuals. Yes, it is a ‘fancied object of terror’ knowing such a high profile job simply goes a-begging & maybe awry when it’s kept secret like this. We deserve to know what’s happening like this!
If this job had been available a decade or more ago, and I’d been told about it, you can be sure I’d have applied. I know of few other individuals active within, even recently retired from, the MH industry who know more about the ins and outs of manufacturing and land lease community segments of our business models. But I’m not a political insider, now or ever.
So, for the time being, expect to be kept ‘in the dark’ about such opportunities, unless you’re well-connected on the national level. Sorry ‘bout that.
George Allen