More Changes in HUD’s Office of Manufactured Housing

Former HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory Affairs, Teresa Payne is back at HUD. She left HUD earlier this year for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to continue working on SAFE Act and RESPA issues. Payne will serve as a Special Assistant in the Office of Risk Management and Regulatory Affairs where she will work on a variety of issues, which may include manufactured housing. Beverly Miller currently serves as the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Risk Management and Regulatory Affairs.

New CFPB Head Indicates Tough Enforcement Ahead

Still without an official director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) acting head, Raj Date, indicated that the Bureau would be taking a strong stance in identifying practices harmful to consumers.

When Elizabeth Warren resigned as the head of the agency earlier this summer, Date was thrust into the role of leading the agency until the Senate could confirm the nomination of Richard Cordray as the Bureau’s first official director. However, Senate Republicans have promised to block the nomination until changes are made to the CFPB’s operating structure. Meaning, Date could potentially be serving as the de facto head of the Bureau for the foreseeable future.

On September 15, Date, whose official title is Special Adviser to the Treasury Secretary, delivered his first public speech and stated that “banks and other firms will find that we are fair-minded. But we’re tough-minded too…when enforcement is the right tool to use, I assure you we will not hesitate to use it.”

He indicated areas the CFPB would focus its enforcement and regulatory efforts, including:

• bank overdraft fees

• those offering products outside of the traditional banking sector (payday and title lenders)

• streamlining mortgage disclosure forms

• developing basic standards for mortgage servicing

• private student lenders and for-profit educational institutions

Senate Committee Examines Need for Government Guarantee of Housing Finance System

On September 13, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing entitled Housing Finance Reform: Should there be a Government Guarantee? Witnesses to the hearing focused their testimony on the level of government needed in the housing finance market.

Two witnesses indicated that given the country’s current economic situation, sufficient private capital did not exist to support a purely privatized market. Witnesses also stated that:

• There is insufficient demand for mortgage credit risk to support the housing market absent some form of government guarantee.

• Given the current “economic stress,” the absence of government guarantees would lead to an absence of mortgages.

• A purely private market would “likely” not provide a 30-year fixed rate pre-payable mortgage.

Witnesses also stressed that the “choice” facing policy makers is not “guarantee versus no guarantee.” It is whether the guarantee should be implicit or explicit.

Other witnesses stressed that a purely private market could fully service the needs of the housing markets and do so without further stress to the economy.

MHI-PAC Hosts Congressmen Stephen Fincher and Jeb Hensarling

On Thursday, MHI-PAC in conjunction with Porterfield & Lowenthal, LLC hosted a very successful fundraising event for Congressman Stephen Fincher (R-8th-TN) with special guest Jeb Hensarling (R-5th-TX). Congressman Hensarling is one of the 12-member bipartisan panel or “Super Committee” which will determine how the government will trim $1.5 trillion from the deficit. Representatives Fincher and Hensarling are key members of the House Financial Services Committee and friends of the industry. Congressman Fincher will be the driving force behind MHI’s revisions in the House of Representatives to the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Industry Statistical Resources – Know Where to Go

The Manufactured Homes Survey (MHS) is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). MHS produces monthly regional estimates of new manufactured home placements, average sales prices, and retailers’ inventories and more detailed annual estimates including selected characteristics of new manufactured homes. This is conducted using survey instruments.

The MHS is a mail-out and telephone interview survey of about 1,000 retailers covering an inventory of some 1,200 selected new manufactured homes is conducted each month. In addition, a sample of newly manufactured homes is selected from lists obtained from the Institute for Building Technology and Safety. Retailers that take shipment of the selected homes are mailed a survey form for recording the status of the manufactured home. Each successive month, the retailer is contacted by telephone and provides updated status information about the home. Contact continues until the selected home is placed. From the sample data, monthly placements in the U.S. are estimated and seasonally adjusted.

The statistics on actual production of new manufactured homes (once the month has concluded) are produced by the Institute for Building Technology and Safety (IBTS) and published by the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) each month.