Accountability is a marvelous thing. When facts, facts, and more facts are displayed often enough, many people – including the powers that be in manufactured housing – have a way of joyfully – or grudgingly -responding.

How so? Tonight’s report will make it plain, using the latest facts.

Oh! To ‘be a fly on the wall’ tonight in certain offices in Omaha, Knoxville or Arlington, or those of their allies and surrogates as they look at these shocking FACTS. On a day when the markets dropped again – which even CNBC said days ago is an ‘overreaction’ – tonight’s focus will be the first reported set of data reflecting the year 2020.

 

Periodic readers of this business-nightly feature should note there are new tweaks to some of the standard portions of our evening market/investing report. Read carefully as some changes of the ‘standard text’ that follows before our left-right headlines and also in other features near the end of tonight’s reports.

Every evening our headlines that follow provide snapshots from two major media outlets on each side of the left-right news spectrum that reflect topics that influence or move investor sentiment. In moments on this business evening report, you can get ‘insights-at-a-glance.’

This report also sets the broader context for manufactured housing markets, in keeping with our mantra, “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” ©.

We begin with headlines left-of-center CNN followed by right-of-center Fox Business. We share closing tickers and other related data courtesy of Yahoo Finance, and more. 5 to 10 minutes reading this MHProNews market report every business night could save you 30 minutes to an hour of similar reading or fact-gathering elsewhere.

Perhaps more important, you will get insights about the industry from experts that care, but also dare to challenge the routine narrative that arguably keeps manufactured housing underperforming during an affordable housing crisis.

Media Consolidation at a Glance, 4 Infographics

Newsy, Peeling Back Media Bias, Manufactured Housing Sales, Investing, Politics, and You

 

Headlines from left-of-center CNN Business

• Stocks tumble again
• Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, March 2, 2020. U.S. stocks are coming off their worst weekly drop since the financial crisis of 2008. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
• Dow closes down nearly 800 points after the Fed’s surprise rate cut
• The Fed just hit the coronavirus panic button
• Fed announces first emergency rate cut since financial crisis
• Market mayhem exposes fears about oil companies
• On the day the stock market gained $1.1 trillion, Robinhood went down for 17 hours
• Opinion: The trade war put the economy on its heels. The coronavirus will be much worse
• Coronavirus could mean you’ll be working from home. Here’s how to stay productive
• Welcome to Walmart. The doctor will see you now
• Former CNN anchor Bobbie Battista dead at 67
• Microsoft scores a touchdown with new NFL deal
• Bentley unveils $2 million roofless car
• Talking about money improves marriage satisfaction. So why don’t we do it?
• Pedestrians walk past an illuminated American flag in the Times Square area of New York, U.S., on Friday, April 26, 2019. U.S. stocks edged higher on better-than-forecast earnings while Treasury yields fell after data signaled tepid inflation in the first quarter. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
• The 10-year Treasury yield just dropped below 1% for the first time in history
• TOKYO, JAPAN – JULY 24: A woman walks past the Olympic rings displayed in front of the New National Stadium, the main venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, under construction on July 24, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)
• NBC is insured if the Olympics are canceled
• NEW YORK, USA – MARCH 2: A person wears a face mask as a precaution against coronavirus in New York, United States on March 2, 2020. The U.S. state of New York confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus late Sunday. In a statement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a woman in her 30s had contracted the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, while in Iran and she is now isolated in her home. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
• Americans are panic shopping for hand sanitizer, face masks and toilet paper

 

