Matthew Silver

Following a 25-year career operating a custom hardwood furnishing business and occasional writing, Matthew Silver has been writing professionally for over a dozen years, six of those for the factory-built housing industry. Otherwise, he may be found performing folk music in the Indianapolis area.

After Christmas Shopping for UMH?

IstockAnalyst reports MHC owner UMH Properties, Inc. has agreed to purchase ten all-age manufactured home communities comprised of 1,855 homesites on 300 acres for $67.5 million. Five of the communities are in Ind., four in Penn. and one in Mich. with an average occupancy of 83 percent. While the transaction …

After Christmas Shopping for UMH? Read More

New Home Sales Up 15% over Year Ago

CNNMoney reports the Census Bureau says new home sales hit a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 377,000 in Nov., an increase over Oct. of 4.4 percent and a rise of 15 percent over Nov. 2011. The highest rate of new home sales since April 2010 when the $8,000 tax credit …

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Mfg. Housing Composite Gains for 2nd Consecutive Day

With less than a week to resolve the fiscal cliff crisis, CNNMoney reports U.S. stocks fell precipitously until about 2:30 PM when it was announced lawmakers will meet Sunday to try and resolve the impending crisis, and investors returned to the table, erasing much of the earlier loss. The Dow …

Mfg. Housing Composite Gains for 2nd Consecutive Day Read More

Experimental Home Set for Occupancy

As Grist reports, students at the New School and Stevens Institute of Technology designed a super efficient home that won an award at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathalon collegiate competition held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. last fall. Developed in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity and …

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Home Prices Continue Upward

HousingWire reports four of the five hardest-hit housing market states are witnessing positive home price increases year-over-year. Of the 19 states that received $7.6 billion in aid from the federal government, California, Florida, Arizona, and Georgia had increases in Oct. over Oct. 2011, while Illinois experienced a 1.3 percent decline …

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Reverse Mortgages Need an About-face

As a result of the housing downturn and the slow economic recovery, more seniors have turned to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program (reverse mortgage), backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as an economic lifeline, but an independent audit has revealed the program is $2.9 billion in the …

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Keeping Interest Rates Low could Return to Bite us

National Public Radio (NPR) reports Harvard economist Martin Feldstein says the Federal Reserve’s holding the interest rate down is assisting many borrowers in buying or refinancing a house, but it is also keeping some lenders out of the market because the lower interest rates reduce the profit margins lenders can …

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Impeding Fiscal Cliff Nudges Stocks Down

Investors expressed their continuing concern over the fiscal cliff jousting in Washington as all three indexes nudged down. CNNMoney reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped -0.19 percent, -24.49 points, ending the day at 13,114.59. The Nasdaq moved down -0.74 percent, -22.24 points, to close at 2,990.16, while the S&P …

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Dip or Gain in Home Prices?

Nationalmortgagenews tells MHProNews the Case-Shiller 20-city HPI (house price index) reveals prices nudged down 0.1 percent in Oct. over the previous month, but prices rose 4.3 percent over last year. Meanwhile, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Lender Processing Services, in its monthly sales analysis of 15,500 zip codes says home prices rose 0.3 …

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FHA may be Teetering on the Edge

Townhall tells MHProNews the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) continues to make risky loans to borrowers with low credit scores and/or high debt ratios. Based on zip codes, these borrowers have an expected foreclosure rate of 15 percent, accounting for 44 percent of FHA loans to people of low to moderate …

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New Modular Clinic Rising in VA

TheFranklinNewsPost reports from Franklin County in southwestern Virginia Guy and Betty Beatty are donating $1 million to erect a new modular facility to house the Free Clinic of Franklin County, giving it a permanent home. Established in 1992, the clinic offers free and reduced cost medical services to people who …

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Housing Stocks Moving Up in 2012

The stocks of publicly traded builders have rebounded in the wake of the ongoing housing market recovery. CNNMoney tells MHProNews Toll Brothers and DRHorton have both notched about a 60 percent growth in their respective stocks, while Hovnanian Enterprises and Pulte Group have recorded triple digit gains for the year. …

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KB Home Plans Projects in San Antonio

Zacks informs MHProNews homebuilder KB Home intends to build some 700 one and two-story single family homes in two developments in San Antonio, with construction expected to start in mid 2013. With prices starting at $140,000 in one of the developments and $150,000 in the other, KB only begins construction …

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Sun Communities Declares Dividend

JagsReport says Sun Communities, Inc. has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.63 a share for stockholders of record Dec. 31, 2012, payable January 18th, 2013. As MHProNews reported here Oct. 1, 2012, this is the same dividend amount as for Q3 2012, and represents an annualized dividend of $2.52, and …

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Millennials Looking at Homeownership

HousingWire reports a survey by Trulia revealed the Millennials, the 18-34 age group, were more optimistic than three older age groups that conditions will be conducive for them to purchase a home. ( See chart below.) MHProNews has learned the survey showed 31 percent of renters plan to buy a …

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1950’s “High-Tech” Home being Restored

According to houstonculturemap, a vintage modern 1954 house birthed in the prosperity of Houston’s post-war oil-rich Texas is being restored after decades of neglect. Technically-advanced for its time, the home was constructed with intercoms in every room, open spaces that flowed into each other, and a wall of window frames …

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Home Values Finally Show Gain

After analyzing 177 metro areas, real estate analyst Zillow tells HousingWire 75 percent showed home value gains in 2012. For the five years from 2007 to 2011 home values dropped each year, the largest occurring in 2008 when home values declined $3.2 trillion. This year the value of homes is …

Home Values Finally Show Gain Read More

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