MHMSM.com presents Factory Built Housing Industry News at Noon with Erin Patla
Coming up, Contact FHFA and Congress Immediately to Request Modification of the Enterprise Duty to Serve Underserved Markets Proposed Rule,detrimental to the Manufactured Home Industry. YOU are called to respond!
But first…this story:
NAHB Announces Call for Entries for the
2011 National Sales & Marketing Awards
July 6, 2010 – The National Association of Home Builders’ National Sales and Marketing Awards is now accepting entries for the 2011 competition. New home sales and marketing professionals are encouraged to enter their projects for these awards, informally known as “The Nationals,” which are sponsored by NAHB’s National Sales and Marketing Council.
The Nationals is the nation’s largest competition for new-home sales and marketing professionals and communities, typically drawing over 800 entries and more than 500 attendees. Now in its 30th year, The Nationals will recognize this year’s winners during an awards ceremony held during the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla.
“The Nationals Awards help remind us of the great work that our new home sales and marketing professionals have produced, despite having been through the one of the worst economic downturns of our time,” said Gaye Orr, MIRM, chair of the 2011 Nationals. “Our industry has taken on so many challenges; it’s wonderful to be able to recognize our peers for the ingenuity, foresight and commitment they have exhibited this past year.”
New this year is the all-digital entry process, eliminating the need for binders and hard copies. Entry materials are available online at thenationals.com. Residential projects with homes available for sale between September 1, 2009 and September 1, 2010, along with individual and sales-and-marketing-council categories covering the same time period are eligible to enter. Entrants have until October 15, 2010, to submit their projects for consideration.
The 53 categories set for this year’s Nationals will recognize professional excellence in various aspects of design, marketing, interior merchandising, advertising and sales achievement, along with a few new categories such as Online Sales Counselor of the Year, Best Staging of a New Home, Best Unique Space, Best Outdoor Living Space and Best On The Boards Interior Merchandising.
Silver Award winners (finalists) in each category will be announced online on November 12. Gold Award winners will be announced during The Nationals Gala on January 12. Visit thenationals.com for complete entry guidelines and entry forms.
MHMSM Markets Report – Industry
Stocks Mixed, with UMH Properties up
A report released Tuesday by Citigroup analysts ranks the public homebuilders’ exposure to the Gulf Coast areas affected by the Deepwater spill. The report defines “exposure” by the percentage of the company’s actively-selling communities within 50 miles of affected areas of the Gulf Coast. Meritage Homes Inc., has the highest exposure, with 22 percent of its actively-selling communities within the 50-mile radius. Meritage has 32 actively-selling communities in the Houston area, out of 147 total communities in the U.S. Beazer Homes USA, with 27 Texas communities and 7 more in Florida, is next, at 19 percent. Others topping the list include DR Horton, Inc. (17 percent), Lennar Corp. (15 percent), The Ryland Group, Inc. (13 percent) and KB Home (11 percent).
This in from Alberta, Canada: The Edmunton Journal reports that insolvent modular home manufacturer Winalta Inc. has been given a court extension until August 6 to come up with a restructuring plan. The company was granted court protection from creditors April 26 when it could not meet its debt obligations.
Winalta last week blamed a $5.2-million second-quarter loss on divestiture of its construction division, reduced modular-home inventory and minimum output from its Acheson [ATCH-eh-son] manufacturing plant. Shares were down almost six per cent to 80 cents Monday.
The DOW broke a seven-day slide Tuesday, closing up at 9,743.62. Manufactured housing stocks did not follow the industrials up, however. Most active include Cavco Industries, which closed down .88 [point 8 8] arriving at a share price of 34.44. Equity Lifestyle Properties closed down .92 [point 9 2, etc.] at 46.99 a share. Skyline Corp closed down .72 at 16.66 a share. Sun Communities was down .34 at $25.72 a share.
Tuesday’s exception was UMH Properties which closed up .02 at $10.33 a share.
