Blog # 462; Copyright 3 September 2017; at community-investor.com/blog
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities’, previously manufactured home communities, &
‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
This blog posting is the sole national advocate, voice, official ombudsman, historian, research report, & online communication media for all North American LLCommunities.
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INTRODUCTION:
Part I. Will it soon be time to ‘rethink, reorganize, & renew’ manufactured housing lobbying and regulatory reform efforts in our nation’s capitol? Read to find out here!
Part II. Slowly increasing number of land lease community owners/operators being inducted into the prestigious RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame!
I.
MHIndustry Recovery Threatened by HUD Overreach
If MHARR & MHI need one compelling reason to unseat the present administrator of the Manufactured Housing Program at HUD, here it is: MAGAnomics!
The following paragraph quoted from the Epilogue (p.73) of SWAN SONG, ‘George Allen’s History of the Land Lease Community Real Estate Asset Class (1970 – present day)’, makes the case for continuing manufactured housing return to prosperity.
“Have you heard or read of MAGAnomics (a.k.a. maganomics)? That’s short for ‘Make American Great Again economics’, where the national; (economic recovery) goal is ‘three percent improved and sustained annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product $) in year 2017 and thereafter!”
Well, guess what? Continuing…
“The HUD-Code manufactured housing industry, in terms of ‘production value’ alone (i.e. $ value of new homes built & shipped monthly) has been averaging
10.4 percent growth per year for the past four years, 2013. 2014, 2015, & 2016 –
with last year finishing at an impressive 15 percent! There’s every reason for that
growth to continue, IF we all do our part to bring the aforementioned New Era
paradigm shift to a happy conclusion before the end of this decade…2020!”*1
That is, unless our industry’s two Washington-based national advocacy bodies fail to unseat and replace the present overreaching administrator of HUD’s manufactured housing program, a carryover from the Obama administration.
Bottom line reality? No replacement = Far fewer new HUD-Code housing orders, shipments, and placements, as land lease community owners shy away from paying $5,000+ per rental homesite, to replace perfectly performing .manufactured housing foundations!
So, there you have it MHARR & MHI (Are you listening?). our manufactured housing industry is recovering from it’s nadir year 2009 (only 48,789 new HUD-Code homes shipped), and continuing, until MAGAnomic years 2013 thru 2016, and beyond! Will you allow the overreaching HUD administrator to “…claim authority to override state-law (and local) installation standards” and, “add new standards (establishing) requirement for carbon monoxide detection, stairways, fire safety considerations for attached garages, and draftstops….”, relative to increasing the cost of manufactured housing to would be homebuyer/site lessees? *2
If unsuccessful in efforts to preserve and encourage further recovery of the manufactured housing industry (Remember, we shipped 372,943+ new HUD-Code homes in 1998, and have only come back as far as 81,136 during year 2016!*3), then, in this veteran industry observer’s opinion, it’ll be high time to ‘ rethink, reorganize & renew’ manufactured housing lobbying and regulatory reform efforts in our nation’s capitol!
OK, there I’ve said it and written it! The public challenge to perform has been made. Now, what will YOU two do together or separately? We’re watching and listening!
End Notes.
1. ‘Production value’ is a measure defined, researched, and funded by the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), so they should be comfortable using it as a tactical tool to ‘make the case’ for effecting immediate regulatory reform!
2. Quoted from MHARR email announcements dated 28 & 30 August 2017.
3. Quoted from the official ‘Mobile & Manufactured Housing Shipments Statistics,
from 1955 to present day, SWAN SONG, COBA7, Indianapolis, 2017, pp. 6&7
II.
To Date, only 6 1/2 Percent of RV/MH Hall of Fame Inductees Have been Land Lease Community Owners/operators
This year’s recent RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on 7 August, might be looked back upon as being historic in at least two ways:
• To date, only 6 1/2 percent of the nearly 400 Hall of Fame inductees have hailed from the land lease community segment of the manufactured housing industry. This year, accounting for the fact that half the inductees were from the RV ‘side of the house’ and half from MH, no less than 60 percent of the MH Class of 2017, were land lease community owners/operators! You remember; Spencer Roane, MHM, of GA; Mike Sullivan, CPM, of CA; and, Christine Lindsey, MHM, from TN. Let’s see if increased recognition of this segment of our industry continues during years to come.
• Then there’s the distinctive green blazer with gold RV/MH crest, worn by many Hall of Fame inductees. This year, more green blazers were seen than at any previous annual banquet. That speaks loudly of the loyalty and ongoing support of the RV/MH Hall of Fame, by not only donors, but Hall of Fame inductees as well! And now the call has gone out nationwide, to national and state advocacy entities, beginning with this week’s 26th Networking Roundtable in Indianapolis, and its’ Thursday evening reception, green blazers should be worn by Hall of Fame members present at the event. This is not a self-aggrandizement exercise; rather, well deserved recognition of our industry and asset class’ pioneers and leaders! And word has it, green blazers will be welcome at MHI’s annual Awards Banquet on 18 September in Orlando, FL.
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George Allen, CPM, MHM
COBA7, a division of GFA Management, dba PMN Publishing
Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 346-7156