Washington, D.C., February 3, 2015 – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) reports that according to official statistics compiled on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), manufactured housing industry production grew again during December 2014, leading to a fifth consecutive year of annual industry production increases. Just-released statistics indicate that HUD Code manufacturers produced 4,704 homes in December 2014, an 18% increase over the 3,985 HUD Code homes produced during December 2013. Cumulative industry production for all of 2014 thus totals 64,331 homes, a 6.8% increase over the 60,228 HUD Code homes produced in 2013.

Cumulative annual industry production figures since 2008 are thus as follows:

·         2008 – 81,457 homes

·         2009 – 49,683 homes

·         2010 – 50,056 homes

·         2011 – 51,618 homes

·         2012 – 54,881 homes

·         2013 – 60,228 homes

·         2014 – 64,331 homes

A further analysis of the official industry statistics shows that the top ten shipment states from the beginning of the industry production rebound in August 2011 through December 2014  — with cumulative, monthly, 2014 total and prior year (2013) shipments per category as indicated — are:

 

The latest information for December 2014 results in no changes to the cumulative top ten list.

While the sustained growth in the manufactured housing market since 2009 is encouraging, the fragile and tenuous nature of the overall economic recovery in the United States means that the gains made over the past five years are extremely vulnerable to price increases driven by excessive or unnecessary regulatory compliance costs that could make HUD Code manufactured housing less affordable and less accessible for millions of lower and moderate-income Americans. Continued growth, therefore, will depend on industry vigilance against unjustified and unwarranted regulatory compliance cost increases, such as those that could result from baseless energy regulation under consideration by the Department of Energy (DOE) or the relentless expansion of in-plant regulation with make-work monitoring contractor activities that have sharply intensified in the wake of HUD’s recent 156% label fee increase.