As our recent features on tours of manufactured housing production facilities taken by U.S. Congressmen revealed, one of the most powerful ways to see the value of today’s factory built homes is seeing first hand how they are built. Concerns about quality, energy efficiency and appeal all melt away during even a one hour factory tour. With over 120 manufacturing …
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On June 3, 2014, U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon toured the Champion Home Builder’s manufacturing plant in Chandler. Rick Boles, General Manager of Champion Home Builders, hosted the Congressman along with his Chief of Staff, Adam Deguire, and Constituent Services Representative, Janet Bosley. The Congressman and his staff were very impressed with today’s manufactured homes and enjoyed the tour. The Congressman commented …
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The Lacefields purchased an older-model manufactured home to save money and lessen their environmental impact, says Mother Earth News. The couple told their own story, some quotes from that story follow. Mother Earth made this part of a larger series on eco-friendly ways to live well, debt free. For less than the price of many used cars, this couple now …
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Recently, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee acted on and passed the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act (H.R. 1779). This bill would amend the loan amount thresholds under Dodd-Frank that set criteria for manufactured home loans classifying them as “high-cost.” Under current Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) guidelines, many small loan amounts originated for manufactured home purchase are unjustly classified …
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“There is no better demonstration of what today’s manufactured home building industry is then walking through a modern production center in full operation!“ exclaimed D. J. Pendleton, Executive Director of the Texas Manufactured Housing Association (TMHA). Pendleton was part of a delegation that included Congressman Bill Flores of Texas, who toured a Fleetwood Homes building center near Waco on June …
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The Boston Globe published an editorial that began as follows. “THE TERM “manufactured housing” tends to invoke a 65-by-12-foot mobile home plopped down in a trailer park. But the industry has evolved to the point that many housing units assembled in factories are indistinguishable in looks and quality from homes built on site.” We agree. While their recent column seems to …
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CBS News’ recent Sunday morning show report on “Mobile homes: More than just a box on wheels” was a remarkably fair look at the past as well as the new realities of the manufactured home industry. While CBS’ used outdated terminology in most cases – not clearly making the distinction between the mobile homes that have no longer been …
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by Jay Hamilton When reporter Dan Chapman from the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) called and asked would I assist him in writing a business article, I was internally hesitant. Due to our industry receiving a lot of bad newspaper press over the last six months I certainly did not want to assist someone in tormenting us. I was concerned it …
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Tim Williams, the Executive Director of the Ohio Homes Association, requested we consider drawing attention to online newspaper coverage, “Akron Beacon Journal Article entitled “Factory Built Homes…May Just Surprise You”. One of the most positive news articles regarding our industry in some time.” Williams is right, quite so! Williams has told ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com of their vision for advancing the image and …
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Freddie Mac recently announced an initiative allowing the Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) to make mortgages available on manufactured homes. Freddie sees manufactured homes as key to affordable housing. John Cannon, senior vice president, stated: “It broadens our geographic footprint and creates a more balanced approach.” The program will offer loans on manufactured homes sold as real property at conventional mortgage …
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One time conventional home builder, Stacey Epperson once hated ‘mobile homes.’ Now in her leadership role at NextStep, Epperson has embraced them – or more specifically – has discovered the many positive realities found in modern manufactured homes. Epperson learned the difference between the older pre-HUD Code mobile homes of yesteryear – a number of which indeed had serious issues …
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Millions of conventional site built houses are still underwater, according to recent reports by RealtyTrac, Bloomberg and the S&P/Case-Shiller index. As the recovery of depressed prices from the housing/mortgage bubble have slowed recently, leaving millions of Americans in homes that are “underwater” on their loans. An “underwater” mortgage is defined as a real estate home with a loan that is …
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“Pencil head, its not a trailer park.” So said Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) Chairman and real estate legend Sam Zell to a packed auditorium of manufactured housing professionals, as Zell described previous comments he’s made to potential investors. But “its not a trailer park” isn’t the impression you’d get about proper manufactured home terminology from reading “The Cold Hard Lessons …
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Manufactured Home Living News has learned that Universal Forest Products,Inc. (UFPI) acquired Upshur Forest Products, LLC in Gilmer, Texas. MHProNews and Menafn both report that another UFPI subsidiary, purchased assets of High Level Components LLC in Locust, North Carolina, a deal that closed March 31, 2014. With manufactured and modular home construction steadily rising, it is no surprise that UFPI …
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In spite of the worst winter in decades, new manufactured housing production continued its 4 year growth trend, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). By law, all homes built to the federal HUD Code for manufactured housing safety and construction standards are not “mobile homes,” but are legally known as manufactured homes. …
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