Fast Company 2024 Report Highlights Manufactured Homes as Affordable Housing Solution ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’–Pew’s Rachel Siegel- ‘MH Stigma Perpetuated’ Insights-Analysis; plus MHVille Markets
“Rachel Siegel, who works on housing policy at the Pew Charitable Trusts,” said: “People think about the old dilapidated mobile home of yore, and as a result, manufactured housing has been zoned out. It’s relegated to the outskirts—parks and communities that are sometimes in flood zones or undesirable parts of town. And so the stigma gets perpetuated.”” In this news–analysis, broadly speaking and oversimplifying for clarity and reader speed, there are a few types of reports that tend to emerge about manufactured housing as published by mainstream media.
A) There are reports that are largely favorable.
B) There are reports that may focus on some negative issue(s), say, predatory behavior by certain manufactured home community consolidators who aggressively raise site fees, but which may still mention manufactured homes themselves in a favorable way (call that mixed).
C) Then there are reports that are largely or entirely unfavorable, and those are routinely connected to problematic behavior by manufactured housing firms.
D) There may be some weather event that harmed mobile or manufactured home(s), and or a fire in an old pre-HUD Code mobile home. A closer look at the data reveals that these tend to be outliers that if and when put into context are not a hit on modern manufactured homes at all, but are more indicative of ignorance, misunderstanding, or exaggeration on the part of the reporting source or someone interviewed with no one to speak up for the realities of modern manufactured homes.
Properly handled, each of those are possible opportunities for a post-production manufactured housing trade association that grasps these points, and then pro-actively responds each and every time that one of these four kinds of reports emerge.
While that is the expert view of this writer for MHProNews, it is also strongly suggested by the formal remarks made by former Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) chairman Tim Williams to MHProNews.
Williams is president and CEO of 21st Mortgage Corporation, as thousands in the manufactured housing industry know. 21st is a sister brand to Berkshire Hathaway owned Clayton Homes. Warren Buffett led Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) is one of the most influential members of MHI and/or MHI linked state association affiliates. Some might argue that Berkshire, and thus their brands, are the most influential firms operating in manufactured housing with respect to clout at MHI and/or MHI-linked state association “affiliates.”
Williams’ remarks linked above are common sense. Nor are they unique, others (cited below) have made similar points. All of which begs the question. Why hasn’t MHI and/or the Berkshire Hathaway brands done what common sense suggests and/or demands? A quick review of some facts will illustrate.
It is over 6 years since Tim Williams/21st Mortgage/prior MHI chairman announced in an exclusive to MHProNews that they would hire a communications professional to deal with the media. It was in that context that the remarks by Williams was made.
It is over a dozen years since Kevin Clayton, President and CEO of Berkshire-owned Clayton Homes, said in a relaxed puff-piece style video interview that the manufactured home industry (often code-words for MHI) was ready to do a national image and education campaign to promote the sale of more manufactured housing.
It is about 20 years since former MHI president and CEO Chris Stinebert told The Wall Street Transcript (TWST) that the manufactured home industry’s post-1998 decline had essentially hit bottom and that manufactured housing was set for a rebound. As the graphic in Part II below reflects, that obviously didn’t happen as manufactured home production today is lower than when Stinebert made those remarks.
After repeated outreaches to MHI leaders, including Williams, but also including others on the MHI board, senior staff (i.e.: CEO Lesli Gooch), and attorneys, no one at MHI has responded to deny any of these factual- and evidence-based points.
That said, in Part I of this report with analysis are fairly extensive pull quotes from a Fast Company article published on 1.3.2024.
Per the MHPartners.org nonprofit’s website: “MHP provides more than 2,800 quality affordable homes in Montgomery County and neighboring communities. Since 1989, MHP’s mission has been to preserve and expand access to quality affordable housing.” The website says that MHPartners.org they are affiliated with the national NeighborWorks, one of the nonprofits that has for years been quite favorable towards manufactured housing.
Note: depending on your browser or device, many images in this report and others on MHProNews can be clicked to expand. Click the image and follow the prompts. For example, in some browsers/devices you click the image and select ‘open in a new window.’ After clicking that selection, you click the image in the open window to expand the image to a larger size. In some cases, you may need to download an image and then open it in order to see it full size. To return to this page, use your back key, escape, common sense, or follow the prompts.
Per Capitalize My Title, which has a function that explains how many minutes of reading X number of words represents, on this date that site said it will take someone “between 4 and 6.4 minutes” to read the main text above.
