The following fact-packed op-ed was adapted from the article linked here and cites a range of sources that are provided below. The article makes a factual, evidence-based statement that without a robust use of new HUD Code manufactured homes the U.S. affordable housing crisis can’t be solved by conventional housing supported by subsidies used to make more costly housing ‘affordable.’ Depending on reading speed, in about 6 to 10 minutes, someone can have a substantial set of facts that ought to be routinely provided by inherently affordable mainstream manufactured housing advocates.
In a Masthead from 2024, it was mathematically demonstrated that the U.S. affordable housing crisis can’t be solved by taxpayer subsidies and requires modern factory-built HUD Code manufactured housing to be made available to those who want or need them. But let’s look at other evidence from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) before pivoting back to that claim.
Part I
1) Former NAHB CEO Jerry Howard stated: “Right now, in almost no market in this country, can a homebuilder build a house that is affordable for a first-time homebuyer,” NAHB CEO Howard said that on Fox Business’ “Varney & Co.,” adding this. “We can’t do it. The costs that are on us make it impossible.” Per that report with video: “His [i.e.: Howard’s] comments come as new data from Redfin revealed that a homebuyer has to earn at least $107,281 to afford the $2,682 monthly mortgage payment on a typical U.S. home, representing a 45.6% jump from last year, when annual income to afford a [site built] home was $73,000.”
2) More recently NAHB’s Nicholas Julian wrote: “For nearly a century, zoning regulations acted as a barrier to affordable housing” per an article found here. Julian (emphasis added) said: “The term affordable housing means housing that is subsidized by a federal or state program that helps cover the cost to develop units that are less than market rate. Without this subsidy, producing affordable housing would be untenable for builders and developers. The United States lacks both affordable and market-rate housing, and limited supply of either constrains naturally occurring affordable housing.”
3) NAHB’s Julian admitted in his article that some zoning practices “are utilizing exclusionary zoning practices,” favoring larger homes vs. smaller or more dense construction. Julian stated that certain zoning: “artificially inflate housing prices and exclude certain populations from moving into a community.” Without mentioning manufactured homes by name, he nevertheless may be alluding to manufactured housing by saying (emphasis added): “Examples include…land use restrictions on building heights, density or types of housing…”
4) In under 340 words, that introduction and first three quoted points set the stage for understanding the necessity for making the financing and placement of millions of new HUD Code manufactured homes a key feature of any successful administration’s housing policy.
5) Julian is a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) and is NAHB’s Director of Land Use. He wrote in that same article (emphasis added) the following.
“Both states [New York and California] are leveraging pre-emption to override zoning ordinances that limit housing supply…”
Julian wrote that in: “Some states are working to override local exclusionary zoning laws:
In California, laws such as SB 9 and SB 10 allow duplexes and small multifamily developments in areas previously zoned exclusively for single-family homes statewide.
New York has advanced policies to pre-empt local zoning rules, such as Gov. Hochul’s proposals to incentivize higher-density housing near transit stations and penalize municipalities that fail to meet state housing targets.
Both states are leveraging pre-emption to override zoning ordinances that limit housing supply, and aiming to create more inclusive and affordable communities by loosening local restrictions that have historically favored lower-density, higher-cost developments.”
Clearly, preemption (or pre-emption) is an important tool. More on preemption later.
6) Google AI powered Gemini said on this date: “Based on an average reading speed, it would take roughly 4 minutes to read 550 words, assuming a reading speed of around 130 words per minute…” So, in about 4 to 5 minutes any curious mind, including elected or appointed officials, such as pending Trump 2.0 HUD Secretary Nominee Eric Scott Turner, could know the facts found above and their respective expert sources.
7) Julian said without subsidies, affordable housing becomes untenable. But Julian is acting on behalf of the NAHB, and his job is described on his LinkedIn profile on this date as: “Works directly with NAHB members and leadership to develop and implement policy initiates.” He isn’t working for the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) or for the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR). He’s an advocate for conventional site builders.
