Blog Posting # 846; Copyright 13 June 2025. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. one of four types of offsite construction), routinely paired with traditional stick-built housing (a.k.a. onsite construction). Plus, land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’), comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH. Various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans and real estate mortgages) describe the post-production segment of MH.
EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial MH information source. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 882-3815; email gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (Tis book belongs in every land lease community nationwide!), and SWAN SONG – History of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production levels 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 and authoring of 30 nonfiction texts.
George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), a founding board member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for the MHInsider magazine.
TOTAL U.S. HOUSING COMPLETIONS DURING APRIL 2025
‘Onsite & Offsite Construction Completion Totals Combined’
This Total U.S. Housing Completion Report combines input from the U.S. Census Bureau (i.e. Monthly onsite construction completions); and, offsite construction completions via a combination of formula (re: modular & panelized units estimated to be 2% of onsite construction completions), Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’) monthly survey data of HUD-Code manufactured housing production and shipments; and finally, RVIA website announcement of Park Model RV production data, all for the month of April 2025.
Bottom line? Unlike the U.S. Census Bureau Report that tallies only onsite construction completions; adding to it, IBTS’ HUD-Code manufactured housing production volume, as well as modular & panelized housing formulaic estimate, and RVIA’s Park Model RV unit count, this ‘Total U.S. Housing Completions Report’ presents a far more accurate, albeit all-encompassing picture of total U.S. housing completions for the month being reported!
For the month of April 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau reports 121,500 new single-family, site-built, privately-owned onsite housing completions (i.e. annual tally of 1,458,000 divided by 12 months); while the monthly grand total, inclusive of four types of offsite construction (Again, HUD-Code housing + modular & panelized homes + Park Model RVs, totals 12,299 units) is altogether, 133,799 for the month of April 2025 – that’s 12,299 more housing units than the onsite housing completion total reported by the U.S. Census Bureau! Think about it.
So, what tells the more accurate and useful housing story? Just the limited view of onsite construction alone, OR the total when offsite and onsite housing completions are combined?
Once again, this ’Total U.S. Housing Completions Report’ is a work in progress. Please let us know what you think of this all housing inclusive concept, via gfa7156@aol.com
Based on a suggestion from one blog reader we’re adding a new category of reporting:
Year to Date or YTD totals (January thru April 2025) for three housing categories:
521,053 new single-family, site-built, privately-owned onsite housing completions
35,642 new HUD-Code manufactured housing completions (not including mods & RVs)
568,124 new onsite & offsite housing completions. What will be total by end of 2025?
THE REST OF THE STORY…
Do you receive and read the periodic ‘Manufactured Housing Insights’ report prepared and distributed by Berkadia Research? What follows is extracted from the May 2025 report, a report reliant on “MH Insider’s extensive data gathered by surveys related to manufactured housing community trends….”
First off, did you realize that 84 percent (actually 83.9%) of the national HUD-Code manufactured housing market is supplied by the Big Three C manufacturers: Clayton Homes, Champion/Skyline, and Cavco Industries? Now that’s an eye-opener statistic.
Second. I don’t believe the land lease community (a.k.a. manufactured home community & ‘mobile home park’) rental homesite rate, on average, is as robust as claimed in this State of the Industry report. According to said report, the average rent rate among ‘All Ages’ communities is $698/month; and, $796 in ‘Over 55’ communities. Overall average is cited at $732.00. I believe these rental homesite rates are typical of larger communities (more than 100 rental homesites per property), not inclusive of the 85 percent of land lease communities nationwide containing fewer than 100 rental homesites per property. This should be made clear in the report; else owners/operators might use the skewed data to justify rent increases in small (10-100 sites) communities. By the way, this ‘truth’ has been known among the ‘players’ for 20+ years.
George Allen