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

Blog Posting # 821; Copyright 29 November 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) 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! EducateMHC is the online advocate, official historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as information resource for both business models, and to a lesser extent, the recreational vehicle (‘RV’) industry. Access EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email gfa7156@aol.com, and via 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 SmityAlpha6 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 (‘NN’) 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.

Important Announcement for Green Blazer Wearers

Huh? Green blazer wearers? That’s right.  More than 600 RV/MH Hall of Fame members (a.k.a. enshrinees & inductees) characteristically wear a bright green awards blazer (sports jacket) featuring the distinctive gold thread embroidered RV/MH Hall of Fame crest on the left breast pocket. Until recently, these blazers were rarely seen other than at annual hall of fame induction banquets during early August, in Elkhart, IN.

However, this year (2025) starts off differently! A national call, beginning with this blog posting and announcements in other MH trade publications, is going out now, asking RV/MH Hall of Fame members, enshrinees and inductees to wear their coveted green blazer the first day of the Louisville MH Show, and during that evening’s festivities, on 15 January 2025.

This is not all that unusual a request. For the past couple years, some state associations have encouraged their members to wear the celebrated blazer at local formal MH business and social functions, as a way of promoting the RV/MH Hall of Fame as showcase and protector of manufactured housing and recreational vehicle history and legacies. To learn more about the RV/MH Hall of Fame, and how to qualify for induction into this prestigious body, visit their website at www.rvmhhalloffame.org

Looking for Presidential Elections Votes

It all started with this inquiring quote from the 11/24/24 issue (p.35) of The New York Times magazine: “Tell me how Joe Biden could get 81 million votes” (in the 2020 election). The 2024 presidential election had been over for two weeks, and this – to me anyway – came across as what one might call a ‘pregnant question’, one looking for maybe a clarifying answer. So I started looking….

First stop. Research the popular vote spreads of both (2020 & 2024) presidential elections. Well, here’s what I found:

In 2020, Biden won with 81,268,967 popular votes to Trump’s 74, 216,747 votes

In 2024, Trump won with 76,842,136 popular votes to Harris’s 74,341,051 votes

Since the losers in both elections are separated by only 124,304 votes, how does one explain the large 4,426,831 vote spread between the winners of those two elections, especially when the 2024 election is widely touted as being a landslide victory, with the victor’s party now in control of all three branches of the federal government.

It’s hard to believe 4,426,831 American voters who participated in the 2020 election did not also vote in the 2024 contest.

All of which takes us back to that pregnant question in The New York Times magazine: “Tell me how Joe Biden could get 81 million votes.” The answer to that question continues to linger.

Blog Posting # 820; Copyright 15 November 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. another type of offsite construction). And land lease communities 9a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’), comprise the commercial real estate (‘CREs’) component of MH! EducateMHC is the online advocate, official historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as information resource for both business models, and to a lesser extent, the recreational vehicle (‘RV’) industry. Access EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email gfa7156@aol.com, and via 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 Fameenshrinee, 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.

Two-Thirds of U.S. Households are Family Households

From the U.S. Census Bureau (11/12/2024): “Newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s historical America’s Families and Living Arrangements tables show that about 64% of households were classified as family households in 2024. This marks a significant change from 50 years ago, when 79% of households were family households. Family households are defined as those that include at least one person related to the householder by birth, marriage or adoption.”

Furthermore, “In 2024, almost three-quarters (74%) of family households were married-couple households. Family households that did not include a married couple were more likely to have a female householder (68%) than male householder (32%). Among nonfamily households, about 52% included a female householder, while 48% had a male householder. A substantial portion of nonfamily households were homes with someone living alone – 81% in 2024, compared with 89% 50 years ago.”

What’s Next for the Mainstream Media?

The 2024 Presidential Election is over and everyone knows the stunning result: a landslide reelection of Donald Trump to the office of 47^th president of the US of A, along with Republican majorities in the Senate and Congress; a.k.a. ‘A mandate to govern’ via much-needed changes to policies and personnel characteristic of the past four years. Making America Great Again has already begun!

