“Finance of America [FAM] told brokers of its, “Temporary Suspension of the following products: Apex, Flex, HBX and Reveal. All loan activities under Apex, Flex and HBX products, including loan fundings, have been ceased. Only those wholesale loans in our pipeline that have final loan docs signed and dated on or before 3/23/2020 or NDC loans purchased on or before 3/23/2020 will be accepted. Reveal products – no new application or locks are being accepted. Loans currently locked must close within the lock period. No extensions will be permitted.” So stated Mortgage Daily News, which added the following that is manufactured housing specific.
“FAM also cut manufactured home lending. “FAM will no longer accept applications for loans on Manufactured Homes. Only those wholesale loans in our pipeline that have final loan docs signed and dated on or before 3/23/2020 or NDC loans purchased on or before 3/23/2020 will be accepted. All other loans currently in the pipeline will be suspended until further notice.””
This should stand as a stark reminder of when U.S. Bank pulled out of manufactured home lending, even though they had a profitable program. Regulatory risk and low volume of loans were cited. The impact on minorities, lower income Americans, manufactured homeowners and affordable housing seekers was outlined in the report by award-winning reporter Jan Hollingsworth in the article linked below.
On the land-lease manufactured home communities side, Iowa is among the states that have announced that temporary changes. Governor Kim Reynolds (IA-R), local media said the following was announced.
◦ Collection of property taxes and penalties and interest.
◦ Some evictions under the Iowa Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act or the Manufactured Home Communities or Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act in certain circumstances.”
MDN also said the following.
“Of course mandated self-quarantine may cause delays. Appraisers and homeowners who have or have not been in contact with COVID-19 are under self-quarantine. California, and other states, issued a mandatory self-quarantine for members of the community who are age 65 and older. Please be aware that this will impact many appraisers who will no longer be able to complete inspections, either because of their age or the age of one or more residents living at the property to be inspected.”
Mortgage rates? U.S. Treasury yields were pressured lower to begin the week, including the 10-year closing yesterday -17 bps to 0.76 percent. Though, as I have explained recently, lower Treasury yields aren’t necessarily translating to lower mortgage rates. We saw monetary and fiscal authorities in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Germany active, but in the U.S., Congress failed to reach agreement on a spending plan, which helped cause the rate decline/bond rally. The Federal Reserve announced readiness to buy an unlimited amount of Treasuries and MBS, with nearly $700 billion in asset purchases planned for this week alone. The Fed will also establish a secondary market corporate credit facility, which will be able to purchase investment grade corporate bonds and U.S.-listed ETFs with exposure to investment grade corporate debt. (The first FedTrade operations of the day saw the Desk purchase $15.7 billion in the morning and then in the afternoon $30.2 billion MBS purchases.)”
MHARR Reports Opportunities for Small Businesses Impacted Manufactured Housing Firms
From the Manufactured Housing Association of Regulatory Reform (MHARR) on 3.27.2020, the following.
MARCH 27, 2020
TO: MHARR MANUFACTURERS
FROM: MHARR
RE: Latest Update on Small Business COVID-19 Relief Measures
MHARR was invited to participate in a March 26, 2020 conference call with Ms. Jovita Carranza, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), regarding federal-level relief programs for small businesses affected by the current COVID-19 emergency and related economic dislocation.
The hour-long briefing by Ms. Carranza and other senior-level SBA officials, focused primarily on two programs designed to provide economic assistance for small businesses impacted by liquidity issues resulting from COVID-19 closure orders and slowing economic activity caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
One of these programs, which offers small businesses Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), is currently in place and operative in all 50 states, each of which has already been preemptively designated as a federal disaster area due to the COVID-19 pandemic. EIDL loans carry an interest rate of 3.75% for small businesses with a repayment period of up to 30 years and a one-year deferment of the borrowers first payment. Further information regarding the EIDL program and application process is available at the SBA internet website, at www.sba.gov/disaster.
An additional program – the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) — is expected to become available for small businesses upon final House of Representatives passage of the pending Coronavirus relief bill already approved by the United States Senate. This program is expected to provide funds for up to eight weeks of payroll costs and operating expenses for small businesses. Loans will be for a ten-year period at a 4% interest rate, with $10,000 of the total amount for payroll treated as a grant the to business recipient. According to SBA, applicants for EIDL loans will also be eligible to apply for PPP assistance as well. Further information on this program is expected to be made available on the SBA website soon after final enactment of the federal Coronavirus relief bill.
MHARR will continue to closely monitor federal economic relief initiatives with potential applicability to the manufactured housing industry and particularly its smaller businesses.
cc: Other Interested HUD Code Manufacturers, Retailers, Communities and Finance Companies
##
Taking Advantage of Crisis
Internationally, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been blamed by most, but not all, sources for the outbreak of COVID19.
Taiwan – the Republic of China, independent of the Chinese mainland – warned the World Health Organization (WHO) early on of their insights into the pandemic’s risk. Per their vice-president, WHO failed to share their warnings with others. So WHO and China each have, per sources, a share in the responsibility for the global impact of this health crisis that has sparked a wave of economic problems largely unexpected by most just a few weeks ago.
Research in England makes it plain that had the outbreak been reported and steps taken early on, they could have stopped the lion share of the economic impacts that are currently taking place.
Hostage Negotiation?
