According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit think-tank, reveals that Americans are 40 percent poorer today than they were in 2007.
In the past few years, the wealth of most Americans has not increased. In addition, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages remained stagnant.
As a result, financial writer Quentin Fottrell tells MHProNews that stagnant wages and rising property prices don’t bode well for first-time home buyers without wealthy parents.
Not only is it difficult to save enough money to purchase a home, Fottrell points out that half of American homeowners cannot afford the home they presently own.
A study conducted by the nonprofit John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and carried out by Hart Research Associates revealed that more than half of Americans (52 percent) have had to make at least one major sacrifice in order to cover rent or mortgage payments during the last three years.
“These sacrifices include getting a second job, deferring saving for retirement, cutting back on health care, running up credit card debt, or even moving to a less safe neighborhood or one with worse schools.”
Many potential homebuyers cannot purchase a home because they cannot obtain a loan for various reasons. Consequently, they have to rent a place to live. Fottrell said, “Average Americans now spend nearly 30 percent of their income on rent…..while U.S. home buyers making the nation’s median income and purchasing the typical U.S. home spend around 15 percent of their income on their monthly house payment…” See related story, linked here.
By comparison, the Census Bureau reported that in July 2014, single section manufactured housing sold for an average price of $42,100, multi-sectional for $78,400 for an average MH sales price of $63,700, each of these without land.
With rental rates and the cost of new housing rising, these all spell potential opportunities for manufactured housing builders, developers, communities, retailers and their suppliers.
So why do conventional housing starts still dwarf new manufactured home new home shipments? What must happen for manufactured housing to achieve its potential in 2015? There’s opportunity aplenty for the manufactured housing industry members to become heroes to the struggling middle class. ##
(Photo credit: Gov’t Slaves)