But what does this mean to the so-called mainstream or legacy news media, now in many if not most circles, referred to as the biased and false news media. Will they continue their perennial assault against ‘all things Trump’, relative to fictional Russian collusion, inaccurate abortion legislation claims, and misleading reporting of upcoming policy improvements? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The Media Research Center reports that ‘trust in political and civic institutions is highest for local and state government, lowest for the media and Congress.’ If true, the national press corps has a very tall hill to climb, to shed itself of a pervasive fake news reputation and obvious political bias. Do they even want to return to the tenets of professional journalism?

And what is professional journalism? Best described in terms of three key characteristics:

• Reporting of the facts
• Checking of resources
• Be understood via a plain writing style

Yes, if today’s tarnished press would simply return to the basics just described, as a society, we’d be a long way towards resurrecting news media credibility, and in time, profitability. But will it happen? That’s anyone’s guess at this point in time.

A Sobering Word to My Middle-age Friends

If you are anywhere near 50 years of age, the following passage is for you! It’s quoted from Susan Orlean’s novel, ‘The Library Book’, published in 2018.

“The idea of being forgotten is terrifying. I fear not just that I, personally, will be forgotten, but that we are all doomed to being forgotten – that the sum of life is ultimately nothing; that we experience joy and disappointment and aches and delights and loss, make our little mark on the world, and then we vanish, and the mark is erased, and it is as if we never existed. If you gave into that bleakness even for a moment, the sum of life becomes null and void, because if nothing lasts, nothing matters. It means everything we experience unfolds without a pattern, and life is just a wild, random, baffling occurrence, a scattering of notes with no melody. But if something you learn or observe or imagine can be set down and saved, and you can see our life reflected in previous lives, and can imagine it reflected in subsequent ones, you can begin to discover order and harmony. You know you are a part of a larger story that has shape and purpose – a tangible, familiar past and a constantly refreshed future. We are all whispering in a tin can on a string, but we are heard, as we whisper the message into the next tin can and the next string. Writing a book, just like building a library, is an act of sheer defiance. It is a declaration you believe in the persistence of memory. P.93

I understood the truth of this paragraph when I realized on how very little I knew of past lives in my own family. I have a great grandfather who served in the Civil War, and is buried in Bridgeton, NJ. I’ve visited his grave, but I know nothing more about his life at that time. In turn I realized that if I didn’t write down my experiences during the Vietnam War, my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren would know no more about me than I do about Charles Allen. So, I authored  ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’, my autobiography, and now copies are in the hands of our adult children, six grandchildren, and three (soon to be four) great grandchildren. Now I know my story will live on.

I’ve also come to realize the truth of Orlean’s paragraph relative to deceased friends in the manufactured housing business, especially past owners/operators of land lease communities. Because I was a consultant to many of them, I know interesting things about their life stories; but because they did not document those adventures, I remain the only person who can tell their stories during casual times with their peers and families. And that does happen from time to time. Examples. Whose family real estate holdings extend all the way back to the Revolutionary War? Who raised ostriches on his farmland in Florida? Who was a bagman for the Chicago mob and was allegedly executed by them? Whose corporate goal was to make his portfolio of communities the Holiday Inn chain of manufactured housing? And the tales go on.

Need more encouragement to this end? Well, here’s yet another quote – this time from Joel Dicker’s mystery novel ‘The Enigma of Room 622. “Life is a novel whose conclusion we already know: in the end, the hero dies. The most important thing is not how our story ends, but how we fill the pages. For life, like a novel, must be an adventure. And adventures are life’s vocations.” So, when will you tell your life’s adventure?

For help to this end, I recommend you buy a copy of Dan Poynter’s ‘Self-Publishing Manual’, available via amazon.com  This handy HOW TO text of 450 pages has undergone at least “16 revised editions and 20 printings in 29 years.” It guided my efforts when penning my first book, ‘Mobile Home Park Management’ way back in 1988 (Yes, that’s 36 years ago). The beauty of this book? Poynter has the reader follow two timelines throughout his book: one ‘splaining’ how to write one’s life story via outline, etc.; the other, for getting front and back material ready in time to ‘go to press’ the same time as the manuscript. An important pairing. And I’ll kid you not, writing a readable book is no easy task, it’s a lot of hard work over an extended period of time, usually the minimum of a year. If you’re going to market your tome to friends, family, acquaintances and beyond, then also acquire a copy of John Kremer’s ‘1001 Ways to market Your Book’. It taught me many things, e.g. put a phone number or email address in one’s Preface so readers can comment on the book they just read, and put a customized post card into every book sold, offering other titles or your professional services to the reader, and more.