Liberal Fox News reporter-at-large Geraldo Rivera has called the bill passing through Congress a “hostage negotiation.” The hostages are the millions impacted, as special interests have attempted – and in some cases, succeeded, in porking up the legislation.
After a three day rally, stocks at this is being written are down again, with the Dow off by some 822 points. Twenty Democratic lawmakers called on President Trump to issue a two-week, nationwide shelter-in-place order “immediately” in a letter sent Tuesday. The primary signer is Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), “Our current actions to stem the tide are not enough,” the letter reads. “The total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths have nearly doubled over the last 48 hours. At this rate, we will surpass one million confirmed cases and 13,000 deaths within the next ten days.” Among the other House Democrats who co-signed the letter are Representatives Rashida Tlaib (MI.), Reps. Veronica Escobar (TX), Tulsi Gabbard (HI), and Jamie Raskin (MD).
According to a press release to MHProNews and others in media, the following is the full text of the letter to President Donald J. Trump.
The Honorable Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Mr. President:
We urge you to immediately issue a nationwide “shelter-in-place” order in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. At the time of writing, 43,499 Americans in all 50 states have confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 537 have died. Worldwide, it has killed tens of thousands and sickened hundreds of thousands. There is no FDA-approved vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 and, without significant mitigating action, our already-strained health care system could be overwhelmed, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands more Americans.
Our current actions to stem the tide are not enough. The total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths have nearly doubled over the last 48 hours. At this rate, we will surpass one million confirmed cases and 13,000 deaths within the next ten days. Our health care system typically operates near full capacity and is already experiencing shortages of N95 masks, protective eye gear, and other necessary equipment to protect our doctors and nurses. An influx of this many patients, some of whom will require intensive care, will likely exceed our supply of hospital beds and ventilators, leading to rationing of care and more deaths.
To effectively slow COVID-19’s spread, we must issue a shelter-in-place order for the entire country lasting at least two weeks, excepting only travel for essential services like grocery stores and health care providers, and to and from the workplace for critical workers. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin have already issued similar shelter-in-place orders. A national order would create minimum guidelines and requirements for each state to implement, with enforcement handled at the state level.
Given insufficient availability of mass testing and the ability for asymptomatic individuals to unknowingly spread the coronavirus, we must reduce person-to-person contact to the bare minimum. It is the only proven way we can limit the growth of confirmed cases, insulate our health care system, and prevent catastrophe.
There is no doubt that an action of this magnitude will temporarily disrupt daily lives and cause short-term economic pain, but it will help prevent an extended outbreak and response that could plunge us deep into a long-lasting recession. As soon as possible, Congress must vote remotely to pass an economic stimulus response bill that will save jobs, replace lost incomes, and lift up all Americans. The cost of preventive action will save trillions of dollars in the long run and many priceless lives.
We must not hesitate. If we wait to act until the number of sick and dead reaches a certain threshold, then it will be too late. A state-by-state, locality-by-locality approach is not enough. Without action, the U.S. could end up like Italy, Spain, or worse. We thus urge you to immediately issue a nationwide shelter-in-place order.
Sincerely,
Ro Khanna
Member of Congress
Cosigned by:
Rep. Anthony G. Brown
Rep. Jim Cooper
Rep. Susan Davis
Rep. Veronica Escobar
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
Rep. Jesús G. “Chuy” García
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez
Rep. Barbara Lee
Rep. Alan Lowenthal
Rep. Stephen F. Lynch
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton
Rep. Mark Pocan
Rep. Jamie Raskin
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon
Rep. José E. Serrano
Rep. Darren Soto
Rep. Rashida Tlaib
Rep. Lori Trahan
CC: The Honorable Michael R. Pence, Vice President of the United States
The Honorable Alex M. Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services
###
Billionaire and long-time Warren Buffett colleague, Bill Gates has ripped the Administration in recent days.
“Charlie [Munger] and I have no magic plan to add earnings except to dream big and to be prepared mentally to act fast when opportunities present themselves,” Warren Buffett said per (United Press International) (UPI). “Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold. When downpours of that sort occur, it’s imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs, not teaspoons. And that we will do.”
MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
Like those Democratic lawmakers, Gates is pushing for a shutdown. It is worth noting that Gates, per Open Secrets, has supported several of the campaigns at various times of those Democrats making those statements.
The dust has not cleared, but there are reasons to investigate how insiders have benefited from this U.S. and international tragedy.
See the related reports above and below the byline for more. MHProNews has editorially observed early on that whatever the cause, whoever holds some measure of responsibility, this appears to be a money grab, perhaps the greatest transfer of wealth in modern times. Once the immediate crisis is past, there should be a serious investigation as to who knew what, when, what they said, what they did and how insiders have profited while tens of thousands died and at the expense of billions harmed globally.
In most states, price gouging and hoarding are limited or prohibitive during a crisis or emergency. Certain types of market manipulation are always illegal.
Rephrased, it is morally and legally wrong to manipulate events. If inside information was used to manipulate markets and outcomes, those who are credibly accused should face the legal music.
Stay tuned for more from the industry’s largest, most read and leading trade publication on exclusive news, analysis and other issues – MHProNews. That’s in for this installment of “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing. For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.
Are Manufactured Housing Supply Chains in China Threatened by Coronavirus?
