March Housing Numbers Up for Manufactured Homes

According to the Manufactured Housing Institute, shipments of manufactured homes for March, 2012 were up 16.4% from the same month one year ago. While this is welcome news, there is one nugget of concern in the information:

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of shipments was 57,268 in March 2012, down 9.3 percent from February 2012 which had 63,111shipments. The SAAR corrects for normal seasonal variations in shipments and projects annual shipments based on the current monthly total.

You can read more by clicking here.

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Housing Market on the Way Back Up says Trulia

That’s the word, according to this AGBeat article.

The article points out that home prices and rents are on the rise again, and it also points out that the single-family housing market is in recovery mode:

“The single-family market has already begun to recover,” observed Dr. Kolko. “New home starts are more than 30% higher than their low in early 2009. And asking prices on for-sale homes (single family + condo) have risen for three months in a row, according to the Trulia Price Monitor.”

Here is another interesting quote that also contains a note of caution:

“Housing prices have already bottomed with asking prices on the rise for three straight months. Aside from a stumble in December, asking prices have been stable or rising for the last eight months,” said Dr. Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist. “Prices have joined the recovery, alongside sales and construction. But foreclosures threaten prices, especially in judicial-foreclosure states like Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and New York, where many more distressed sales are still to come.”

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Co-Ops in Manufactured Housing?

That’s the topic of this NPR story on ROC-USA. Included in the story are some quotes from industry veteran George Allen.

It is worth noting that the story uses an antiquated term (mobile home) to describe the type of home to which they are referring:

Despite the name, these homes aren’t actually mobile.

Actually, NPR, they are called manufactured homes, but we won’t let the facts get in the way of your story.

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The Effects of Housing on the Local Economy

Here is a nice new piece put out by Neal Barber and the folks at Housing Virginia that looks at the economic impact of new housing.

H/T for this one goes to Jim Bacon and the folks over at Bacon’s Rebellion, who have a nice discussion going on this issue.

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More Good News on the Housing Front

Here are two more stories about the housing market getting better.

The first is a national story from PropertyWire.com about the national market, and it is based on information from the National Association of REALTORS®.

The second is from the Virginia Gazette and is focused on the Williamsburg area.

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There Is Light at the End of the Tunnel…..

….so says several economists, according to this Bloomberg article.

Here is a key quote from Mark Fleming of CoreLogic:

“It’s just a matter of months before we get positive year- over-year numbers in the overall index,” Fleming said in a telephone interview from Washington. “Our data lags the reality. The turnaround is happening in the March, April and May time frame.”

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VAMMHA Executive Director Featured in RTD “60 Seconds” Profile

The entire story is here.

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IBIS Report on “Dying Industries” Misses the Mark

So says Paul Bradley in a report posted on www.mhmsm.com.

Here is a snippet:

The IBIS report is worthy of a good punch package for those who seem to think that a catchy title and a thin review of actual market conditions makes for “intelligent” judgment and bold pronouncements.

While a report like this might be good business development for IBIS, I can only say, not with me.

 

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March, 2011 Old Dominion Outlook

The March, 2011 Old Dominion Outlook has hit the newsstands of cyberspace. CLICK HERE to pick up a copy.

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HUD Proposes 51% Fee Increase on Manufactured Housing

From our friends at the Manufactured Housing Institute:

HUD’s FY2012 Budget Proposes a 51 Percent Increase in Manufactured Home Fees

On Monday, February 14, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) unveiled its fiscal year 2012 budget, which includes $14 million for the administration of the Manufactured Housing Program.

The budget proposal is $2 million more than the budget in FY2010, and $2 million less than the amount being considered by Congress next week under a Continuing Resolution for the FY2011 budget of the United States.

The proposal is based on an increase of the label fee from $39 to $60 for each transportable unit ($4.8 million in fee income) and $2.2 million in user fees for services rendered under the dispute resolution and installation programs to be administered by HUD in states without their own programs. In addition, HUD is requesting a direct Congressional appropriation of $7 million. HUD says it needs the $7 million in additional funding because fee income, even with a fee increase, is not sufficient to carry out its mandated functions under the program.

HUD’s budget estimates usage of the $14 million as follows:

– $3.7 million in payments to 37 State Administrative Agencies

– $3.3 million in payments to HUD’s monitoring contractor, IBTS for monitoring the performance of manufacturers through oversight of 16 primary inspection agencies and SAA’s

– $.4 million to administer the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee

– $5.1 million to administer the manufactured home installation program in 19 states without a state administered program, and 27 states without dispute resolution programs

– $1.5 million in other contracts

HUD will need to issue rulemaking in order to increase the fee. MHI will challenge this steep increase – at a time when the industry and our customers can ill afford it.

For more information, MHI members can contact Lois Starkey at [email protected] or (703) 558-0654.

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