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

January 24, 2019

Answer to Last Week’s Blog Question!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 11:08 am

Blog # 518; Copyright @ 2019; www.educatemhc.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’

This blog posting is sole national advocate, official ombudsman, historian, research reporter, education resource & online communication media for North American land lease communities

To input this blog, &/or affiliate with EducateMHC, formerly Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, or COBA7, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764

To subscribed to the Allen Letter, CLICK HERE To buy 30th annual ALLEN REPORT, CLICK HERE
To subscribe to the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! business journal, CLICK HERE

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ And, goal for online media? To inform, opine, and help transform and improve manufactured housing and land lease community performance!

INTRODUCTION: Every once in a while, not usually often, one gets a rare opportunity to ‘take the pulse’ of their industry. This is one of those occasions. Started asking ‘the question’ posed in Part I of this week’s blog posting, a month or two ago – but received no answers. But NOW we have answers from ‘people in the know’. What follows here is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. To experience the whole story, you’ll have to read the February issue of the Allen Letter. Available to you via www.educatemhc.com

Part II. If, as a businessman or woman, you’re thoroughly engaged in the manufactured housing industry and or land lease community real estate asset class, and plan to be in Louisville, KY., for the MHShow next week (30 & 31 January), arrive a day early to participate in the only MHAlive! ‘think tank’ session kicking off year 2019?! Seriously. You’ll be glad you did. Details to follow….

I.

Answers to Last Week’s Blog Question!

This Question was first posed publicly, during January 2019: ‘Why is manufactured housing off the pace to ship 100,000 new HUD-Code homes by year end 2018?’ Here’s part of the answer!

But first, to make sense of what follows, know the most recent new manufactured housing shipment report, from HUD’s contractor, Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), is for month of November 2018. Up to that point in time, previous IBTS reports for September & October, as publicized in EducateMHC’s widely-referenced MH ‘#s & $s’ Reports, new HUD-Code homes monthly shipment volumes had already fallen from the 100,000 targeted pace!

September = 7,519 MHs shipped; down from August @ 9,157 & 61 fewer than Sept. 2017!

October = 8,588 MHs shipped; up from September’s 7,519 but 48 fewer than October 2017!

November = 7,760 MHs shipped; down from October @ 8,588 & 842 fewer than Nov. 2017!

In an effort to address the question posed at the beginning of this blog, we reached out to the ‘Big Three C’ HUD-Code housing manufacturers (Clayton Homes, Inc., Skyline Champion Corporation, & Cavco Industries, Inc.), as well as a several smaller regional firms. Heard back from everyone except two smaller regional ones.

Also interviewed land lease community owners/operators known to be regular volume purchasers of new HUD-Code homes, directly from factories, then siting, selling, and often seller-financing them onto rental homesites.

What we learned from both segments of the manufactured housing industry, as well as suggestions from outside the industry and realty asset class, is there are as many as eight significant influences in play here. These range from inventory adjustments, to changes in homebuyer preferences, to specific continued uncertainties in the manufactured housing market.

Again, to learn these eight reasons in detail, ensure a copy of the February issue of the Allen Letter is on hand in your office when it is distributed.

II.

Last Call for MHAlive! ‘think tank’ on 1/29

While 25 owners/operators of land lease communities participate in professional property management training – and certification later that day, via the Manufactured Housing Manager program, others will spend Tuesday afternoon (29 January 2019) engaged in four 50 minute MHAlive! ‘think tank’ sessions, from 1-5PM. Both events will occur, in different meeting rooms, at the Hilton Garden Inn located at 2735 Crittenden Dr., Louisville, KY. (adjacent to the KY state fairgrounds).

What’s MHAlive! ‘think tank’ all about? While some folk find this difficult to believe; to date, it is the ONLY OPPORTUNITY for manufactured housing aficionados and land lease community owners/operators to meet informally together to identify and openly discuss industry and asset class issues and other matters of importance to them! Cost? Only $20.00 ‘at the door’, to defray meeting-related expenses. And while advance notice of ‘intent to participate’ is appreciated (already have some committed to attend), it’s OK to simply show up that day for the event. To sign-up, phone (317) 346-7156 or email: gfa7156@aol.com

Topics for this MHAlive! ‘think tank’ session? I’ll arrive prepared to at least beginning to talk about:

• ID & parse ‘evergreen issues’ (i.e. ‘always timely & important but not resolved’). Covered in earlier blog postings & 30th ALLEN REPORT, but still unresolved till today!

• Making sense of MH national advocacy ‘alphabet soup’, e.g. MHARR, MHI, NCC, NAMHCO, COBA7, & EducateMHC. ‘Who does what for you & why & how well?’

• The U.S. affordable housing crisis & you! (What it is & what can be done about it). ‘Housers’ looking favorably at MH, but what’s being done to deliver what’s needed?

• 30th anniversary ALLEN REPORT, i.e. new data, emerging trends, and more….Ask the author those questions; recommend how to improve content & format in future!

A CANDID SUMMARY. Some MHAlive! ‘think tank’ sessions boast a dozen or more enthusiastic participants; others smaller and ‘not so much’. But that’s the beauty of making such opportunities available, as participation becomes THE gauge, a truth-teller, as to where businessmen and women are on 1) issues, 2) national advocacy, 3) affordable housing, even the ALLEN REPORT.

And frankly, if someone arrives, and wants to talk about preserving their personal or corporate legacy via memoir or autobiography writing, there’ll be FREE copies of the popular ‘Who Will Preserve Your Legacy?’ booklet.

So, stop by the Hilton Garden Inn at 1PM prepared to jump into an afternoon of open, friendly, and lively discussions relative to manufactured housing and land lease community – related matters!
***

George Allen, CPM & MHM
EducateMHC

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