Hopefully you’re now motivated to at least explore the possibility of researching and recording your life’s story. A final thought. One well known country singer, in one of his songs, tells us, “Our legacy is those we leave behind” – our spouse, children, and following generations. Will you be satisfied with that legacy? Most folk are. However, if you have a unique, even adventuresome story to tell, then why not ‘live on for decades to come’ as your legacy story is passed down from generation to generation. Think about it!

If you want to talk further about this matter, reach me via gfa7156@aol.com

George Allen

Blog Posting # 818; Copyright 8 November 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) 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 (‘CREs’) component of MH! EducateMHC is the online advocate, official historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as information resource for both business models, and to a lesser extent, the recreational vehicle (‘RV’) industry. Access EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, and via 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 owner ship, 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.

VETERANS DAY, 11 November 2024

Three times annually, I purposely pause and reflect on the sober meanings of Vietnam Veterans Day, 28 March; Memorial Day in late May; and Veterans Day on 11 November this year. I pause and reflect, remembering those who’ve made ‘the ultimate sacrifice’ in behalf of you, me, and our nation! I also think upon the many military servicemen and women I’ve known since my enlistment in March 1964, often reaching out to some of them to say ‘Thank You’. Do you?

Here I’d like to share with you, the true but little known history of Samuel Whittemore, Jr. of Charlestown, Massachusetts. He was born in 1696 and died in 1793. As a young man he was involved in the capture of the French Fortress of Louisbourg. Some sources claim he also fought in the French and Indian War of 1754-63.

Subsequently, during April 1775, as British forces returned to Boston from Battles of Lexington and Concord, they were continually fired upon by American militiamen. At this time Whittemore, who was 79 years of age, was working in his fields, when he observed a British relief brigade coming to assist in the retreat. Whittemore, with his one shot musket, and from behind a stone wall, ambushed the British grenadiers, killing one. Then drawing his dueling pistols, killed a second grenadier and mortally wounded a third. By then the British detachment reached his position, where Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was subsequently shot in the face, bayoneted many times, and left for dead. Soon thereafter he was found by colonial forces, attempting to reload his musket. Whittemore was taken to a local doctor who held no hope for his survival. However, Whittemore revived and lived another 18 years, finally dying of natural causes at the age of 96 years.

Now there’s someone who gave more than his fair share of time, health and life to being an American patriot, and yes, veteran.

Rest of the story? “In 2005, Massachusetts Senator Robert Havern III proposed Whittemore be proclaimed the official state hero of Massachusetts, and his memory be commemorated on 3 February each year.” Wikipedia

STEALING HOME

Here’s something for you to read and ponder. During September 2024 MHAction (a.k.a. Manufactured Housing Action) prepared ‘Stealing Home’, subtitled (How) ‘Out-of-state Private Equity Executives Spend Lavishly to Thwart Reforms and Make It Easier to Take (a specific state) Mobile Homes’.

The next paragraph is a paraphrase of the Executive Summary introducing this STEALING HOME report. The specific state has been omitted, as this  alleged landlord-tenant offenses appear to be occurring in several regions of the U.S. today. And contemporary manufactured housing trade terminology replaces inaccurate extinct renderings. Here’s where to read and ponder!

‘The state has a clear choice – to support hundreds of thousands of homeowners/site lessees live in land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities) OR the private equity firms, hedge funds, and corporations harming them and their communities. In land lease communities, residents often own their homes and rent the property on which they are installed. Most of these homes cannot be moved (i.e. lack of wheels & axles, no similar properties nearby, and high cost of moving to include tear-down and set-up), making residents vulnerable to the practices of corporate owners who often raise rents and add on fees while disinvesting in the property, leading to water quality problems, sewer issues, dangerous roads, residents losing their homes, and more.’

Elsewhere in this STEALING HOME report, mention is made of landlords sending “…seniors’ modest Social Security income to out-of-state and overseas investors.” This being in reference to rental homesite fees, and likely, overseas investors like China – where at least one large property portfolio owner/operator is concerned. Mention is also made of how this state of affairs only increases “an acute housing shortage’ in the state” and “undermines the state’’ push to create more affordable housing.”

