While conventional housing remains hot, the statistics that follow continue to spell “opportunity” for visionary, and long-term thinkers in manufactured housing.
“Existing-home sales [EHS] subsided in most of the country in December, but 2017 as a whole edged up 1.1 percent and ended up being the best year for sales in 11 years,” according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).
“Total existing-home sales…which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 1.1 percent in 2017 to a 5.51 million sales pace and surpassed 2016 (5.45 million) as the highest since 2006 (6.48 million),” the NAR said in a release to the Daily Business News.
“In December, existing-home sales slipped 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million from a downwardly revised 5.78 million in November. After last month’s decline, sales are still 1.1 percent above a year ago.”
NAR’s Yun – No Quick Fixes Spell$ Manufactured Housing Opportunitie$
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market performed remarkably well for the U.S. economy in 2017, with substantial wealth gains for homeowners and historically low distressed property sales.
“Existing sales concluded the year on a softer note, but they were guided higher these last 12 months by a multi-year streak of exceptional job growth, which ignited buyer demand,” said Yun. “At the same time, market conditions were far from perfect. New listings struggled to keep up with what was sold very quickly, and buying became less affordable in a large swath of the country. These two factors ultimately muted what should have been a stronger sales pace.”
Added Yun, “Closings scaled back in most areas last month for this same reason. Affordability pressures persisted, and the pool of interested buyers at the end of the year significantly outweighed what was available for sale.”
The median existing-home price for all housing types [not including manufactured housing] in December was $246,800, up 5.8 percent from December 2016 ($233,300). December’s price increase marks the 70th straight month of year-over-year gains.
Total housing inventory at the end of December dropped 11.4 percent to 1.48 million existing homes available for sale, and is now 10.3 percent lower than a year ago (1.65 million) and has fallen year-over-year for 31 consecutive months. Unsold inventory is at a 3.2-month supply at the current sales pace, which is down from 3.6 months a year ago and is the lowest level since NAR began tracking in 1999.
Those boosts in home values could be significant for those who are selling manufactured homes to retirees or other ‘downsizers.’
“The lack of supply over the past year has been eye-opening and is why, even with strong job creation pushing wages higher, home price gains – at 5.8 percent nationally in 2017 – doubled the pace of income growth and were even swifter in several markets,” said Yun.
First-time buyers were 32 percent of sales in December, which is up from 29 percent in November and unchanged from a year ago.
U.S. Association, Plus Canadian-Owned U.S. based MH Lender Release Video, Facts on Modern Manufactured Homes and MH Homebuyers – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
The manufactured housing industry is undergoing significant changes in both the United States and in Canada. As we reported some weeks ago via our interview with award winning retailer, Alan Amy, billionaires and billion-dollar operations are literally buying into the manufactured home industry. Why?
With the typical manufactured home price hovering around $70,000, the opportunities for manufactured housing pros are strong.
KYPs, and the $64 Billion Dollar Question-Monday Morning Manufactured Housing Sale$ Meeting
But there is a clear need to tap into the kinds of strategies that will attract and ‘convert’ conventional housing shoppers into manufactured home buyers. ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
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Soheyla is a managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
