MHI’s Monthly Economic Report© for March 2010 is now available.

The Manufactured Housing Institute’s actual shipments report indicates that 4,517 new HUD Code homes were shipped in March 2010, up 14.2 percent from March 2009. Increases were across the board with both single-section and multi-section homes shipments up compared with the same month last year.

Following February with essentially flat shipments and January’s year-over-year decline in total shipments of 17.4 percent, the increases for March brings the industry about even with the first quarter of 2009 in year-to-date total shipments. For the first three months of the year, industry shipments stood at 11,132 homes compared with 11,311 homes for the same period in 2009.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of shipments was 56,816 in March, up about 14 percent from the rate of 49,804 posted in February. The SAAR corrects for normal seasonal variations in shipments and projects an annual shipments pace based on the current monthly total.

Total floors shipped in March 2010 were 7,180, up 10.3 percent from the same month in 2009.

The number of plants reporting production in March was 138 and the number of reporting corporations was 58, unchanged from last month.

If you are an MHI member, you can access the report on MHI’s website at www.manufacturedhousing.org.