“Up next, Contact FHFA and Congress Immediately to Request Modification of the Enterprise Duty to Serve Underserved Markets Proposed Rule”
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and “Now, back to the news…”
Contact FHFA and Congress Immediately
to Request Modification of the Enterprise
Duty to Serve Underserved Markets
Proposed Rule (Action Needed by July 22,
2010)
On June 7, Federal Housing Finance Agency or FHFA released a proposed rule (Enterprise Duty to Serve Underserved Markets; 75 FR 32099) that excludes personal-property lending in the Government Sponsored Enterprise or GSE duty to serve the manufactured housing market. Specifically, the proposed rule would “consider only manufactured homes titled as real property for purposes of the duty to serve the manufactured housing market…FHFA is proposing that only loans titled as real property be considered towards the Enterprise’s duty to serve.”
In the proposed rule, FHFA identifies three key reasons for declining to include personal-property lending as part of the GSE duty to serve manufactured housing, including:
1. A lack of existing business activity in purchasing personal property loans and, in order to develop a business in purchasing or guaranteeing personal property loans would require GSEs to develop operational capacities and risk management processes not currently in place
2. Extensive consumer protection requirements would have to be developed by the GSEs in order to ensure that personal property lending was done responsibly.
3. Personal property lending is inconsistent with GSE conservatorship and would require too much effort to ensure safe and sound operations in this area.
MHI opposes this proposed rule and urges FHFA and Congress to expand GSE activity in this area. Given the prevalence of personal-property lending, FHFA’s proposed rule essentially ignores the needs of both the manufactured housing industry and the consumer.
FHFA and the GSEs have an obligation to serve manufactured housing and the 18 million Americans currently residing in manufactured homes.
GSEs cannot fulfill their “duty to serve” manufactured housing by ignoring 21 percent of the total housing market and manufactured homebuyers who are in desperate need of this source of affordable housing.
More than 60 percent of manufactured home owners have relied on a persona-property loan in order to finance their home purchase; it is exceptionally difficult to faithfully serve any market if more than half of it is excluded from consideration.
The charters of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have always allowed for the purchase of personal property loans and the GSE’s have purchased Asset Backed Securities (ABS) collateralized by manufactured home loans and has purchased loans directly from lenders for their portfolios. Congress and HERA [hair-uh] recognized this reality by specifying FHFA consider loans secured by both real and personal property in assuring the GSEs dutifully serve the needs of the manufactured housing market.
Estimates indicate that personal property loans account for at least 60 percent of manufactured housing lending. Enhanced liquidity for new homes will help expand and stabilize the existing home market.
Industry lenders operate responsible and profitable programs for personal property lending and follow all appropriate laws such as Truth in Lending (TILA), and the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act), as well as all appropriate state laws. However they have been shut out from a secondary market due to GSE policies, industry lenders can provide GSEs and the American taxpayer adequate protection from any loss
What is the action needed?
Interested parties are asked to submit comments to FHFA Comments by July 22, 2010.
Submit comments via email to regcomments@fhfa.gov (include “RIN 2590-AA27″ in the subject line of the email). For mail-in comments, see details at mhmsm.com/10/323. Please forward copies to MHI.
Interested parties are also asked to contact their Representatives and Senators, via fax or email.
Contact FHFA directly to request the agency modify its proposed rule to require the GSEs to consider personal-property lending in their duty to serve manufactured housing.
Contact leaders of the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees and specifically request FHFA amend its proposed rule; Senators and Representatives serving on these committees are especially urged to make this request.
A complete list of Congressional e-mail addresses and fax numbers is available at manufacturedhousing.org/government_affairs/find_congress.asp.
This request for action was submitted by MHI and also appears in the Industry Voices blog at MHMSM.com. For more information, contact MHI Vice President of Government Affairs Jason Boehlert [BELL-ert] at jboehlert@mfghome.org or 703-558-0660.
Links to a copy of the proposed rule and sample letters and emails for submission to FHFA and your representatives in Congress are available at: mhmsm.com/10/323.
“On behalf of Production and IT Manager Bob Stovall, Associate Editor Catherine Frenzel, Industry in Focus reporter Eric Miller, Editor L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, and the entire MHMSM.com writing and support team, this is Erin Patla, G’day!”
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