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

The Manufactured Housing Institute’s actual shipments report indicates that 3,463 new HUD Code homes were shipped in November 2010, down 9.7 percent from November 2009. Trends by housing type varied with shipments of multi-section homes down compared with the same month last year, while the single section homes shipments showed a 3.0 percent increase. 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 in September, October and November. Over the period, total industry shipments stands at 47,265 homes compared with 46,216 homes in 2009, a year-to-date increase of 2.3 percent.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of shipments was 43,973 in November, up by 10.8 percent from the rate of 39,688 in October. The SAAR corrects for normal seasonal variations in shipments and projects annual shipments pace based on the current monthly total.

Total floors shipped in November 2010 were 5,515, down 12.7 percent from the same month in 2009. The number of plants reporting production in November was 132 and the number of reporting corporations was 51, both down by two from the prior month.