Blog Posting # 833; Copyright 28 February 2025. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH; and, including types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans & real estate-secured mortgages), describes the post-production segment of MH.
EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial information source. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com, to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (Copy of which should be in every land lease community nationwide!), & SWAN SONG – History of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production 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 member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, as well as Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInsider magazine.
SEVEN INTERESTING THINGS FOR YOU TO KNOW
What follows here is a potpourri of personal, corporate, association, industry, and property-related views and news that have materialized during the past seven days. Read and ponder, enjoy, use, and plan for your near and interim future!
In response to last week’s blog posting (‘Someone is Always Fiddling With MH’), one veteran land lease community, privately-owned portfolio owner/operator responded: “I don’t mind the use of ‘attainable’ in place of ‘affordable’. If nothing else it reads differently, and sometimes it’s good to shake up the nomenclature. As far as ‘climate resiliency’ goes, we took care of that with the 1994 (?) hurricane zoning reclassifications. Otherwise, I assume the Urban Land Institute (‘ULI’) is located in Washington, DC, and is more of the same old Global Warming ^*x#4& that permeates and oozes from the folk on the left.” (Lightly edited. GFA) Here’s a further recollection about ULI, quoting from SWAN SONG. Are you aware that during year 2004 ULI “…launched the Manufactured Housing Communities Council (‘MHCC’) under the leadership of Randy Rowe, of Hometown America and (eventually) Green Courte Partners renown? This quasi Think Tank contributed to industry and realty asset class interaction and knowledge for 11 years, before being shuttered by ULI.” P.40 Now ULI publishes research reports prepared, generally, by non-MH industry individuals. Oh well…
Here’s your very own personal MH production summary, from year 1955 through 2024:
1955 = 111,900 new ‘mobile homes’; 1973 = 579,940 mobile homes; 1998 = 372,943+/- manufactured homes; 2009 = 48,789+/-; 2021 = 105,772; 2023 = 89,169 & 2024 = 103,314. These historic annual MH production & shipment totals are quoted, again, from SWAN SONG. The ‘+/-‘ designations indicate confusion, those years, between annual totals published by HUD, MHARR, & EducateMHC versus MHI. (Keep this paragraph of rare data for future reference)*1
Here’s an interesting piece of historical MH trivia. California’s WMA, in its’ January 2025 edition of WMA Reporter, describes how that statewide land lease community advocacy association changed its’ name five times since its’ founding in 1945. Here’re the names: “California Motor Court & trailer Park Owners Association, California Trailer Park Association, Western Mobilehome Association, Western Mobilehome Parkowners Associations; and finally, our current incorporated name – Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association (‘WMA’), as of 1999.” How ‘bout that? Nine name changes in 54 years!
Speaking of California news, here’s an update relative to the famous Lido Peninsula land lease community in Newport Beach. This has to do with the latest ‘for sale’ MH listing there: “Home owners continue to see huge equity gains. In this case, over $1,400,000. Even with site rent of over $6,000. Not bad for a community built in 1949 with 26 units per acre.” For those of you ‘not in the know’, Lido Peninsula, right on the California’s Pacific coast, was recreated, so to speak, more than a decade ago when 1940s era 10X40 ‘trailers’ were selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece! A new type two story HUD-Code home was designed and built – having the same footprint as aforementioned ‘trailers’. Once these change-outs were complete, the appearance and utility of the entire property improved dramatically! Why don’t we see two story HUD-Code homes around today? At least two reasons: Having to ship at least two or more ‘modules’ via highway, so homes could fit under interstate overpasses; and, once on site it took much longer to ‘make ready’, mating first and second floor units, then sheathing exteriors of the homes. Lido Peninsula continues to be a ‘must see’ for manufactured housing aficionados.
Mark your calendars NOW. The 2025 SECO Conference will occur 8-10 September 2025, at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta, GA. I believe this is at least the 12th year for this stellar event – catering to small-to-midsize land lease community owners/operators nationwide, and with community-friendly new HUD-Code homes on display. I plan to attend, how ‘bout you? For more information, google search SECO Conference.
