MHI’s Monthly Economic Report© for December 2010 is now available.

The Manufactured Housing Institute’s actual shipments report indicates that 2,781 new HUDcode homes were shipped in December 2010, down 22.2 percent from December 2009. Decreases were across the board with shipments of both single-section and multi-section homes down compared with the same month last year.

Compared with 2009, manufactured building activity in 2010 has seen substantial fluctuation. Relative to the prior year, 2010 started off with a decline in January (down 17.4 percent), shipments in February were essentially flat, followed by gains in March, April, May and June. The month of July showed a year-over-year decline, the upward trend returned in August but shipments again retreated for the remainder of 2010. Over the year, total industry shipments stands at 50,046 homes compared with 49,789 homes in 2009, an increase of 0.5 percent.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of shipments was 38,956 in December, down by 11.4 percent from the rate of 43,973 in November. The SAAR corrects for normal seasonal variations in shipments and projects annual shipments based on the current monthly total.

Total floors shipped in December 2010 were 4,406, down 24.9 percent from the same month in 2009. The number of plants reporting production in December was 131, one less than the prior month. The number of reporting corporations remained unchanged at 51.

If you are an MHI member, you can also access the report on MHI’s website at www.manufacturedhousing.org.