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.

MH Consultant Lends a Hand to the RV/MH Hall of Fame

In response to an April 6th story about the RV/MH Hall of Fame, Ken Rishel, of Rishel Consulting Group, and publisher of the Chattel Finance Newsletter, has pledged ten percent of all advertising revenue from his newsletter through December 2011 to the Heritage Foundation to help keep the museum doors open.  Noting …

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Supplier to MH Industry Trying to Recover

Zacks reports that Universal Forest Products, a Michigan supplier of wood and other building materials to the manufactured housing industry, lost .12 cents a share in the fourth quarter of 2010, as opposed to .03 cents a share loss for the same quarter of 2009.  The analysis suggests the loss …

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RV/MH Hall of Fame Devises Plan to Keep Rolling

Following up on a story from April 6 about returning the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana, to solvency, RV Business reports several proposals are being considered to keep the doors open.  One of the plans involves condensing the vintage RVs into a smaller space, and allowing up to …

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Dow Down and Housing Stocks Follow or Stay Flat

The Dow lost just under a quarter of a point to close at 12,380.05, as oil spiked upwards and the threat of a government shutdown loomed.  Cavco lost 1.97 percent, Skyline Corp. dropped 1.72 percent, and Nobility and Deer Valley remained unchanged.  The Manufactured Housing Composite closed down 1.72 percent …

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Goodwill to House Homeless Vets in Modular Units

The Gaylord Herald Times reports that Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan (GINM) will erect six modular buildings to house 24 self-identifying homeless veterans.  With funding from the Veteran’s Administration (VA), a federal home loan and Goodwill, the two single-family modular homes and four duplexes are scheduled for completion by late …

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Homeowner Sues Mortgage Servicer over HAMP Loan Denial

Yahoo!Finance reports an Associated Press story from Los Angeles that a homeowner who applied for a loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is suing Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc. for breach of contract and deceptive debt collection.  The homeowner alleges she complied with all the requirements of this …

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Looming Shutdown Could Hinder FHA and HUD Loans

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that as the federal government nears shutdown and hundreds of thousands of employees may be furloughed, only mail carriers, the military, and air traffic controllers would remain on the job.  Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) operations would cease during …

Looming Shutdown Could Hinder FHA and HUD Loans Read More

Detroit May Go from Manufacturing to Farming

To follow up on a story we reported March 7, HousingWire reports Detroit has so many vacant houses it will bulldoze full blocks and turn the property into urban farming.  Stephen Bancroft, executive director of the independent think tank Detroit Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response (DOFPR), said once a …

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Scottish Builder Develops Steel Modular Housing

The Scottish Business Insider reports the owner of Powerwall, after many years of testing, has developed lightweight steel frame and walls for building modular homes he intends to market internationally.  Taking a page from the mass production of automobiles, Dominic Tedesco says building has changed little since the Roman days, …

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Ohio Town May Ban Single-Section Manufactured Homes

The Wilmington News Journal (wnewsj) says elected officials in New Vienna, Ohio, are developing a zoning ordinance that would prevent single-section manufactured homes from being sited in town outside existing manufactured home communities.  Debate continues over the option of a multi-sectional home inside town limits, and pre-existing homes inside town …

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HGTV to Give Away Green, LEED Platinum Modular Home

Jetson Green reports HGTV has built a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certified modular house, one of only 40 in Colorado, that it plans to give away.  The exterior is a combination of brick and thin stone veneers, 50 percent recycled fiber-cement siding, with recycled blown-cellulose.  The …

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Cavco Gets High Marks from Market Researcher

Zacks says Cavco Industries (NASDAQ: CVCO) is one of five companies in the home-building industry that offers the least risk and more stable return on investment.  SmarTrend ranks Cavco second with a beta rating of 1.15, and says since it issued an upturn on the stock Feb. 17, its value …

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Mortgage Rates Rise Slightly, Unemployment Falls

HousingWire says mortgage rates rose by only one basis point to 4.87 percent for the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM), the third straight week of increases, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.  The average one year ago was 5.21 percent.  Rates on 15-year FRMs moved up one …

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City Helping Rebuild Wildfire Ravaged MH Community

The Contra Costa Times reports the 2008 Sayre Fire that tore through the foothills around Los Angeles destroyed 600 residences at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park.  Coming on the heels of the housing crisis, only 20 percent of the residents have returned.  As an incentive to bring people back, the …

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Distressed Homes Lower the Price of Homes Nationwide

According to HousingWire, the falling of home prices for the seventh straight month represents the downward pull of distressed homes in the market.  The statistics from CoreLogic show with that segment in the equation, prices fell in February 6.7 percent over February a year ago.  Remove that segment and the …

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MHARR Meets with Congressional Leaders, Express Concerns over Sagging Sales

According to the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR), the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) statistics show shipments of manufactured housing continued to fall through the first two months of this year by 15 percent over the same period 2010.  Production numbers in their report from 2009 to 2010 …

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Technology Sector Moves Dow Up, Housing Stocks Inconsistent

The technology sector was stronger than the weakness of the industrial and energy sectors to drive the Dow up just over a quarter of a point to close at 12,426.75.  Housing stocks moved up, down, and not at all.  Cavco gained 1.97 percent, Skyline Corp. moved up 1.91 percent, Nobility …

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Magazine Helps to Keep RV/MH Hall of Fame Running

According to RV Business, RVPro magazine has responded to the cash-strapped Elkhart, Indiana-based RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum & Library, and will donate 25 percent of its June advertising revenues to the museum.  Publisher Dana Nelsen said, “We want to help the museum, plain and simple, because it really is …

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