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 …
Read More »Congressman Bill Flores Tours a Manufactured Home Building Center
“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 …
Read More »Boston Globe Reports that New Building techniques can avert a Housing Crisis
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 …
Read More »CBS News Reports on “Mobile homes: More than just a box on wheels” A look back and the Modern Realities
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 While CBS’ used outdated terminology in most cases – not clearly making the distinction between the mobile homes that have no longer been …
Read More »Georgia Manufactured Housing Association’s Jay Hamilton on Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) May 11, 2014 article, “Mobile Home Sales Rebound”
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 …
Read More »Eyes on Akron and Today’s Surprising Factory-Built Homes
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 …
Read More »Freddie Mac’s move Offers Manufactured Home Buyers Mortgages
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 …
Read More »NextStep’s Stacey Epperson’s Vision of Affordable Housing Done Right
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 …
Read More »RealtyTrac, Bloomberg & Case-Shiller report on Underwater Mortgages for Conventional Site-Built Houses
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 …
Read More »Sensationalistic ‘Cold Hard Lessons of Mobile Home U’ New York Times article by Gary Rivlin draws Manufactured Home Industry Ire, Desire and Fire
“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 …
Read More »Manufactured and Modular Home Supplier Universal Forest Products Acquiring more Subsidiaries
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 …
Read More »Manufactured Home Production in February 2014 Continues to Rise.
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. …
Read More »Clayton Homes partners in the Duck Commander 500
Clayton Homes announced they are the proud partner of the Duck Commander 500, this year’s annual spring NASCAR ® Sprint Cup Series race at the popular Texas Motor Speedway ®. Some 150,000 fans are expected to attend the event on April 6, 2014. The race is said to be the single most-attended one-day sporting event in Texas. DigitalJournal and MHProNews.com …
Read More »UMH Properties Acquires Eight Manufactured Home Communities
UMH Properties, Inc. of Freehold, New Jersey has acquired eight Ohio manufactured home communities (MHCs) comprised of 1,018 homesites. Marketwatch, MHProNews and StockNews among others have reported that UMH owns and operates 82 land-lease manufactured home communities with approximately 14,500 total sites. UMH Properties is a public real estate investment trust (REIT). The company has roughly doubled its holdings in …
Read More »New Manufactured Home Sales Growth Continues
Figures from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) indicate shipments of new “HUD Code” manufactured homes hit 4,405 in January, a 3.8 percent increase over the 4,242 homes shipped in Jan., 2013. (Photo Credit: Eastern Ohio Home Show, Friday, May 16th – Sunday, May 18th, 2014 at the MAPS Air Field and Museum located adjacent to the Akron/Canton …
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