So, how are matters like this in your state – if even a challenge, to begin with? My fear is that if our elected and salaried national manufactured housing trade advocacy leaders don’t get busy researching and addressing this sort of (now public) issue, we’ll soon see onerous, business-restricting landlord-tenant legislation like never seen before!

Now you cannot say I didn’t warn you!  GFA

SECO’s MH2X Community Infill & Upgrade Workshop

November 20 & 21, 2024, at the Country Inn & Suites in Atlanta, GA. For more information and to register, visit secoconference.com

This workshop is the product of land lease community owners/operators whose goal is to see the production of new manufactured homes double during year 2025. How? Land lease community ‘players’ to buy and sell many more new homes to fill vacant rental homesites and upgrade their properties. YOU interested in doing this? Then send key on-site property personnel to this workshop, even attend yourself, and get motivated to be a key manufactured housing ‘difference maker’ in 2025!

George Allen

Blog Posting # 819; Copyright 5 November 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) 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 (‘CREs’) component of MH! EducateMHC is the online advocate, official historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as information resource for both business models, and to a lesser extent, the recreational vehicle (‘RV’) industry. Access EducateMHC visa (317) 881-3815; email gfa7156@aol.com, and via www.educatemhs.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.

Introduction to the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’

Remember, this monthly (‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’) report continues to be a ‘work in progress’. While I’ve been working on the outline and content for six months, only now do I feel close to articulating an easy to read, understand, and apply format.

As I asked rhetorically last month (i.e. in blog # 814), ‘What is the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’?’ And what types of single-family residential housing are included in this NEW comprehensive monthly statistical survey? Well, here goes:

The ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ is intended to be a monthly collection and summary of ALL types of ‘housing starts’ throughout the U.S. Present-day reports include only ‘single-family, site-built housing starts’! Other forms of housing, like HUD-Code manufactured housing, modular & panelized housing, and Park Model RVs are not included, but should be, for complete picture!

So, let’s begin with ‘offsite construction’. This is a relatively new housing category, a.k.a. factory-built housing that includes 1) HUD-Code manufactured housing, 2) modular & panelized (or ‘prefab’) housing, and 3) Park Model recreational vehicles (‘RVs’). In time, ‘offsite construction’ might come to include additional types of ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units), e.g. Tiny Houses, sophisticated ‘sheds’, customized steel storage containers, even 3-D Printer-produced houses.

Then there’s the market dominating single-family, site-built housing ‘starts’. This far larger housing category has long been the sole and all-inclusive measure of housing performance in the U.S., but generally not including offsite construction (i.e. except for HUD-Code housing on permanent foundations).

So, where does monthly housing ‘start’ data originate? The easiest to track, is the number of single-family, site-built housing ‘starts’ researched and published monthly online by the U.S, Census Bureau. Visit census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst/pdf Once 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 ‘start’ figure. Details to follow.

Now to research the offsite construction category of housing. This involves three sources and a calculation.

HUD-Code manufactured housing monthly production 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’, annual MH production totals are compiled and reported, differently, by the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’). A published record of these annual MH producton totals, going back to 1955, is available in the SWAN SONG text, available via 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, however, suggest this formula: 2% of seasonally-adjusted annual housing starts, per U.S. Census Bureau, reduced to a monthly average, e.g. 112,833 X .02. divided by 12 (months) = 2256+/- modular & panelized units.

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

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’ for September 2024. Finally, a grand total of all categories together, but with the number of estimated number of modular & panelized units adjusted out, so as not to be counted twice.

1. HUD-Code manufactured housing produced in September 2024:                8814
2. Modular & panelized (‘prefab’) units estimated for September 2024          2256
3. Park Model RVs produced during September 2024                                       294
4. Offsite Construction subtotal for September 2024                                   11,364
5. Census Bureau # of housing ‘starts’ during September 2024                  112,833 *1
6. (+) Offsite Construction subtotal for September 2024                             +11,364
7. Grand total of all U.S. Housing Starts during September 2024                 124,197
8. (-) 2256 Modular & panelized (‘prefab’) units in September 2024   =      121,941

Bottom Line: ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’ for September 2024 is 121,941 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 (five year average), which divided by 12 months = 120,718/month, just 1,223 units fewer than the 121,941 started during September 2024. This difference would begreaterif the 11,365 offsite construction units were not included, as they are, in the ‘Whole U.S. Housing Story’.

End Note.