Headlines from right-of-center Fox Business

• CAN’T STOP THE BLEEDING
• DEVELOPING
• MARKETS
• Stocks drop, 10-year Treasury yield breaks 1% as Fed’s emergency cut backfires spectacularly
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded Tuesday in a more than 700-point range.
• LIVE BLOG: Organizations respond to coronavirus outbreak
• WATCH: Trump says virus treatments being developed at maximum speed
• WATCH: Trump on southern border strategy during coronavirus crisis
• MARKETS
• Gold to boom after Fed’s coronavirus rate cut
• Fed cuts rates to help cushion ‘evolving risks’ from coronavirus crisis
• RICH & FAMOUS
• Apple co-founder says he had coronavirus symptoms, but CDC gave him ‘run-around’
• Coronavirus death toll in US on the rise
• MONEY
• Congress rushing to pass $7.5B coronavirus spending measure
• US may pay hospitals, doctors for treating uninsured coronavirus patients
• Federal Reserve rate cut had to happen: Guggenheim Partners co-founder
• OPINION
• Jack Welch wasn’t God, he was human — that made him even more remarkable
• TAKE NO CHANCES
• TECHNOLOGY
• As coronavirus scams spread, here’s how to protect yourself
• 1 MILLION TESTS NEEDED
• MONEY
• Congress questions validity of coronavirus testing timeline
• HOME SWEET HOME
• REAL ESTATE
• Julia Roberts buys $8.3M San Francisco home
• SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED
• MONEY
• SEE IT: Photo of Trump check reveals where he’s donating salary
• DANGER TO, AND FROM, KIDS
• LIFESTYLE
• Are children coronavirus carriers?
• ‘ATTENTION-HUNGRY’
• LEGAL
• James Franco fires back at women who say he forced them into sex scenes
• SAD DAY FOR SOCCER MOMS
• CARS
• Popular minivan parked for good after 35 years
• ‘GREEDY,’ NOT FEARFUL
• MARKETS
• Warren Buffett plunges $45 million into stock hammered by coronavirus
• IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK…
• REAL ESTATE
• Lakefront home searched in corruption scandal going for $1.3 million
• PILLS AND TABLETS
• TECHNOLOGY
• Fancy new tech at the doctor’s office may be spreading disease
• DESPERATE TIMES
• CORONAVIRUS
• France seizes control of masks; Europeans close more schools
• DAZE OF OUR LIVES
• HEALTH
• These medications can actually worsen dementia, doctors say
• LIFESTYLE
• Trump foes Rosie O’Donnell, Michael Cohen to pen tell-all book
• CRIME
• Colleges follow similar playbook in sex assault response
• TECHNOLOGY
• US appeals court moves UberBLACK case forward
• MEDIA
• Hillary Clinton talks ups, downs before Hulu documentary
• SPORTS
• Knicks spike speculation that director Lee was ejected
• NEWS
• SEE PICS: At least 19 people dead after tornadoes rip through Tennessee
• OPINION
• How to protect yourself from America’s growing cybercrime crisis
• LIFESTYLE
• Lacoste gloves made in Chinese internment camp: rights group
• MONEY
• How many women rake in more money than their husbands
• RICH & FAMOUS
• Rappers Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent mock Oprah after she falls on stage
• MONEY
• Super Tuesday states with the best and worst economies
• MARKETS
• Auto Zone sales catch chill from warmer winter
• TECH
• Tech company with the highest favorability rating
• REAL ESTATE
• SEE IT: Melissa McCarthy shells out $2.4 million on San Fernando Valley property
• Top Bloomberg pollster: He isn’t beholden to the Democratic Party
• 2020 CAMPAIGN
• Mike Bloomberg said he would consider raising Social Security age
• MONEY
• Hollywood rallies around Joe Biden ahead of crucial Super Tuesday votes
• POLITICS
• Trump calling for this one-year tax cut
• FOOD & DRINKS
• Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods face price competition in plant-based market
• Coronavirus fears threatening fitness industry cool down
• Apple coughs up millions to settle suit, admits it slowed older phones
• Pope Francis tested for coronavirus
• Coronavirus compounds retailer worries after lackluster holiday
• POLITICS
• 5 things you should know about Jill Biden
• Who started Victoria Secret?

 

10 Market Indicator Closing Summaries – Yahoo Finance Closing Tickers on MHProNews…

Featured Focus – Where Business, Politics and Investing Can Meet

Programing notice. In the days ahead, MHProNews will plan to catch up on the latest from the Arlington, VA based Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). They’ve put out another propaganda piece, err…spin, err…‘news and update’ that merits a healthy fact-check. But that will be another day.

 

Today, we’ll look at hard numbers, otherwise known as hard-to-argue-with facts.

January’s 2020 production numbers are in from the Washington, D.C. based Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR). Following their data, we’ll do a simple and clear fact check. Note that the arrows below are from MHProNews.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                       Contact: MHARR

                                                                                                              (202) 7834087

 

2020 BEGINS WITH PRODUCTION INCREASE

Washington, D.C., March 3, 2020 – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) reports that according to official statistics compiled on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), HUD Code manufactured home production started the New Year with strong year-over-year growth in January 2020. Just-released statistics indicate that HUD Code manufacturers produced 8,733 homes in January 2020, a 15.5% increase over the 7,556 new HUD Code homes produced during January 2019.

A further analysis of the official industry statistics shows that the top ten shipment states from the beginning of the industry production rebound in August 2011 through January 2020 with cumulative, monthly, current year (2020) and prior year (2019) shipments per category as indicated are:

The JanuaTMry 2020 production data moves Florida into second place in the cumulative statistics, while Louisiana moves to third place.

 

The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform is a Washington, D.C. based national trade association
representing the views and interests of independent producers of federally-regulated manufactured housing.

– 30 –

MHProNews Fact-Check, Analysis and Aha! Moments…

Pressure for performance from certain quarters of the industry that didn’t like the status quo has finally started to move sales, production and shipments up. That’s good.

