“U.S. home prices jumped by the most in more than seven years in March, as an increasing number of would-be buyers compete for a dwindling supply of houses. The March S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, May 25, rose 13.3% from a year earlier, the biggest gain since December 2013,” per Richmond. Left-leaning CNBC  framed the year-over-year house price gains as “13.2% higher in March [2021], compared with March 2020, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.”

CNBC added, “That’s up from the 12% annual gain in February, and it marks the 10th straight month of accelerating home prices. The March gain is the largest since December 2005 and is one of the largest in the index’s 30-year history.”

What’s fueling the stiff hikes in conventional housing? CNBC said housing “Prices are being pushed higher by incredibly strong competition in the market. High demand is butting up against near record-low supply, resulting in bidding wars for the vast majority of listings.”

March witnessed a big surge in manufactured housing production and shipments too. To see the most recent data, click on the report below.

 

 

“Only 1.16 million homes were on the market in April, a 20% drop year over year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The continued shortage of homes, especially at the lower end of the market, forecasts that home prices will not cool off any time soon,” said CNBC, which cited Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P DJI. He said, “These data are consistent with the hypothesis that Covid has encouraged potential buyers to move from urban apartments to suburban homes.”

“This demand may represent buyers who accelerated purchases that would have happened anyway over the next several years,” said Lazzara. “Alternatively, there may have been a secular change in preferences, leading to a permanent shift in the demand curve for housing.”

There are indicators that rural housing has also surged. “Florida’s rural real estate is booming amid COVID-19 pandemic,” said Florida Trend. “The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping the U.S. housing market, … Another trend is emerging as well: Buyers are showing interest in the more rural regions of the country,” said Mansion Global. CNBC also reported last year the shift to more rural sales too. Urban flight has been reported from areas more impacted by lockdowns, protests, riots, and rising crime. Given events in 2020, the move toward suburban, exurban or rural areas was perhaps to be expected.

So, in the wake of intense housing market pressure, thousands turned to HUD Code manufactured homes in March. But prior to March, there was a 2.5 year downturn in affordable housing sales during an affordable housing crisis. That downturn in manufactured home sales began in late 2018.

 

 

Indeed, the jump up in March 2021 was big enough to break the roughly 2½ year downturn that began at about the same time as the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) announced “momentum” in conjunction with their controversial “new class of manufactured homes” that they eventually renamed “CrossMod^TM” manufactured homes.

It is against that backdrop that the following pull quotes from MHI member Frank Rolfe and LoopNet/CoStar Group (CSGP) editor Daniel Schmergel comes into sharper focus.

“There has been a push for decades — in part by the largest trade organization for the industry, the Manufactured Housing Institute — to rebrand mobile homes as “manufactured homes” and to reclassify the communities in which these homes reside as “land-lease communities,” but the revised terminology hasn’t gained much traction,” said Schmergel.

“The industry at some point might want to acknowledge to the world that they’re wasting their time; you can’t rebrand the product,” said Frank Rolfe, a prominent MHI/National Communities Council (NCC) member.

Note to newcomers, the term ‘the industry’ is often used as a kind of code-words for the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). An example of that is reflected in the comment linked here by Nathan Smith, a prior MHI chairman. Thus that attempted conflation of the term of “the industry” with MHI may be due to the fact that MHI leaders push that notion. As they state it on their own website, “The Manufactured Housing Institute is the only national trade organization representing all segments of the factory-built housing industry.” At other times, they say “all segments of the manufactured housing industry.” The Arlington, VA based trade group routinely adds that “MHI members include home builders, retailers, community operators, lenders, suppliers and affiliated state organizations.”

 

 

Against that backdrop, the rebuke by CoStar/LoopNet editor Schmergel and MHI member Rolfe that follows is all the sharper. “This rebranding failure [by MHI] is in spite of the fact that mobile homes are, for the most part, not really mobile at all.” See the full context in the report that unpacks a range of apparently related controversies, linked below.

