The study opens with the statement, “One of the often overlooked impacts of building regulations is their effect on housing affordability. Every time a local or higher level government issues a new construction regulation it raises construction costs by, for example, increasing the price of construction permits or impact fees. Higher costs invariably translate into higher home prices and higher prices in turn disqualify more households from being able to afford new homes.”
The report by Natalia S. Siniavskaia, Ph.D. was released as Special Studies, on August 1, 2014, by the Economics and Housing Policy division of the NAHB. A download of the full report is available, at this link here. “The median new home price for the United States is set at $275,000 for 2014. It is based on monthly median new home prices reported by the Census Bureau over 2013 and the first four months of 2014.”
Compare that median cost for conventional home building to the median price of a single section manufactured home (MH) at $42,200 or multi-sectional MH at $78,600, also per U.S. Census Bureau figures, click here for the full report by state and region.
This issue dovetails with concerns expressed by HUD Code manufactured home builders, expressed in this article linked below.
HUD Code Manufactured Home Producers Want Regulatory Fairness and Stronger Congressional Oversight
The above was also mentioned by the Manufactured Housing Association of Regulator Reform (MHARR) in their commentary on this topic.
Forward thinking manufactured housing professionals understand that while HUD Code MH can uniquely serve the lowest rungs of the housing ladder, future opportunities for growth depends upon the ability of industry professionals to individually and/or collectively to attract more cash and credit worthy customers currently served by apartments, rental housing, real estate agents or conventional housing builders. ##
(Image credits: NAHBeNews, NAHB Price Out Study)
