The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) reports that manufactured housing production for August 2011 increased six percent over August 2010, the first monthly increase in 12 months. Statistics from the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) show that HUD Code manufacturers produced 5,187 homes in August. Cumulative industry production for the year stands at 32,015, 9.9 percent lower than the 35,566 units through August 2010, but a significant increase over the double-digit decline the industry witnessed earlier this year. MHARR further notes that while this increase is most welcome, the affordability of manufactured housing should lead to an increase in demand despite the sluggish economy. “The fact that it has not yet benefitted from conditions that, in the past, have stoked industry growth, underscores that the sustained industry decline since 1998 is less a result of the broader economic environment than factors uniquely affecting manufactured housing – specifically, the unavailability of consumer financing and HUD’s failure to fully and properly implement key reforms of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 that were designed to ensure the parity of manufactured housing as “housing.”