 

 

To further illustrate that claimed failure, the Modular Home Builders Association (MHBA) Executive Director Tom Hardiman directly rebuked MHI in 2020 for trying to “deceive” the public in their rebranding part of the manufactured home industry as “CrossMod^TM”

 

 

Hardiman, said the obvious when he encouraged MHI, in that same rebuke, to “own” their manufactured home product, instead of running away from it. Hardiman aptly observed that failure to “own” the product and its name was akin to undermining the value of all HUD Code manufactured homes.

 

 

Hardiman took a stance that was akin to an echo of the concerns raised by MHProNews and MHLivingNews when we sounded the alarm that the MHI “new class of manufactured homes” plan could be a Trojan Horse for the industry’s independents. That particular warning was sounded on February 21, 2018, but it was one of many before and since.

Indeed, that warning has proven to come to pass. For those with a sense of marketing and business, it was entirely predictable. After all, it failed to embrace and celebrate manufactured homes. Instead, it was quite apparently MHI running away from the industry’s correct terminology. Instead of joining hands with those in the industry who were making efforts to properly define and celebrate manufactured homes, Clayton Homes backed MHI did quite differently. One of several possible examples is shown below.  So this isn’t just a branding issue. Rather, it is a legal and pragmatic issue too.

 

 

The latest data from the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) reflects that the Clayton Homes supported “CrossMod^TM” plan is the latest market failure of a product that follows in a train of such efforts to rebrand and thus ‘escape’ the industry’s proper heritage. The national sales of such homes by the GSEs are in the low double digits in a market that produces an already anemic, some 95,000 new HUD Code homes per year.

Clayton Homes has not stated in their latest annual report their total of CrossMod^TM home sales. But extrapolation from GSE supplied data linked here, if a similar number of cash sales occurred as financed sales of CrossMod^TM home sales, then over a two-year period there may have been 60 total sales out of some 190,000 new HUD Code manufactured homes sold for all of 2019 and 2020. That would be a miniscule .00031579 share of the market. It is ridiculous on its face. In a normal business world, such a market failure would be put on a back burner if not cancelled. Given the hype from Clayton Homes, MHI, Fannie Mae in promoting MH Advantage^®, Fannie Mae in promoting their version of the scheme dubbed CHOICEhomes^®. It is almost an inconceivable outcome, based on the level of hype given to the industry. Clayton can afford such failures, but the industry’s independents can not. Perhaps that is the point?

 

 

What that quick survey reveals is that someone doesn’t have to buy into Rolfe’s or Schmergel’s contention that manufactured homes “can’t” be rebranded. A better and more accurate claim is that the efforts themselves have been obviously flawed. Those flawed Clayton Homes-MHI efforts are self evident, given the declining use of the terminology, per Foremost Insurance’s research.

The flaw is also evidenced by the decline in shipments following the rollout of their new class of homes scheme. MHProNews and our MHLivingNews sister sites have stood largely alone, with the notable exception of MHARR, in fighting against the now obviously failed plan.

MHARR is the independently owned producers focused Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform. Their president and CEO, Mark Weiss, J.D. mocked the GSEs efforts, by using their own data against them. Notice that the following is entirely relevant in the context of the mainstream housing headwinds noted above.

 

 

But significant numbers of MHI’s own members and attendees reportedly walked out during the big MHI presentation to ‘introduce’ what became CrossMods. If MHI truly cared about an authentic consensus, rather than a top-down push by major brands who have not hidden their agenda for consolidation of the industry, then the light bulb may go off for those who may still trust MHI, despite their troubled track record.

 

 

When considering even that thumbnail combination of marketing failures, failures at “rebranding,” plus prima facie and publicly unchallenged examples of failures to advance their own claimed agenda – despite their demonstrable access to federal leaders. the puzzle picture begins to emerge.

Then, when pondering the scandal of MHI’s CEO of being accused of a documented conflict of interest, then MHI emerges in a dark light.