1. 1,354,000 X .02 divided by 12 = 112,833

Mfd. Hsng. Production Volume @ September 2024

IBTS reports 8,814 new HUD-Code homes produced during September 2024, down from 9,501 units produced during August 2024, but more than the 7,965 MHs produced during August 2023.  And 13,784 floors were shipped during September 2024.

Year to date (‘YTD’) production? As of September 2024 = 77,376 new units produced compared to September 2023 & 66,647 new HUD-Code homes produced.

Value? Again, based on the decades old ‘per unit’ factor of $43,126/unit, September 2024 production is valued at $380 million; and, YTD at $3.36 billion. Once again, this is a gross undervaluation of new HUD-Code manufactured housing production! Imagine what our industry’s economic contribution would be to the national economy if we calculated more than  production value, and included land lease community value factors as well

Stock Market Report for 5 November 2024

BRK-A              Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (Clayton Homes)   $662                Down from Oct

SKY                  Skyline Champion Corporation                      $91.25             down from Oct

CVCO               Cavco Industries                                             $451.24           Up from Oct

LEGH               Legacy Housing Corporation                          $25.58             Down from Oct

NOBH              Nobility Homes                                               $31.00             Down from Oct

ELS, Inc.           Equity Lifestyle                                               $69.34             Down from Oct

SUI, Inc.           Sun Communities                                           $130.96           Up from Oct

UMH, Inc.        UMH Properties                                             $18.42             Down from Oct

Flagship Communities                                                            $20.09             Up from Oct

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

Manufactured Housing/land lease community Composite Stock Index (‘CSI’) @ 5 November 2024 = $838, up from 811 in October, well above the base $790 established in January 2022.

FHFA’s Manufactured House Price Index

Last month this blog announced the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (‘FHFA’) new Manufactured Housing Price Index or MHPI. There has been no change in this report since first published on 9 October 2024. Again, FHFA’s MHPI:

“House price indexes for manufactured homes increased by 7.9 percent between second quarters of 2023 & 2024. They increased by 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2024 compared with the first quarter.” And “In the second quarter of 2024, the median price of manufactured homes for sale was $231,000. This represents an increase of $1,000 from the second quarter of 2023.” Source: FHFA Manufactured Housing Price Index.

If the median price seems high to you, it’s likely because “The price indexes and median prices for manufactured homes are both based on data from real-property conventional mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.”

Know what’s interesting about that? It’s obvious, little to no attention is being paid by the FHFA, as well as the two GSE’s, about the continued difficulty in obtaining favorable, affordable chattel capital (a.k.a. ‘home only’ loans) for new HUD-Code homes going onto rental homesites in land lease communities across the U.S. Is anyone out there listening?

NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index

The National Association of Home Builders (‘NAHB’)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (‘HOI’), for a given geographical area (i.e. local housing market) is defined as the share of homes sold therein that would have been affordable to a family earning the local median income, based on standard mortgage underwriting criteria. Hence there are two major components of HOI: income & housing cost.

“In all, only 37.7 percent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of October 2023 and end of December were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $96,300. This is nearly identical to the 37.4 percent posted in the third quarter of last year, which was the lowest reading since NAHB began tracking affordability on a consistent basis in 2012.” Source: NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index

Miscellaneous Notes from MHI & MHARR Reports

Following information quoted from MHI’s Monthly Economic Report: 

“FEMA had 20 home shipments in September. FY2024 total was 163 homes (excluding adjustments).”

“Current Manufactured Home landscape includes 152 plants and 38 manufacturers. Two new plants opened, one in Mississippi and one in North Carolina.”

9.1% or 7.22%?  “Manufactured Homes as % of single-family home starts: Manufactured Homes accounted for 9.1% of single-family home starts in Sep. 2024.” How is this calculated? If the number of single-family home starts was a seasonally adjusted 1,354,000 and 112,833 monthly, then 9.1% of 112,833 would be 10,268 units or 1,453 more than the 8814 new HUD-Code homes reported by the IBTS. Or another way of viewing this: 8814 monthly IBTS units divided by 121,941= 7.22 percent, and not the 9.1 percent reported by MHI.

Following information quoted from MHARR’s News Item dated 4 November 2024.

Top ten shipment states from January 2023 to date (September 2024):

Texas, Florida, NC, Alabama, SC, Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi

George Allen