Having been tamed on his anti-MH chattel lending theme for a few months, Doug Ryan is back at it again with his latest attack on the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). Ryan does so while asserting his support for manufactured homes as an important solution for home ownership for millions of lower income Americans.
MHARR’s president and CEO, M. Mark Weiss, JD, has sounded his alarm bell on both the handling of DTS (see the download reprinted with permission, linked above) as well as on HUD’s overreaches on MH, in an detailed column, linked here, each courtesy of the Journal.
Friends and fellow MH Pros, there are plenty of real attacks coming at us from outside of our industry. That’s not negative, that’s reality we must deal with. Dealing with it will reward us, failing to will only harm us.
Recall the praise via video for MH provided by HUD’s Julian Castro, while per MHARR’s Mark Weiss, MH is having the screws put to us by HUD’s regulators? When one looks at the definition of schizophrenia, is it too big of a rhetorical leap to wonder out loud if Ryan and HUD are both suffering from a split personality regarding MH?
Similarly, CFED’s Ryan is a public supporter of manufactured housing, but a strong critic of MHI and the largest lenders and builder associated with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway. Ryan has promoted the coverage of the Seattle Times, without acknowledging CFED’s/CFPB’s or Daniel Wagner’s conflict of interests in the financing of MH. We’ve published our take on the Ryan/CFED rant in Matthew Silver’s fine column, which is cross referenced, updated and linked here.
The Test for MHI?
MHI has been loathe to publicly respond to PBS NewsHour, the Seattle Times, or attacks and problematic behavior like Ryan’s and HUD’s MH program.
“Silence,” says the old English proverb, “betokens consent.” Public silence on a serious allegation makes MH look guilty of something, when we have so much as an industry to be proud of in the day to day work done by tens of thousands of dedicated MH Pros.
Do I get it that some at MHI may think it better to let attacks blow over? Yes. But, I respectfully disagree. Why? Simple. Where have years of ignoring media attacks and bad news stories gotten MH as an industry?
This time, informed sources tell MHProNews, MHI has approached American Banker and has asked to respond publicly to the Doug Ryan OpEd. If true, perhaps our repeated calls for MHI to be more aggressive in responding to outsiders attacks may be paying off?
Time will tell.
Again, Matthew Silver’s Daily Business News column on this topic lays out the well-linked facts. Read carefully, read the cross links, and you’ll be able to answer for yourself the question, does CFED/Ryan behave in a split personality fashion about MH?
Full Disclosure
Like MHARR’s CEO, we still believe that the minutes of the meetings with MHI, FHFA and the non-profits about the DTS rule being applied to the GSEs should be made public. If there is any rationale for keeping such important issues away from the public eye, we welcome hearing or reading it. After all, the current president said his was supposed to be a highly transparent administration.
Unlike some on any issue or any profession who are unable or unwilling to take a nuanced look at a topic, we believe that one can agree on some issues, and disagree on others.
Like MHI, MHARR or others, we’ve long supported the DTS, and have raised that topic off and on for years.
UPDATE…Off The Record – from an MHPro…re: Doug Ryan’s American Banker OpEd:
- Doug Ryan mistakenly thinks pixie dust comes with GSE funding. Unless the GSEs are willing to subsidize MH lending, the rate will never approach the comparable rates for median priced home loans.
- MH has higher origination cost (as a percentage of the loan)
- MH has higher servicing cost (as a percentage of the loan)
- Default risk on low balance MH loans have higher default risk than median priced home mortgage. As does low price/low income buyers of inner city site built housing.
- The only thing the GSE’s can deliver without a subsidy is access to the capital markets. There are costs and risk to the GSEs in providing this access and those cost and risk must be passed on to the originators of the loans.
Defense Can Score Points, Worth Billion$ to MH – Those Collective Billion Could be Worth 6 or 7 figures to Operation$ like Your’$
MHI has for years begged for new members, but the solution for any association to get new members is obvious. Make the value proposition so clear and appealing, that pros will gladly sign up. Claiming historic roots dating back 75 years, MHI has the depth of history that people want. MHI showing pros like you that they will defend the industry from any unjust attack, while promoting the good news about MH and member firms, that’s just smart association work. It’s in keeping with their own statement, in brown below.
Let me stress this next point.
We don’t say any of this as part of an anti-MHI attack, nor any criticism of any MHI staffer. Rather, its simply a reality. MHI needs to be questioned, just as we get questioned, or we’ve questioned MHARR or others in MH at various times, when and as needed for the good of the industry. The reaction of MHI staffers who’ve been questioned ought not to be ‘lets find a way to get even‘ (not saying they are, just speaking rhetorically there). Rather, they should live up to what they say on their own website:
“MHI is the national trade organization representing all segments of the factory-built housing industry. MHI serves its membership by providing industry research, promotion, education and government relations programs, and by building and facilitating consensus within the industry.”
Consensus flows from discussion, from free-flowing of ideas that are open to being questioned or alternative approaches explored. Yet do all on staff at MHI actually apply that noble principle?
So today, we’ve spotlighted Doug Ryan/CFED’s faux pas, are anticipating what MHI will publish with American Banker, have shown the concerns expressed by MHARR’s members via their CEO and what an MHI member said in the bullet points above.
The Masthead is calling for a renewed spirit at MHI in keeping with their own statements and organizational goals. No one will cheer louder than we will when and if that happens, because when MHI does that, the odds they cross the finish line on proposals such as DTS, or Preserving Access will leap ahead. That will be good for the industry at large and for millions of MH owners and would be buyers.
Let me say anew, there is much that MHI does quite well. There are plenty of good peole who are MHI members and who work at MHI, just as there are in other associations, organizations and companies in the industry.
What’s Coming…
By way of progamming notes, we have a number of new features coming next week with the March 2016 Featured Articles. We’ll bring you a new A Cup of Coffee with… a highly respected – historic, and widely known – industry pro. We’ll have at least two, perhaps more, new videos – one of which will include keen follow up insights on finance related issues. The new Tunica Show site is live, and we’ll have more udpates coming on the 2016 Tunica Manufactured Housing Trade Show. The new March 2016 issue is scheduled to go live on Monday night, Feb 29th. March madness – basketball, politics and MH Industry news, tips and views will all be upon us. Let’s make the end of the first quarter in MH for 2016 a good one. ##
