“However, the industry’s slow recovery from the economic recession and decreased access to credit for buyers has limited growth in demand for new units and created a competitive environment among producers; one that is destabilizing for many small manufacturers.”
Those words might have come from MHARR, or one of several commentaries by industry professionals reported on the Daily Business News.
Fredonia – a market research company that provides reports like the one they’ve done on manufactured housing for a cool $4,900 each – then states in their release, “Consequently, the industry has become increasingly concentrated as small producers close or are acquired by larger manufacturers. In 2015, the three largest producers of manufactured homes controlled over 70 percent of the US market, a share that has grown in recent years.”
Some tell MHProNews that this is nothing more than the survival of the fittest. One industry veteran wrote in, saying, “Do you remember a guy name Darwin?”
But the broader question isn’t the reality that some make it in business, while others don’t.
Fredonia isn’t saying that businesses just fail. They’re report’s top lines (executive summary) say that slow recovery and access to credit are choking off industry progress, causing some to sell – “consolidate.”
This was the same point raised in the Daily Business News regarding the commentary by and on Jenny Hodge.
The concerns of some are that failure to advance the agenda of the industry in Washington, D.C. is harming not just producers of manufactured homes, but communities, retailers and others in the business. Larger companies can better adapt to regulatory demands, while smaller ones can’t. That forced consolidations in the banking sector. It is creating consolidations in manufactured housing too.
The Trump Administration’s efforts to lift the regulatory burdens of Dodd-Frank, and the invitation by HUD to comment on how their regulations could be made more business friendly are all the more important.
Please see this recent linked report, as that regulatory comment deadline is tomorrow at 11:59 PM. The next consolidation could be someone you know and like, or it could include your own enterprise. ## (News, Analysis).
Disclosure: this writer uploaded to the HUD site the attached comments, see download, linked here.
- Comment by Bob Crawford of historic Dick Moore Housing submitted to HUD, linked here.
- Comments by Tim Connor, CSP to HUD, linked here.
(Image credits are as shown, and when provided by third parties, are shown under fair use guidelines.)
