Noting the flack Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director (CFPB) Richard Cordray received about manufactured housing when he recently appeared before the House Financial Services Committee, Doug Ryan of CFED says the criticisms are misguided, although the testimony did bring attention to the 20 million people who live in manufactured housing. He says the federal government’s budget for affordable housing is limited, so new methods need to be found for providing it.

The new CFPB laws need a chance to work, Ryan says, and because the manufactured housing industry has a reputation for high-cost loans, standardization of lending products could help consumers, especially since the homes are far superior to what was produced 20-30 years ago and the lending products need to be brought up to date as well. Noting the importance of the government-sponsored enterprise’s (GSE) duty to serve, Ryan says a true secondary market would attract lenders who realize the importance of the MH market.

As nhcopenhouse.org informs MHProNews.com, Ryan believes that laws need to be changed to make MH lending similar to that of site-built home lending.  This would be accomplished, Ryan says, by having states adopt the Uniform Manufactured Housing Act (a model manufactured home titling statute drafted by the Uniform Law Commission) because it would attract lenders and provide better loan products for consumers.

Not all parties see it as CFED’s Doug Ryan lays it out. In fact, while manufactured housing pros agree with Ryan that factory built homes are key part of the affordable home solution, industry financing experts share a very different viewpoint.

“At the recent Manufactured Housing Institute Winter Meeting, I raised the topic of the ULC’s recommendations, the very point Doug Ryan mentions in his recent OpEd,” said MHProNews.com publisher L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach. ” A prominent industry lender rose and said that if Minnesota or any other state passes such a law, expect all MH personal property lenders to leave that state. Those who support the ULC proposal may be well intended, but they are nevertheless wrong to think that this will help MH Lending. Quite the opposite is true, say personal property (chattel) lenders; it will harm manufactured home owners and businesses alike.” ##

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