After 43 years, Santiam Homes in Aumsville, Oregon, is transitioning out of business and it’s location will be taken over by J & M Homes, which offers new and repossessed manufactured homes, as well as real estate, financing and construction in-house. The Statesman-Journal tells MHProNews.com Santiam’s owners, Ken and Janet Bentz, will maintain a mentorhsip role for one year as J & M’s owner Jim Wilson expands into his fifth retail location since beginning in 2000. J & M’s general manager, Marty Brown, noting the 95 percent decline in production of MH in the last 15 years, says, “There were 10 to 12 manufacturing plants in the Oregon-Washington area five years ago and that’s gone down to six. We’ve gone from 70 to 80 retail dealerships in the mid-1990s to 20.” Modular producers Modern Building Systems and Blazer Industries continue on in Aumsville. Don Miner, executive director of the Oregon Manufactured Housing Association, says delivery of manufactured homes to Oregon declined from nearly 1,800 in 2007 to 445 last year. He says production in Jan. 2011 was up almost 28 percent over Jan. 2011.

(Photo credit: Denise Ruttan/The Stayton Mail)