 

 

Razzle dazzle, big promises, photo and video ops then begin to appear more like a con job for those looking only superficially. After all, if they were interested in authentic advocacy, they might – for instance – partner with MHARR to press for the full enforcement of existing laws. But that is not what is or has been occurring. But if that is so, what would be the benefit of feigning advocacy while producing poor results?

First, to dot the i on poor results, one need not look further than MHI’s own statements and that of former MHI affiliates. The laws needed to advance the industry at large exist. MHI, after years of public and well documented pressure from MHARR, MHProNews, and MHLivingNews had to admit those realities.

 

 

People tend to be trusting. But there are also those who may be MHI members because they feel that they have little or no choice. If so, then that could be part of a case for RICO. Who says? Samuel “Sam” Strommen at Knudson Law.

 

 

Additionally, concerns about so-called “sabotage monopoly” have been raised by James A. “Jim” Schmitz Jr, a senior economist with the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.

While Democratic lawmakers are gearing up to change laws that impact manufactured home communities, the case can be made that what is necessary is to first investigate what has been going wrong with existing laws that were meant to benefit manufactured home owners, affordable manufactured home seekers, and manufactured housing firms of all sizes.

 

 

Paradoxically, MHI is officially on board with part of the legislation linked above. Right or wrong, some of the other nonprofits who have signed onto those bills are supposedly opponents of MHI. But when the money trail is traced back, Buffett bucks and Berkshire Hathaway dollars are demonstrably flowing into organizations on both sides of the fight. Shades of Dodd-Frank?

There is direct and indirect evidence that “Iron Triangle” and “sabotaging monopoly” relationships have thwarted manufactured housing during Democratic and Republican administrations alike. If Biden-Harris wants to change that trajectory, they need but enforce existing law. Which ones? It should begin with the long over due promises of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 and the Duty to Serve Manufactured Housing, made law as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008. They were passed to boost homeownership. But instead, homeownership has demonstrably declined.

 

 

To learn more, see the reports linked herein. Because whatever one might think of Schmergel and Rolfe’s respective missives, one thing is clear. The HUD Code industry – despite years of posturing and claims by Kevin Clayton, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) owned Clayton Homes, which demonstrably has serious influence over MHI, the industry stands at a lower level today than in 2002-2003 when Warren Buffett led his conglomerate’s slow-motion invasion of the manufactured housing industry.

 

 

The issues are so stunning, that they may seem hard to believe. Perhaps that is the point. Somewhat like the premise of the Big Lie, perhaps being bold, open, and audacious are part of how these issues have managed to survive years of ever-more apparent flaunting of federal laws. While author Edward Curtin was talking about national issues apart from manufactured housing, his applying the notion of a “a tapestry of lies” arguably applies. The Capital Research Center (CRC) broadly has pointed to the common issues of “deception and misdirection” that when examined, look suspiciously like sabotaging monopolies or the Warren Buffett class warfare that features the Kevin Clayton embraced “moat.”

 

The truth is hiding in plain sight. Will lawmakers and public officials act?

 

The manufactured home equities and market report for the evening of 5.24.2021 follow.

 

Notice: While the layout of this business daily report has recently been modified, several elements of the basic concepts used previously are still the same. The headlines that follow below can be reviewed at a glance to save time while providing insights across the left-right media divide. Additionally, those headlines often provide clues as to possible ‘market moving’ reports.

 

