A switch by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from Park Model homes to manufactured homes for disaster housing has some FEMA field staff members, among others, shaking their heads. According to the Homeland Security Dept. Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the larger manufactured homes often require siting in …
FEMA Disaster Housing: Manufactured Homes instead of Park Models Read More
Joe Kelly, executive vice-president of the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association (IAMHA), reports the Manufactured Housing Political Action (MHPAC) fund has raised $16,655 this year. He says the fund began the year at zero because all the funds had been spent on the elections in 2012 to good effect: Manufactured housing …
Iowa PAC Produces Results for the Manufactured Housing Industry Read More
Dick Jennison, President and CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), will be keynote speaker at the annual RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Dinner for the Class of 2013 Aug. 5 in Elkhart, Ind. With a background in advocacy and management, Jennison was chosen to lead MHI in Feb. 2012, …
Manufactured Housing Institute Head to Keynote RV/MH Induction Read More
The U.S. Senate is considering rewriting the tax code which could eliminate housing tax incentives and thereby negatively affect all home residential construction businesses as well as home values, taxes, and the economy in general. The mortgage interest deduction and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit could both be at …
National Association of Home Builders Sounds the Alarm Read More
The Texas Manufactured Housing Association (TMHA) sends a reminder that nominations for the TMHA Board of Directors are due by 5 PM today, July 10, 2013. The two-year term requires four board meetings a year. Postmark, fax, or email your nomination form to caitlin@texasmha.com. Or call (512) 459 1221. Texas …
Debate continues in Williamstown, Mass. about the feasibility of retaining a 224 homesite manufactured housing community that sits in a 100-year flood plain for affordable housing. The Board of Selectmen of Williamstown, Mass. has voted to ask the Conservation Commission to remove the site from conservation restrictions, and then inquire …
Manufactured Housing Community to Close, may be Rebuilt Read More
Providing mortgage rates rise in sync with underlying economic conditions, “Home sales and housing starts should continue to steadily improve even as interest rates edge higher,” according to a Wells Fargo Securities (WFS) Economics Group study. The report says 19 months of below four percent interest rates did not spur …
Wells Fargo: Interest Rates Rise may Spur Home Sales Read More
A total of 255 metropolitan housing markets across 49 states and the District of Columbia have remained on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) for July, down from the 263 areas that ranked in June, but over three times the number listed in July 2012. …
Housing Market Slips Month-over-Month, but Flourishes Year-over-Year Read More
House Republicans, led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Tex., Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, are getting set to introduce mortgage finance reform legislation that will totally eliminate government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and replace them with a private system. Knowing all the features are not likely to pass, the …
Citizen SAFE (Smoke Alarm and Fire Education) is a proactive program involving firefighters going door-to-door to check residential smoke alarms and batteries, and offer to do a free home safety inspection. The St. John’s Fire and Rescue Dept. conducts the inspections on the first and third Saturdays of each month …
Smoke Alarms Compulsory in South Carolina Manufactured Homes Read More
According to the State of the Nation’s Housing report released by Harvard University’s Joint Center on Housing Studies, the housing recovery is well underway, but the millions of borrowers delinquent on their mortgages or underwater continue to pull at the edges of the recovery. In addition, the number of renter …
Harvard Study Cites Critical Shortage of Affordable Housing Read More
The Ikea Foundation, the Refugee Housing Unit (RHU) from Sweden and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have pooled resources to develop a modular dwelling to house refugees and other displaced persons. The 55 square-foot unit has a steel skeleton with lightweight but durable plastic panels for the …
Non-profits Team with United Nations to Produce Modular Shelters Read More
Updating a story MHProNews last covered March 25, 2013 regarding the closure of a manufactured housing community slum in California, after a decade of legal battles the 4,000 resident community is set to finally close June 30, 2013. Located in the Coachella Valley just west of Joshua Tree National Park, …
The 2014 fiscal year House Appropriations Committee measure that outlines budgets for the Dept. of Housing and Urban development (HUD) contains a provision that HUD must choose a permanent administrator of the Office of Manufactured Housing within 120 days of the legislation’s enactment. Introduced by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), if …
House Committee to HUD: Hire Manufactured Housing Administrator or Else Read More
A complaint lodged against Scio Farms Estates that their policies violated the U. S. Fair Housing Act has resulted in a $39,500 out-of-court settlement that will go to two non-profits in southeastern Mich. Renaissance Community Homes helps developmentally disabled and mentally ill people find housing and live independently, and Scio …
Sun Communities gets Slapped with Discrimination Complaint , Settles Read More
The competition for affordable rental housing resulting from the recession, itself partly a product of the roughly 4.4 million people who lost their homes to foreclosure, has led to a shortage of homes for the extremely low-income sector. Defined as those earning less than 30 percent of the median income …
In its latest Housing Insights report, Fannie Mae notes that while overall home construction fell by 70 percent between 2006 and 2011, manufactured housing (MH) began declining in 1998, falling nearly 90 percent. In 2012 MH accounted for 7.4 percent of total home construction, a substantial drop from 20.2 percent …
Fannie Mae: Manufactured Housing has Challenges to Overcome Read More
Metal travel trailers evolved as an interesting, inexpensive way for a family to take a vacation, but the Great Depression transformed them into dwellings as people lost their homes. During WWII, the units provided portable quarters for the military as well as housing for factory workers that were part of …
In the Beginning…from Travel Trailers to Manufactured Homes Read More
In 2012 Iowa retailers ordered 271 HUD Code manufactured homes, well below the years from 1964 to 1982 and 1988 to 2002 when orders ran over 1000 annually, but 28 percent higher than the 212 ordered in 2011, according to Joe Kelly, executive vice-president of the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association. …
Shortages of building materials may be significant in holding holding back a more robust return of the housing market, says the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chief Economist David Crowe. According to a builders survey, 22 percent reported short supplies of oriented strand board (OSB), 20 percent said wall …