But it is time to turn it up several notches. So a few quick factoids will help make the points.

• The featured image of that home in the photo above isn’t one of those “CrossMod^TM homes” that Clayton Homes (BRK), MHI, Cavco Industries (CVCO) or Skyline Champion (SKY) have touted. Rather, it is a photo from an October 1998 report by the National Association of Home Builders research department for HUD, linked here on what manufactured homes were evolving into for the 21st century. That’s a reminder that feel-good fluff coming from the powers that be is…, well, foofoo.

If the Clayton-MHI backed CrossMod^TM was taking off in the marketplace, you can bet your bottom dollar we’d all be hearing about it, loud and proud, right? But instead, what the Omaha-Knoxville-Arlington axis has said publicly is how great it will be. Really? Clayton Homes recently said they’ve built 130 “CrossMod^TM homes.” What they haven’t said is how many of that 130 have actually sold. If their so-called new class of manufactured homes were flying off the proverbial shelves, we’d all know about that, wouldn’t we?

Which brings us to the related point about manufactured home production/sales data. MHProNews reported last month the year end closing data. The trends have been up in the last few months, perhaps because a fact-and-logic based national trade publisher keeps holding certain parties accountable for their prior (missed) claims.

2019 Year-End Totals Reveals Decline in New HUD Code Manufactured Home Production, Shipments vs. 2018

 

Let’s borrow an expression from Sam Zell and try being ‘too subtle.’

 

 

That graphic says it in a nutshell. Focus on the box that compares the year pre-Berkshire and the years post-Berkshire. We’ve expanded the view of that shipment averages by era below.

As you explore the related reports with that graphic’s data in mind, recall that prior MHI president and CEO Richard “Dick” Jennison said that the industry could do 500,000 new HUD Code manufactured homes. That was 5 years ago, what happened to that MHI pledge?

OKA Axis? We are waiting…

…everyone else, read the related reports for a greater understanding of the kinds of reports that make us the runaway number one in manufactured housing, while others talk big but their own data – when published accurately – shows how little they are read. With those new graphics and data-points, now return to the graphic we post in the ‘standard’ section of this evening report above. Note that per Skyline-Champion (SKY), the historic average since 1960 has been some 222,000 units a year. Once again, that data point would be higher still, because the industry has been down since 2003.

Facts, evidence, reasons and accountability all matter. There is an affordable housing crisis. Manufactured housing’s underperforming. If the powers that be know how to get the job done, great, show us. But don’t talk about stuff that hasn’t worked for the last 2 years, and try to convince others to double-down on an arguably flawed and failed plan.

 

Before someone uses another cop-out, recall what Fast Company said. They expected the industry to rebound pre-Berkshire buyout…but it didn’t happen.

So too did Harvard’s Eric Belsky.

These are the factoids that MHI and their string pullers don’t want you to ponder, but why? Because it allows them to consolidate the industry at a discounted rate as they broaden and widen their moat.

Have you taken Kevin Clayton at his word for that last quoted sentence above?

Related Reports:

Buffett’s Board – Berkshire Hathaway, Interlocking Directorates, Ronald Olson – Manufactured Housing and Truth Hiding in Plain Sight

Warren Buffett’s New Letter, Clayton Homes and Related Manufactured Housing Controversies

Fraud, RICO and Antitrust-Issues of Genius, Honesty, Legality, Competency-Berkshire Hathaway and Manufactured Housing Institute Leadership, Sunday Morning Headlines Review 2.23 to 3.1.2020

Legacy Housing Leadership Comments Undermine Manufactured Housing Institute Claims

Manufactured Housing Industry Investments Connected Closing Equities Tickers
Some of these firms invest in manufactured housing, or are otherwise connected, but may do other forms of investing or business activities too.

• • • • • NOTE: The chart below includes the Canadian stock, ECN, which purchased Triad Financial Services, a manufactured home industry lender
        • NOTE: Drew changed its name and trading symbol at the end of 2016 to Lippert (LCII).

 

Winter 2020…
Berkshire Hathaway is the parent company to Clayton Homes, 21^st Mortgage, Vanderbilt Mortgage and other factory built housing industry suppliers.
· LCI Industries, Patrick, UFPI, and LP each are suppliers to the manufactured housing industry, among others.
· AMG, CG, and TAVFX have investments in manufactured housing related businesses. For insights from third-parties and clients about our publisher, click here.
Enjoy these ‘blast from the past’ comments.

MHProNews. MHProNews – previously a.k.a. MHMSM.com – has now celebrated our tenth anniversary.

Learn more about our evolutionary journey as the industry’s leading trade media, at the report linked below.

Celebrating 10 Years of Goal- and Solution-Oriented Manufactured Home Industry Innovation Information, and Inspiration for Industry Professionals

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