Both Julian and prior NAHB CEO Jerry Howard (see Part I #1 above) are saying something similar: “Right now, in almost no market in this country, can a homebuilder build a house that is affordable for a first-time homebuyer…We can’t do it. The costs that are on us make it impossible.” Only taxpayers subsidies make housing seemingly affordable, but what that amounts to is a shift of the burden from sellers to construct housing that is ‘affordable’ to taxpayers.
The opening mathematical point from that Masthead cited in this article’s opening sentence is thus established using NAHB officials.
8) One of the detailed items published by HUD linked by Julian is entitled “Eliminating Zoning Barriers to Affordable Housing,” found linked here and here. HUD is the primary federal regulatory of HUD Code manufactured homes. They should be aware of modern mainstream manufactured housing. Indeed, that HUD document, per a WORD search of that PDF, names manufactured homes 17 times and manufactured housing 33 times.
That same HUD document mentions “preempt” 4 times.
9) Part of Howard’s remarks were used by MHI member Cavco Industries (CVCO) in an investor relations (IR) presentation found here and with an annotated screen shot of page 4 shown below.
10) Let’s do a mini summary before pressing ahead.
- a) Experts for NAHB have said that conventional builders can’t build “affordable” housing without taxpayer subsidies.
- b) NAHB zoning/land-use expert Julian said that zoning is a barrier and linked a resource on the HUD website that cited manufactured homes/manufactured housing 50 times.
- c) Julian cited examples of state preemption as part of the solution to the affordable housing crisis, because exclusionary local zoning is routinely a problem.
- d) That Masthead post demonstrated mathematically that the U.S. affordable housing crisis can’t be solved by taxpayer subsidies and requires modern factory-built HUD Code manufactured housing to be made available to those who want or need them.
11) What isn’t mentioned in that HUD research is a law passed by Congress over two decades ago. Indeed, there are two good laws Congress enacted which are widely seen in manufactured housing industry circles as not being properly enforced. Will Trump 2.0 enforce those existing housing laws in order to move from mere talk about more affordable housing to actual solutions that could over time save taxpayers billions?
The first law Congress enacted in a widely bipartisan fashion is called the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (a.k.a. MHIA 2000, MHIA, 2000 Reform Act, 2000 Reform Law).
The second key law Congress enacted was the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2000 (HERA) and its Duty to Serve (DTS) Manufactured Housing provision which mandated support for the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs or Enterprises). MHARR has referred to that 2000 Reform Law and numerous times, including a useful article posted at this link here.
12) Julian and that research by HUD he linked cited preemption (or pre-emption) as an important point. Indeed it is. If a problem persists for over a century and isn’t solved by local officials than surely state and/or federal officials ought to step up. That is especially true given the point that Cavco’s IR pitch cited in the bottom right of that illustration. Namely, that the lack of affordable housing costs the U.S. economy an estimated $2 trillion dollars annually in lost Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the course of a decade that’s enough money to pay off more than half of the national debt. Or that two trillion annually would be akin to each adult American citizen getting an additional $7,751.94 a year (here’s that math: $2,000,000,000,000/258,000,000 adult Americans = $7751.9379845).
To keep this from being a finger pointing exercise at this time, let’s simply note the following.
- a) These facts are so simple to understand that they are literally understood by a teenager. That teen cited some similar and some different information but came to a similar conclusion.
https://patch.com/florida/lakeland/tark-i-m-teen-know-solution-affordable-housing-crisis or at this link here: https://www.manufacturedhomeli…
- b) as “TARK” wrote in the above, other sources at HUD also cited zoning barriers as a key problem.
- c) Trump 1.0 Secretary Ben Carson, M.D., a colleague of Eric Scott Turner, made an excellent case for HUD Code manufactured housing. Consider these remarks, found on the HUD website at this link here, and is shown in the image/quote below for reader’s ease and time saving.
