Let’s be honest. Not everyone gets it. So, savvy industry pros must help others ‘get it.’ That’s a transparent reason why we do reports like this one.
With a pro-business builder in the Oval Office, it’s wise to flashback to a time before President Gerald R. Ford praised the then “mobile home” industry. But ponder when another U.S. President specifically mentioned “mobile homes” by name several times, as he promoted their importance as part of the solution to the national housing needs in his era.
A pair of American Presidents understood during their time in office the serious need for factory-built homes prior to HUD regulations of what over time became the manufactured homes of today. So, why can’t industry professionals and advocates use examples like this, and thereby get public officials and influencers to grasp the urgent need for robust support for now federally regulated manufactured housing?
Before President Ford…
Right or wrong, President Richard Nixon is remembered for Watergate, Vietnam, and “opening-up” China to the West. There was the oil crisis, wage/price controls, and other drama during his time in office too.
But housing was a routine theme during President Nixon’s term in office. He saw the value of mobile homes, and promoted them in practical ways.
POTUS Nixon’s administration also promoted Operation Breakthrough, which broadly supported other forms of factory built and industrialized housing. That prior report is linked below.
The following is but one of a number of possible examples of President Nixon personally addressing what then was the mobile home industry. The source is courtesy of the official presidential archives. It was part of a longer address on the topic and date shown in the header below.
The context of POTUS Nixon’s comments were part of a broader address that dealt with housing and finance. The president understood that access to reasonable lending was crucial to support housing, including the pre-HUD Code mobile home industry.
“The Nation’s housing industry, which had been producing homes at record high rates in 1971, 1972, and 1973, is now operating far below its potential,” said then President Nixon, who continued with, “With this shrinkage of available housing funds, home buyers are either unable to find mortgage money, or the mortgages that are available are offered on terms which fewer families can meet…As builders curtail operations, workers in the construction trades face the prospect of increased unemployment.”
“I pledged 2 weeks ago that the Federal Government would take action to alleviate these conditions, and today I am announcing a four-point plan to do just that. These actions will assure the availability of more than $10 billion of mortgage money for the housing market during 1974 beyond the funding already provided through prior actions,” said President Nixon.
The fourth bullet for supporting what then was the mobile home industry was the following, quoted in its entirety.
- ASSISTING THE MOBILE HOME MARKET
“Under legislation effective earlier this year, I am authorizing a new FHA Mobile Home Loan Insurance Program which should make purchase of mobile homes easier than it has been in the past. The new rules will provide for FHA-insured loans for mobile homes on terms substantially better than those presently available in the market. The program will also make more funds available to mobile home purchasers through the use of GNMA’s Mortgage-Backed Securities Program.”
Why Not Now?
How many hoops would the industry jump through to get President Donald J. Trump to say something similar about manufactured homes today? Imagine if POTUS Trump ordered the FHFA to hold the GSEs responsible for fully supporting manufactured housing under their Congressionally mandated Duty to Serve?
Or what if President Trump asked HUD Secretary Ben Carson to instruct FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery to rescind the 10-10 rule that for several years has limited FHA Title I lending to only Berkshire Hathaway owned companies?
That would be a similar modern step to what President Nixon did in 1974. The entire address is fairly short by presidential standards, and can be found as a download, linked here.
Yesterday, the Daily Business News reported on two of Marty Lavin’s, JD, key points for the robust recovery of the manufactured housing market. Lending and access to lots. Lavin’s comments are in the article linked below.
Rising Prices and Rates Cool Housing Sales, MH Industry Pro Sounds Off, New Data & Video
Those are two keys are among the same points that Mark Weiss, JD, President and CEO the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR). They say it their respective ways, but their essential points are similar.
To help others to really ‘get it,’ see the related reports, linked above and below. ## (News, analysis and commentary.)
(Third party images, content are provided under fair use guidelines.)
1) To sign up in seconds for our MH Industry leading emailed news updates, click here.
2) To provide a News Tips and/or Commentary, click the link to the left. Please note if comments are on-or-off the record, thank you.
3) Marketing, Web, Video, Consulting, Recruiting and Training Resources
Related Reports:
U.S. President Praised “The Mobile Home Industry,” Manufactured Homes are “Here to Stay”
https://www.manufacturedhomelivingnews.com/fear-a-solution-to-the-affordable-housing-crisis-and-the-manufactured-home-dilemma/
