The Natural Resources Defense Council reports the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) has assembled a working team to develop new energy-efficient standards for manufactured homes (MH) to replace the current ones that are over 20 years old. Noting the existence of nine million manufactured homes nationwide providing affordable housing …
As a follow-up to MHARR’s June 4, 2014 report on this matter (“DOE Meeting to Address MH Energy Standard”), attached is a Department of Energy (DOE) notice from the June 13, 2014 Federal Register announcing DOE’s intent to proceed with a “negotiated rulemaking” for development of the manufactured housing energy …
Manufactured Housing Energy Conservation Standards Read More
From time to time, software and other changes by third parties results in emails going to spam filters that you don’t want there. We’ve had some inquiries about “missing our emails,” and typically, such software changes has caused a message to go into spam; it happens to lots of operations …
Legislative Approach to RV Definition Issue Reaches Critical Stage in Congress As previously reported by MHARR, the full Senate Appropriations Committee held a mark-up hearing on June 5, 2014 concerning the 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill. Based on information from congressional sources, the bill (as modified by …
Legislative Approach to RV Definition Issue Reaches Critical Stage in Congress Read More
According to themortgagereports.com, Veterans Administration (VA) loans for buying a home through the Department of Veterans Affairs are often the least expensive route for homeownership for current and former U. S. military personnel. VA loans allow up to 100 percent financing with no required mortgage insurance and can be used …
Manufactured Home Purchases Available for Military Veterans Read More
A Cup of Coffee with…Jim Clayton
Part II
Part 1 of A Cup of Coffee with…Jim Clayton, is found at the link below. Part II starts below too. The previous and current video interviews cover different ground than the text (written) questions and answers, do dig thoughtfully into both!
Mayor Senna Mosley and the Board of Aldermen of La Vergne, Tennessee voted 4-1 requiring all new homes to be built with a sprinkler system, according to dnj.com. The daughter, granddaughter, wife and mother of firefighters, Mosley, recalling seeing roofs fall on her father as a child, says, “ I …
Manufactured and Modular Housing Exempt from Sprinklers Read More
The latest compliance report released by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight reveals Green Tree Servicing failed eight of the settlements 29 metrics for mortgage servicing, according to housingwire.com. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Ocwen each passed all 29 metrics. If Green Tree does not quickly …
Green Tree could Face Fines if Mortgage Servicing not Corrected Read More
A tornado that touched down Monday, May 26, 30 miles southeast of Williston, North Dakota, where the population is mushrooming due to the oil boom, severely damaged 15 workforce housing units and injured nine people, one of them critically. The other eight were treated and released, according to kaaltv.com. William …
North Dakota Tornado Damages Housing, Injures Nine Read More
Breaking News — Measure to Preserve Access to Affordable Manufactured Housing Clears Key Hurdle in U.S. House On May 22nd, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee passed the bipartisan Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act (H.R. 1779) to protect the ability of manufactured home customers to buy, sell and refinance …
Thomas Brown, writing on bankstocks.com, reports the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has jettisoned its personnel review board because on a 1-5 scale whites outscored Latinos who outscored blacks, so it will solve the inequality by paying everyone as a five. As Brown says, “This is no way to run …
Did the CFPB Fail its Own “Disparate Impact” Test? Read More
The topic at the Camarillo (Calif.) City Council turned to rent control as requested by residents of the Lamplighter Mobile Home Park because of their grievances against the owner, Irvine-based Investment Property Group (IPG). Members of the 227 homesite community say the swimming pool area is not kept up and …
City Refuses Request to Adopt Rent Control in MHCs Read More
1. MHARR FILES COMMENTS ON HUD LABEL FEE INCREASE RULEMAKING MHARR has filed written comments (attached) in a pending HUD rulemaking to increase the manufactured housing certification label fee for the first time since 2002. Under the HUD proposed rule, the Department would increase the label fee from the current …
Top National News Apartments as Percent of Housing Starts Reaches 40-Year High The latest Haver Analytics study shows that the share of housing starts consisting of five-or-more unit buildings topped 39 percent last month — the highest since February 1974. Researchers say part of the gain in April was because …
A May 21, 2014 mark-up hearing by the House Appropriations Committee to consider amendments to the Fiscal Year 2015 Transportation, HUD and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill, has concluded without the inclusion of any RV definition language that would further tamper with the federal manufactured housing law. Neither the omnibus …
RV Industry Effort to expand statutory Exemption – Status Report and Updates Read More
For $5.9 million you can buy a manufactured home, the only man made structure on this 266-acre rural Arizona property that once had gold prospectors exiting the 25 miles of tunnels with nuggets as big as potatoes in the late 1800’s. The Octave Mine once supported the entire town of …
While tampabay.com writer Drew Harwell pounds owners of manufactured housing communities (MHCs) for taking advantage of people of limited means—”Mobile home parks charge homeowners every month to rent their square of dirt and concrete,” he says, which is not exactly complimentary of the residents either, because “they can’t afford to …
Writer Slams Manufactured Housing Communities but Residents Love Life Read More
On May 15th, the Senate Banking Committee approved legislation (currently unnumbered) on a 13-9 vote that would eliminate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and overhaul the nation’s secondary housing finance market. The bill, authored by Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) and ranking member Mike Crapo (R-ID), now moves to the full Senate. …
Dear Mr. Tolley: Your May 5, 2014 article, “Mobile Homes Often Death Traps,” is long on sensationalism and short on facts – at least accurate ones. From the start, the premise of the article is false and misleading. It quotes Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney as stating that “manufactured homes …
Responding to an article in the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi in which Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says, “manufactured homes…are not built to any code,” Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform’s (MHARR) Danny Ghorbani strongly disputes that claim. He says, “Manufactured homes that are designed and built to be …
Ghorbani Responds to Erroneous News Article about Manufactured Housing Read More