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

Headlines from left-of-center CNN Business = evening of 5.25.2021

• Now boarding
• Flight attendants hand out refreshments to a packed Delta Airlines flight traveling from Ronald Regan National Airport to Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport on Friday, May 21, 2021.
• Planes are filling up and tickets are more expensive
• Inflation is back. Biden should be worried
• George Floyd’s death was a wake-up call for Corporate America. Here’s what has — and hasn’t — changed
• One year after George Floyd’s murder, Minneapolis’ businesses are still reeling
• Wall Street is facing a $9 trillion problem
• In 2008, he was CEO of the biggest bank to ever fail. He’s worried about another crisis
• Walmart apologizes to people who received racist emails
• Indian police visit Twitter after it labels a tweet from Narendra Modi’s party
• ‘F9’ star says he loves China after Taiwan remark stokes anger
• Airbnb CEO: Business travel won’t ever go back to what it was pre-pandemic
• This company wants to deliver your groceries in 10 minutes
• Former NASA astronaut plans private trip back to space: ‘It’s a little bit like an addiction’
• An Amazon.com Inc. package moves along a conveyor belt at a United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) Worldport facility in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. United Parcel Service Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on January 30.
• DC sues Amazon over alleged antitrust violations
• Elon Musk might be changing his tune on bitcoin mining. Here’s why
• How Ford won trucks, and America too
• FAST FOOD
• Burger King is bringing back this fan-favorite menu item
• Panera cafes are getting a whole new look
• Pringles is entering the fried chicken sandwich wars
• IHOP is ready to debut its new restaurant concept
• KFC is changing its packaging. Here’s what it looks like
• RETURN TO THE OFFICE
• closeup of a young man in an office holding a briefcase and a surgical mask in his hand
• Managers’ jobs will be harder than ever as we return to the office
• A hybrid work model can be really effective
• Some companies want everyone back in the office
• What Salesforce learned as it reopened offices
• Going back into work? Prepare to prove you’ve been vaccinated

