Key Senate Banking Leader Unveils Manufactured Housing Relief Legislation
On August 2nd, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs’ Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, formally introduced legislation (S. 3484) to reduce regulatory burdens impeding access to affordable manufactured housing financing.
The bill (titled the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act) is a companion measure to the bipartisan bill (H.R. 3849) that was introduced in the House of Representatives in February by Reps. Stephen Fincher (R-TN), Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and Gary Miller (R-CA), all of whom serve on the House Financial Services Committee.
Similar to the House bill, the Senate measure addresses two significant issues impacting the manufactured housing industry’s ability to provide affordable financing options to low- and moderate-income families seeking to purchase manufactured homes:
• Reducing the threshold by which small balance manufactured home personal property loans are considered High-Cost Mortgage Loans under provisions within in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (P.L. 111-203) and thereby subject to punitive and onerous liabilities.
• Clarifying that those selling manufactured homes—who are not fundamentally engaged in the business mortgage origination—are not to be considered mortgage originators under the federal SAFE Act and thereby better able to provide adequate technical assistance to consumers throughout the manufactured home buying process—similar to the SAFE Act treatment of real estate brokers.
Upon introduction of the bill, MHI Chairman and Cavco Industries Chairman and CEO Joe Stegmayer stated “we are truly grateful for Chairman Brown’s leadership and commitment to ensure financing for the 21 million Americans currently living in nearly 8.7 million manufactured homes across the country remains accessible. The legislation is an essential step in preserving the affordability advantage of manufactured housing and protecting the equity millions of manufactured home residents have built in their homes.”
MHI Treasurer, and Government Relations Committee Chairman, Nathan Smith added that introduction of the Senate bill “is true bipartisan recognition of the important role manufactured homes play in providing safe, reliable and sustainable housing to Americans across all income classes. Ensuring financing options remain readily available to manufactured homebuyers is the first step in preserving manufactured housing as a viable housing option.”
MHI will continue to work on a bipartisan basis to educate Members of Congress and develop solutions to the financing crisis within the manufactured housing market. For a copy of the legislation, Click here.
5,055 New HUD-Code Homes Shipped in June 2012 – Up 1 Percent from June 2011
The month of June 2012 saw 5,055 new manufactured homes shipped to retail customers, up one percent from June 2011. Slightly more single-section homes were shipped in June, and the number of multi-section homes shipped were slightly less compared to last year. Total home production was 5, 075 for June 2012, with total of 20 homes built, but not shipped to a final destination.
Compared to last year 2012 has recorded shipment increases every month so far. For the first six months of this year, shipments totaled 27, 682 homes compared with 23,149 homes in 2011, a net increase of 20 percent.
Detailed information will be provided in MHI’s Monthly Economic Report to be published early next week.
MHI Develops Anti-Money Laundering Program Template to Assist Industry Companies with Compliance
MHI has worked with the law firm of McGlinchey Stafford to develop a template to assist industry companies in complying with the Anti-Money Laundering Program (AML) and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR ) Filing Requirements for Residential Mortgage Lenders and Originators Final Rule. Non-bank companies that meet the definition of a residential mortgage lender and/or originator must comply with the rule by August 13, 2012.
The template and related documents are posted on the MHI Web site at www.manufacturedhousing.org under MHI News or by clicking here. On July 23rd, MHI held a Webinar for the industry to explain the template and answer questions. A recording of the program is available on the Web site.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and its mission includes receiving and maintaining financial transactions data and analyzing and disseminating that data for law enforcement purposes. FinCEN exercises regulatory functions resulting from requirements of the “Bank Secrecy Act” (BSA). The BSA is the nation’s first and most comprehensive Federal anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) statute.
In addition to collecting, analyzing, securing, and disseminating FinCEN data to its law enforcement and regulatory partners, FinCEN itself is a financial institution regulator. FinCEN has the task of writing and coordinating the enforcement of anti-money laundering rules for more than 100,000 banks, credit unions, money services businesses, insurance companies, securities brokers, casinos, mutual funds, precious metal dealers, and other financial institutions that face the risk of being used by criminals to support enterprises ranging from drug cartels, mortgage fraud rings, terrorist finance networks, and more. In furtherance of its mission, FinCEN established the requirement of AML programs and SAR filings for anyone that is considered a residential mortgage loan originator.
MHI Tells the Federal Housing Finance Agency to Include Manufactured Housing in GSE Initiatives
In a July 27th letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), MHI urged the agency to ease its restrictive policies regarding manufactured housing, including more purchases of personal property manufactured home loans and commercial loans secured by manufactured home communities by the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Responding to a request by the FHFA for comments on the GSE housing goals for 2012-2014, MHI told the FHFA that it supports amendments to include goals for manufactured homes financed as personal property and to clarify its treatment of commercial loans for land lease communities in the GSE multifamily housing goals.
MHI said that the GSEs “must reevaluate their overly restrictive guidelines for secondary market financing of conventional manufactured home loans, and urged the implementation of the ‘duty to serve’ the manufactured housing industry as directed by Congress as soon as possible.”
In its letter, MHI emphasized that manufactured housing is one of the few sources of quality affordable housing that does not receive significant government support or access to capital markets. In many states, manufactured homes make up the largest percent of unsubsidized housing for low- and very low-income Americans. MHI said “to complement and promote industry efforts, MHI needs national policy-makers as active supporters and vocal advocates.”
MHI also told FHFA that the manufactured housing market is already severely impacted by the lack of GSE support and now by the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd Frank Act; P.L. 111-203) and the Secure and Fair Enforcement of Mortgage Licensing Act which would have the unintended consequences of limiting the availability of and access to credit for the purchase of affordable manufactured housing.
To view a copy of the letter Click here.
MHI-PAC Hosts Fundraiser for Rep. Joe Donnelly’s Senate Campaign
On Wednesday, July 25th MHI hosted a successful fundraising event in Washington, D.C. for U.S. Representative Joe Donnelly (D-IN). Rep. Donnelly is running for the U.S. Senate to fill the seat held by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN). Sen. Lugar was defeated in the May Indiana primary by Richard Mourdock, Indiana’s State Treasurer.
Rep. Donnelly currently represents the cities and towns in Indiana that have one of the highest concentrations of manufactured home construction facilities and industry suppliers in the country. As a result, he understands and is passionate about our industry and the contribution it makes to the economy in the state of Indiana and to homebuyers seeking affordable, quality housing. While in the U.S. House of Representatives Rep. Donnelly has worked across party lines on issues important to the industry. Rep. Donnelly serves on the House Financial Services Committee.
MHI-PAC thanks the many supporters in the industry for their personal financial contributions to the fundraiser and especially Nathan Smith, SSK Communities, for his assistance and for his attendance at the event to represent MHI’s grassroots members.