I’ve long wanted to know ‘the rest of the story’ relative to the controversial 2020 Presidential election. Well, finally found a book (actually two) that goes into great detail about what happened before, during, and after that controversial election. Authored by Joe Hoft, Volume I (which I did not read), set the stage for Volume II (The Steal), which I did read, from cover to cover. This is the most detailed, albeit complicated, ‘reads’ I’ve encountered in quite a while. Will defer sharing ‘what happened’, other than to say: Now it all makes sense to me! I recommend The Steal, Vol II, and hope you read it.
And finally. With good health and parental care, our great grandson Pfc. Hunter Falks and his wife Savanna, will birth their first child this fall. That event will make Carolyn and me ‘great great grandparents’! The last time we had a great great grandparent in our family was when Carolyn’s Mother lived with us for seven years, before passing at 92 years. So, here we go again!
End Note.
- 1955 = first year for which we have verifiable MH data; 1973 = acme (highest) year MH production; 1998 = 25 years later, a mini-renaissance; 2009 = nadir (lowest) year MH production; 2021 = first year over 100,000 units since 2006; 2023 = production drops below 100,000 units once again; 2024 = production barely eclipses 100,000 unit target.
‘MHIckey’ & ‘MHARRio’
Frankly, I’d long hoped to never need to resurrect these two tongue-in-cheek anonyms*1. First appearing more than two decades ago, ‘MHIckey’ & ‘MHARRio’ were coined to lampoon (via satire) the perennial inability of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’) to work together for the overall Good of the manufactured housing industry.*2 But here we go again, one national advocacy entity claiming a significant exclusive regulatory victory, but with NO mention whatsoever of like contributions effected by their lobbying counterpart. Here’s the sad tale, quoting from their respective HOUSING ALERT and memorandum, both dated 24 February 2025.
“MHI is pleased to announce a significant victory for the industry: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) decision to delay the implementation of the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards (MHCSS) 4th and 5th Sets final rule until September 15, 2025.” Furthermore, “this extension is the result of MHI’s direct engagement and lobbying efforts: MHI consistently emphasized the need for additional time to ensure a smooth and cost-effective transition for manufacturers, suppliers, retailers and community operators.” Quoted directly from MHI’s HOUSING ALERT dated 24 February 2025.
Now for the ‘rest of the story’. Following lines quoted from MHARR’s memorandum dated 24 February 2025. “…while some in the industry are rushing to claim credit for this extension, a delay was inevitable given the regulatory freeze ordered by President Trump upon taking office. Moreover, MHARR in early communication to President Trump, HUD Secretary-Designate Scott Turner and Department of Energy Secretary-Designate Chris Wright, emphasized the need to delay and withdraw pending regulations and to ensure the full, proper and complete implementation of the industry’s two existing federal laws.”
Summary? Again quoting MHI: “MHI’s efforts, combined with strong engagement from manufacturers and key stakeholders, resulted in a unified industry voice that resulted in this necessary extension, ensuring a more practical and achievable transition period.”
OK, all might have been hunky-dory if, in the previous paragraph, the ‘stakeholders’ were identified. Considering a previous paragraph, they could have assumed to have been ‘manufacturers, suppliers, retailers and community operators’. But how much more effective would this summary have been rendered if MHARR had been inserted and credited as being one of the key stakeholders, a partner with MHI. I think it’s high time our salaried and elected leaders learn how to work together, sharing credit and disdain together as well.
Bottom Line, for me anyway. I so dislike being part of an industry that has long functioned (i.e. since 1985 or 40 years!) in our nation’s capitol via two trade associations, two lobbyists, and two regulatory ‘watchdogs’ – some would say ‘lap dogs’. Think how much more effective we’d be as an industry if we got our act together (i.e. Unify!) 100 percent of the time in shared interest and effort!
End Note.
- Anonym definition. “Refers to an anonymous person or pseudonym.” Richard Winer, quoted in Collection of Figurative Language & Figures of Speech, PMN Publishing, 2011. Available via EducateMHC.com
- ‘MHIckey’ & ‘MHARRio’ debuted in blog posting #613 (approximately year 2000)
George Allen