MHI and dozens of industry members attended a Manufactured Housing Finance Summit hosted by Congressman Donnelly (D-IN) and FHA Commissioner Stevens in Elkhart, Indiana on June 2nd.
MHI would like to thank Congressman Donnelly and Commissioner Stevens and their respective staffs for devoting their time and resources to hosting this meeting. Industry representatives included lenders, community owners, and manufacturers. In addition to industry representation, several large non-industry lending institutions were present, as well as officials from Ginnie Mae, HUD and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
As MHI has stressed for several years, the availability of capital to provide financing for our customers is our greatest challenge. MHI prepared for the event with the goal of making meaningful inroads that would lead to increased and robust lending activity in the manufactured housing space.
At the beginning of the meeting, MHI reminded our partners at HUD, FHA, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency that they too have a vested interest in seeing the availability of affordable housing expanded.
Click here for the presentation.
MHI also prepared an issues brief (Click here) – both were distributed to everyone at the meeting, along with other collateral material about the industry, and images of our homes.
During the meeting, the FHA Commissioner announced that the final Title I guidance letter has finally been approved (see article below) and Ginnie Mae officials expect to take action soon on issuing pooling requirements for securitization and expanding approved issuers. Additionally, HUD said they were making efforts to address the industry’s concerns with the SAFE Act.
On the other hand, MHI was disappointed to learn the day before the Elkhart meeting, the FHFA’s proposed rule on the ‘duty to serve’ was released and does not include any proposal to involve the GSEs in personal property lending for manufactured housing. (see article below).
There were several action items that MHI will be following up on as a result of the meeting:
1) Follow-up with FHA and the industry to begin to craft “best practices” in following the new FHA program guidelines. These guidelines would serve to assist lenders, particularly those with little familiarity with manufactured housing, to understand how to lend responsibly within the industry – with the goal of keeping the FHA programs sustainable for years to come;
2) Follow-up with FHA in helping them to understand: lien perfections, the pricing of our loans, the typical manufactured home loan duration, appraisal issues, and how manufactured home loans should be evaluated relative to other housing loans;
3) Work with FHFA on modifying the MH Select program to make it useable;
4) Continue to work with HUD and Congress on providing relief for industry regarding the SAFE Act;
5) Follow-up with non-industry groups and educate these outside sectors that personal property lending is essential to the industry and is being done responsibly with appropriate consumer protections;
6) Revisit GSE policy and how we need to best allocate our political resources and influence in this important debate. Subject for MHI Legislative Conference and Summer Meeting in July.
MHI would like to thank all its members who participated. MHI members with questions can contact Thayer Long at tlong@mfghome.org.
