Washington, D.C., April 5, 2019 – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) reports that according to official statistics compiled on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), year-over-year HUD Code manufactured home production declined once again in February 2019. Just-released statistics indicate that HUD Code manufacturers produced 7,213 homes in February 2019, down 10.5%, from the 8,065 homes produced in February 2018. Cumulative industry production for 2019 now totals 14,769 homes, an 11.5% decline from the 16,701 HUD Code homes produced over the same period in 2018.

This production decline, which first emerged during the last quarter of 2018, reflects the cumulative impact of chronic problems affecting the industry’s post-production sector, which substantially and discriminatorily limit the market for HUD Code manufactured housing, thereby offsetting, to a significant degree, the inherent affordability advantage that manufactured homes have over other types of housing. Such negative effects – on both consumers of affordable housing and the industry as a whole – underscore the absolute and urgent necessity of effectively addressing such issues within the post-production sector, including, but not limited to, discriminatory zoning and placement restrictions (i.e., increasingly scarce new developments/communities and individual homeowner placement opportunities) and limitations on federal consumer financing support, and underscore the wisdom of the MHARR Board of Directors in targeting these matters for aggressive action.

A further analysis of the official industry statistics shows that the top ten shipment states from the beginning of the industry production rebound in August 2011 through February 2019  — with cumulative, monthly, current year (2019) and prior year (2018) shipments per category as indicated — are:

The latest information for February 2019 results in no changes to the cumulative shipments list.

The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform is a Washington, D.C.-based national trade association representing the views and interests of independent producers of federally-regulated manufactured housing.