13) There is more to know. There is evidence of why these problems have not been properly addressed previously. This article is adapted from a new and in-depth report linked here and a recent article on Manufactured Home Pro News (MHProNews) that is linked here which offer more details. But for now, let’s note that HUD was asked by lawmakers to enforce enhanced preemption in 2003. The failure of HUD to consistently and robustly enforce “enhanced preemption” was explored by Congressional hearings in 2011 and 2012 (see linked items below).
But the key point to be kept in mind at HUD is this. For approaching a quarter of a century, they have had the federal “enhanced preemption” authority to overcome local zoning barriers that could speed the resolution to the affordable housing crisis.
See the report linked here for the full letter.
- https://www.manufacturedhomelivingnews.com/coming-epic-affordable-housing-finance-clash-chair-maxine-waters-vs-warren-buffett-clayton-homes-historic-challenges-ahead/
- https://www.manufacturedhomelivingnews.com/edward-hussey-to-be-clear-madam-chairwoman-there-is-nothing-wrong-with-the-2000-law-the-manufactured-housing-improvement-act-doesnt-need-to-be-amended-the-issue-is-implementatio
- https://www.manufacturedhomelivingnews.com/statements-to-congress-by-kevin-clayton-clayton-homes-for-manufactured-housing-institute-john-bostick-of-sunshine-homes-on-behalf-of-manufactured-housing-association-for-regulatory-reform/
14) While deporting illegal immigrants will ease some pressures on affordable housing, it will not solve the affordable housing crisis by itself. There is a demonstrable need for HUD to consistently enforce federal enhanced preemption. It is the fastest solution to the affordable housing crisis. An array of sources, including Bing’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered Copilot have said as much. Recent MHARR arguments in favor of these key topics are linked below.
https://manufacturedhousingass…
More on affordable housing, but also on a range of other topics are linked below. To see the full list of articles by this writer here on this Patch that date back to Dr. Ben Carson’s nomination for HUD Secretary, see the link here. A follow up on this topic is planned in the days ahead that will explore other research and related concerns. Stay tuned.
Part II Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Focused Commentary
1) The original op-ed at this link here has several illustrations that are not provided above. To see those illustrations and the original op-ed, click here.
2) The point of the above isn’t that conventional construction should be eliminated. Rather, it is to emphasize that the playing field should be level, existing federal laws should be enforced, because without millions of new HUD Code manufactured homes, there is mathematically and practically no way to solve the U.S. affordable housing crisis.
3) Some of the additional links that followed the op-ed are shown below, but to see the full list click here. Colors are added in some cases below and were not used in the original.
> TAP-‘Make it Legal to Build’ on YIMBY Movement–Remove Supply Barriers!
> Alert: Is Affordable Housing Linked Scandal at Champion Homes Brewing?
> Lesli Gooch Ph.D.-Award, Coverup, Headfake, Scandal? Rest of the Story
> Niskanen Center Praises Manufactured Home ‘Cost Savings’ and ‘Quality’
> Alice Carter-The Northern Forum-Deporting Immigrants & Housing Crisis
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> Trump Transition Team Asked to Prioritize Affordable Housing Issues
> Top 10 States for Homelessness & Top Cities for Crime=Shocking Lessons
> WashPost-American Dream Fades But Assoc CEO Mark Weiss Shows Solution
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> Controversy-Manufactured Housing Institute-Lesli Gooch-Mark Bowersox
> ‘Mobile Home Values Rising Faster Than Single-Family’ House-Wow Fact$
> Realtor-What Is a Manufactured Home? The Next Step Beyond Mobile Homes
> Orlando RE Agent Smith-Younger Adults Will Need $8500 Monthly for Rent
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> Blankley-Goodbye American Dream? Only 10% Polled Can Buy a House; But
> Frank Rolfe-Special Interests ‘Don’t Want to Solve Affordable Housing’
—> TARK-‘I’m a Teen and Know the Solution to Affordable Housing Crisis’
> Renting? Rent too High? Odds Are DOJ Suit vs RealPage Matters to You
> New-Certified “Half Price Homes” – Affordable Housing Solution Redux
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> Solution: “Would-Be Homebuyers Need 80% More Income Than 4 Years Ago”
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
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