Headlines from right-of-center Newsmax – evening of 5.25.2021

• McConnell Again Dings 1/6 Commission Plan: A ‘Purely Political Exercise’
• Roger Marshall to Newsmax: WHO Investigation a ‘Good Start’
• Wenstrup to Newsmax: Biden Reluctance on China ‘Not Fair to Mankind’ |
• Rudy Giuliani on Anti-Semitism: ‘Very Dangerous Thing We’re Watching’ |
• Whitmer’s COVID Hypocrisy Unmasked by Reporter |
• Giuliani: ‘Projection’ Has Dems Targeting Trump, Lawyers |
• Ann Wagner: WHO Should Not Be the Entity Investigating COVID Origins |
• Chad Wolf: ‘Unacceptable’ Biden, Harris Have Not Visited Border
• Newsfront
• Trump to Appear on Newsmax’s ‘Cortes & Pellegrino’ Tonight
• Former President Donald Trump will appear on Newsmax’s “Cortes & Pellegrino” at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, offering his insight on the current state of affairs. Like his previous on-air phone interviews with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly…
• Roger Marshall to Newsmax: WHO Investigation a ‘Good Start’
• Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Newsmax on Tuesday that the World
• McConnell: Jan. 6 Commission ‘Purely Political Exercise’
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday continued his
• DC Files Antitrust Case Vs. Amazon Over Treatment of Vendors
• The District of Columbia has sued Amazon, accusing the online retail
• GOP Senators Ready $1T Infrastructure Counteroffer to Biden
• Senate Republicans are preparing a $1 trillion infrastructure
• Democrats Quick to Criticize Israel, Slow to Address Increase in Anti-Semitic Attacks
• Many leading Progressive Democrats were quick to publicly condemn
• SPONSOR: Patents coming to protect big pharma
• George Floyd-Prompted ‘Defund the Police’ Movement Yields to ‘Defend the Police’
• The defund the police movement that arose in the wake of George
• Americans Reflect on George Floyd’s Legacy 1 Year After Murder
• Americans on Tuesday will mark the first anniversary of the murder of
• Related
• Shots Fired Near Intersection Where George Floyd Died, Police Say
• Trump’s Ex-WH Counsel McGahn to Testify Next Week About Mueller Report
• Former White House counsel Don McGahn is set to testify before a
• Multiple Shots Fired near George Floyd Memorial in Minneapolis
• Multiple gunshots were fired on Tuesday near the spot in Minneapolis
• George P. Bush Talks to Trump About Political Options for Texas
• Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who is weighing a challenge
• US to Reopen Jerusalem Consulate, Upgrading Palestinian Ties
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday that the Biden
• DC AG Files Anti-Trust Lawsuit Against Amazon
• Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine has announced an
• Rising Crime Rate Could Hurt Democrats in Midterm Elections
• Law and order could become a major campaign issue for the first time
• Top Legal Expert: Constitutional Amendment Needed for DC Statehood
• A top legal expert has warned there are “grave constitutional
• Texas Lawmakers Approve ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ Bill; Gov. Signature Awaits
• Texas state lawmakers have approved a bill that withholds funding
• Trump Congratulates Himself for Vaccine Rollout
• Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a statement
• Trump Offers Condolences to Newsmax’s Carson Over Mother’s Death
• Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a statement offering
• Moderna Shot Works for Teens, Could Be Cleared in June
• Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective in 12 to 17
• Trump Slams Joe Scarborough
• Former President Donald Trump Tuesday slammed MSNBC “Morning Joe”
• Wenstrup to Newsmax: Biden Reluctance on China ‘Not Fair to Mankind’
• The Biden administration’s reluctance to push China harder on
• One Year After George Floyd: Policy and Politics Plague Minneapolis Police Force
• One year after the death of George Floyd, Minneapolis Police are
• Many Americans Unprepared for Retirement: Poll
• More than one-third of the U.S. population is unprepared for
• Romney: ‘I Would Support the Bill’ to Create Jan. 6 Commission
• Mitt Romney is the first Republican senator to say publicly that
• Package With Death Threat Sent to Rand Paul
• A suspicious package containing white powder and a death threat
• Companies Seek Legal Clarity on Vaccine Incentives
• Companies that want to see their workers vaccinated against COVID-19
• Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera: US ‘Complicit’ in ‘Crimes Against Humanity’
• Standing for Palestinians in the conflict with Israel before Friday’s
• Rudy Giuliani to Newsmax: ‘Projection’ Has Dems Targeting Trump, Lawyers
• Striking back at the targeting of former President Donald Trump
• Legal Scholars Say Congress Can Make DC a State
• A group of legal scholars wrote a letter to members of Congress that
• Rudy Giuliani on Anti-Semitism: ‘Very Dangerous Thing We’re Watching’
• The wave of anti-Semitic attacks across the United States and
• These Chain Restaurants Have Announced They Are Closing This Year
• Finance
• US Consumer Confidence Holds Steady
• S. consumer confidence hovered at a 14-month high in May as optimism about job prospects tempered concerns about rising inflation and diminishing government financial support.Though the survey from the Conference Board on Tuesday suggested the pace of economic growth…
• Florida the 23rd GOP State to End Added Unemployment Benefits Early
• Boeing Max Gets Boost With Order Worth $1.7B
• Amazon Nears $9B Deal to Buy MGM Studios
• Big Banks Look for Rebound of Credit Card Revenue Amid Easing of Pandemic Restrictions
• More Finance
• Health
• Immune System Remembers Mild COVID-19
• Months after recovery from mild COVID-19, when antibody levels in the blood have declined, immune cells in bone marrow remain ready to pump out new antibodies against the coronavirus, researchers reported… [
• Bedtime With a Pet Won’t Harm Your Kid’s Sleep – and Might Help
• The Healing Power of Prayer
• 8 Secrets of Incredibly Happy People
• 2 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Needed to Protect Against Variants

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).
                        • NOTE: Deer Valley was largely taken private, say company insiders in a message to MHProNews on 12.15.2020, but there are still some outstanding shares of  the stock from the days when it was a publicly traded firm.  Thus, there is still periodic activity on DVLY.

Spring 2021…

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 celebrated our 11th year of publishing, and is starting our 12the year of serving the industry as the runaway most-read trade media.

Sample Kudos over the years…

It is now 11+ years and counting…

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

· For expert manufactured housing business development or other professional services, click here.
· To sign up in seconds for our industry leading emailed headline news updates, click here.

Disclosure. MHProNews holds no positions in the stocks in this report.

That’s a wrap on this installment of “News Through the Lens of Manufactured Homes and Factory-Built Housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, stock, investing, data, metrics, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)

By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.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.

LATonyKovach.