In a June Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article, Bryce Maretzki, director of strategic and policy for the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, identified two major needs within the state: affordable housing and better quality housing.
As prices increased rapidly, making it difficult for some workers to find housing, fortunately, the appearance of quality manufactured home communities has offered a quick and desirable solution. “Manufactured homes, which are factory-built houses shipped to home sites, are a fantastic form of work force housing,” said Sam Landy, President of UMH Properties (UMH), an owner/operator of manufactured home communities and retail centers. “The efficiency of factory building reduces the cost of housing by about 40 percent, and homes in a land-lease community are more affordable.”
As MH industry professionals know, a land-lease community is one in which the homes are owned by the occupants, but the land is owned and managed by a holding company. UMH is a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) that has been growing rapidly in this sector, roughly doubling their footprint in about 5 years.
UMH owns several land-lease communities in some of the busiest oil and gas exploration areas of the country. Landy pointed out that because UMH owns each property, the company pays the costs of installing and maintaining sewer and water systems, streets, and other infrastructure. This means that people buying a home in one of these land-lease communities are paying for the home only. This means a buyer does not have to come up with as large a down payment for financing.
Affordable living
According to an article in Marcellus, in addition to scarcity of homes and other living arrangements, another challenge is that of continually rising rent costs. Though Allegheny County’s median rent is $995 per month according to Zillow, three-bedroom homes in the Pittsburgh metro can easily demand up to $2000 per month.
In contrast to the typically pricey housing linked to oil booms, Landy said UMH clients can expect to find a brand-new home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms in one of their communities for about $800 per month or less. “Our rents are competitive, and in fact, lower than any other form of housing in the area of equal quality because of the efficiency of building a manufactured home,” he said. “I don’t know anywhere else you could buy a brand-new three-bedroom, two-bath house for $800 a month.”
Comfort of home without the cost
Since 1968, UMH Properties has aimed to provide affordable quality housing. The factory-built nature of the homes means that, for about the monthly cost of an apartment, residents can enjoy the same independence that comes from having a single-family home.
“In an apartment or a townhouse, residents have common wall neighbors on each side, someone living above and possibly someone living below,” Landy stated. “In a manufactured home, you don’t have that. You have your own home with your own yard. You can garden, you can barbeque, and you don’t have to worry about whether or not the neighbor has three five-gallon cans of gasoline in their garage.”
Another benefit of buying or renting a manufactured home is that they often feature brand-new appliances, that if found in a site-built home, can hike up the prices of the homes. “Because manufactured home builders are some of the largest buyers of appliances, they obtain the best appliances at the best prices,” Brett Taft, a UMH Vice President, explained. “UMH homes can have the finest refrigerators, the finest stoves, all at low prices because the manufacturers are buying in bulk.”
Quality of Life
Of the benefits realized in living in UMH communities, residents said that quality of life was by far the most important. They said they enjoyed the swimming pools, clubhouses, playgrounds and other amenities found in these communities. Security also was a big plus.
“It is quiet, peaceful and I’m not afraid to live alone here,” said Meadow Wood resident Nancy Bell. “The residents look out for each other.”
For states with an influx of prospective oil and gas workers, a rapid growth in population can sometimes overwhelm an area. The issue of safety has been a concern in regions such as the Bakken shale play in North Dakota and Montana, which has contended with an increase in crime in the midst of its oil boom.
As UMH prepares to welcome more residents into their communities, Landy and Taft remain committed to preserving their communities’ safe and peaceful environments.
“All our communities have an on-site manager, and a lease with rules and regulations,” Landy explained. “We enforce the rules and regulations, the manager enforces them, and if necessary, we employ private security, because it’s our objective to provide a safe place to live.”
While UMH prioritizes residents’ security, Landy said he doesn’t anticipate any problems with a wave of oil and gas industry leaseholders. “What we’ve heard from our communities that have residents who are oil and gas workers is that these people are extremely hard-working. They’re up at the crack of dawn and they get home around 5 or 6 at night,” he said.
Landy and Taft both look forward to serving even more communities filled with residents who work hard and maintain strong bonds with their families and neighbors. They feel that oil and gas employees certainly fit that criteria.
UMH currently operates 88 communities—many of which have vacancies within a half-hour’s drive of Ohio and Pennsylvania’s oil and gas-dense areas such as Washington County and Allegheny County. ##
(Photo Credit: UMH Properties)
Article submitted by Sandra Lane to – Daily Business News – MHProNews.
