As we’ve hinted or stated a few times, we’re upgrading our site to handle the ever-growing traffic and content. With the approach of our 5th anniversary online, we’re also planning by year’s end to launch version 3.0 of the MH Industry-leading trade journal, MHProNews.com. Changing for the Better Between now …
Perhaps the best way to begin an introduction to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the federal manufactured housing program administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is to quote from the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) and the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) press releases …
GAO releases long awaited report on the HUD Code Manufactured Housing Program Read More
There are some 45,000 +/- manufactured home land lease communities (MHCs) in the U.S. today. When MH Retailers began to tumble in the post 1998 slide that finally bottomed out in 2010, a growing number of MHC owner-operators realized their traditional source for many of their new home placements – …
UMH Properties, Inc. has announced the opening of a new Regional Manufactured Home Sales Center located in Belle Vernon, PA. The center is adjacent to Port Royal Village, one of the public traded company’s many communities. Bob VanSchuyver Jr., Assistant V.P. Sales for UMH Properties, Inc., said: “ The premier …
UMH Opens Regional Manufactured Housing Sales Center Read More
by Anthony Ducharme The Direct Team has always been a consumer-focused service platform. Historically we viewed our business partners as one of the conduits to the end consumer and customer. It became clear when we at Mountainside Financial started soliciting feedback from our business partners – specifically about ways that …
In April 2014, Webalizer reported that individuals from 154 countries visited MHProNews; many to read stories and/or watch videos about manufactured and modular housing movers, shakers and news-makers. While the vast majority (some 90%) of that global audience is here in the U.S., Canadians and nationals from virtually every nation …
Global Eyes on Manufactured/Modular Home Movers, Shakers and News Makers Read More
Investors are discovering the modern manufactured housing (MH) and ‘off site’ home building industry in a variety of ways. Some appear to be from negative media coverage (a pair of recent examples shown below), others in print, online or TV are clearly positive. Some non-profits are also interested-to-focused on manufactured …
Investors Discover the Walmart of Affordable Housing Read More
Grand Rapids, Michigan – JLT & Associates (JLT), a leading market research company for the manufactured housing industry, announced on March 26th, 2014 a 14-year summary report of its manufactured home community rent surveys for 13 Michigan markets. Recognized by many as the industry standard for manufactured home community market …
by Bill Matchneer, JD It was nice to cap off my first week of retirement from CFPB with an invitation from MHI to speak at their recent Legislative Conference & Winter Meeting in Arlington, Virginia. I was asked to speak at the Financial Services Committee meeting about new Dodd-Frank rules …
A View of Manufactured Housing Finance Issues from Inside the Washington DC Beltway Read More
MHARR is an acronym that means Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform. Documents filed with the federal government indicate that MHARR has the mission “To improve relations between government and the industry engaged in the production of manufactured housing.” In a recent communique from one of MHARR’s president’s – Danny Ghorbani – …
by Andy Gallagher New rules effective in January, 2014, implement the Dodd-Frank Act, federal legislation aimed, in part, at protecting consumers from financial problems relating to home mortgages. One of the new rules relates to loan originator compensation (“LO Comp Rule”). Similar to the SAFE Act, which deals with state …
I spoke with Tim Dewitt with the Michigan association concerning the attached National retail numbers and the excellent Growth the industry has experienced . The report was updated today and with the Show next week we agreed that it would be great to break these numbers to the industry. We are unsure …
Statistcial Surveys Report on Manufactured Housing 2013 vs. 2012 Read More
Before diving into the concept outlined and ways that it might benefit manufactured housing and our American home-buying public in general, let’s define the legal term, “writ of mandamus.” From Princeton’s WordNet: “mandamus: an extraordinary writ commanding an official to perform a ministerial act that the law recognizes as an …
Editor’s Note: On November 20, 2013 the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) sent out another notice, warning their members about scams that are targeting potential trade show attendees. Here below is the meat of their message, between the — lines, quoting their email. — Subject Line: …Beware of Scams Targeting Trade …
Special Notice Regarding Scams Targeting Industry Trade Events Read More
Access to financing by millions of home owners and would be buyers, as well as job loss-or-creation, hangs in the balance due to regulatory hurdles caused by Dodd-Frank. So say supporters of the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act of 2013, known as HR 1779. The bill proposes a remedy …
“You’ve got to have confidence. Once we understood the business we had absolute confidence in its future.” said Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) Chairman, Sam Zell to a packed room of industry professionals at the W Center in Chicago, IL. What made his quote even more compelling was its timing, coming …
Sam Zell, “The Point of the Spear” and “You’ve Got to Have Confidence” Read More
H.R. 1779 is the “Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act” of 2013. As part of the 113th Congress’ proposed legislation, this bill will live on in 2014. It was introduced by Rep. Stephen Fincher [R-TN8], with the original co-sponsors being Representatives Gary Miller[R-CA31] and Bennie Thompson [D-MS2]. This list will …
Among many of the important take-aways from the 2013 National Communities Council (NCC) Fall Leadership Forum was a public comment from Steve Schaub of Yes! Communities. Schaub stated in a matter-of-fact fashion that their firm had previously been doing quite a bit of lease-option type transactions. Schuab then said that …
NCC discussion on Manufactured Housing, Rent to Own and Lease Option Read More
On October 1 the CFPB issued a final rule to a previous supplemental proposed rule. The amendments focused primarily on loss mitigation procedures under Regulation X’s servicing provisions, amounts counted as loan originator compensation to retailers of manufactured homes and their employees for purposes of applying points and fees thresholds …
An important 2012 research study was done by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Google. The complete study is attached as a download at the end of this article, but let’s pull some key facts from the study to pin-point solid reasons why manufactured housing retailers, communities and other …