So, in well under 10 minutes, a crystal clear, evidence-based case is made of how stunningly MHI, their corporate and staff leaders, are failing manufactured housing in an area that they claim to be performing, namely: “Grow your business.” “Elevating Housing Innovation; Expanding Attainable Homeownership.” Despite a reported 6 figure budget for tech, MHI on this?
For years, MHI and their leadership have promised, promised, promised, without delivering results. Manufactured housing is, as was noted above, operating at far lower level than when prior MHI President and CEO Chris Stinebert said the industry was ready to rebound to the kinds of levels seen in the mid-to-late 1990s.
But a key point ought to be that this vexing and persistently problematic status quo need not be so.
The manufactured housing industry, with the involvement of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) and MHI working collaboratively, helped enact legislation that were intended to grow the industry from where it was operating at its last peak in circa 1998. More on these and related accountability for ‘where is the growth’ oriented topics in Part II below.
When you think of a manufactured home, you might picture an outdated trailer park. That’s no longer the reality.”
Like many American cities, Hagerstown, Maryland, has a housing shortage. As the population has grown, construction hasn’t kept pace. But a new development in the city is helping add more than 200 new homes by turning to an overlooked solution: manufactured housing.
Right now, in part because of outdated ideas of what manufactured housing is, many cities restrict where it can be built. “There’s been a lot of stigma,” says Rachel Siegel, who works on housing policy at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “People think about the old dilapidated mobile home of yore, and as a result, manufactured housing has been zoned out. It’s relegated to the outskirts—parks and communities that are sometimes in flood zones or undesirable parts of town. And so the stigma gets perpetuated.”
MHProNews note: Pew Charitable Trusts has published several reports in recent years that have been cited by MHProNews and/or MHLivingNews. On this date, there is no mention of “Pew” – a well know, left-leaning nonprofit that does various types of research and studies on public policies, including housing policy – on the MHI website. According to Influence Watch on “Pew” “It operates the Pew Research Center as a subsidiary.” InfluenceWatch also said: “Originally founded as the family foundation of conservative- and Republican-leaning Pew family members, the organization has moved toward the political left throughout its history.” Returning to Fast Company’s narrative.
But newer manufactured homes are designed to look more like traditional stick-built housing. They can be constructed to high standards. Though residents often had to lease land for the homes in the past—putting them at risk of rent spikes—increasingly,the homes are being built on foundations and sold with land when zoning allows. And they can be a way for communities to add small, more affordable homes that otherwise wouldn’t be economical to build.
“Homebuilders today aren’t building what used to be entry-level homes—the margin’s too small for human labor and materials and the cost of land and entitlements,” says Stacey Epperson, the founder of Next Step, a nonprofit that champions manufactured housing. In the middle of the last century, the majority of new houses were 1,400 square feet or less. Now only around 8% are. Despite pent-up demand for small, affordable homes, they’re hard to find. That’s on top of the fact that the U.S. has an overall housing shortage of millions of homes.
Based on average incomes, Epperson says, many Americans can only afford to pay around $225,000 for a house. But the median house now costs more than $430,000, and newly built homes cost even more. “I have to ask myself, what’s the one place left that can build a house for a price that the average American family can afford, and that’s manufactured housing, right?” she says. “I call it a solution hidden in plain sight. It’s changed dramatically over time, with the increase in quality and energy efficiency. Public perception has not caught up with where it is today.”
MHProNews note:Look again at the preface (introduction) to this report as the snapshot or timeline of some 2 decades of failure by MHI to embrace their own proclaimed duty to promote or “elevate” manufactured housing. While MHI can’t stop negative perceptions, they could respond every time it occurs. Who said? Tim Williams, prior MHI chair and 21st President and CEO.
The first “travel trailers” were built in the 1920s for camping, but then soon found use as housing during the Great Depression, when more permanent camps started to form. (From the beginning, they had plenty of critics: one 1937 article called trailer parks “crooked rookeries of itinerant flophouses.”) Hundreds of thousands more were built in World War II to house defense production workers.
In the beginning, the homes had poor insulation and shoddy materials, and often required expensive repairs. They also had a high risk of fires. By the 1970s, Congress passed a new safety law for manufactured homes, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development started to regulate the buildings, making it the only type of housing that has a federal building code. (The government calls the regulated homes “manufactured homes,” while those built before the rules are called “mobile homes.”) The quality and energy efficiency improved. More recently, a new category of manufactured homes called CrossMod has gone a step farther. CrossMod homes are designed to look more like traditional houses, with features like steeper roofs, attached porches, and deeper eaves.
Because the homes can be built to a federal building standard—unlike other houses, which have to meet a mishmash of local building codes—it enables making them at a larger scale, with efficiencies in both purchasing materials and production. So-called modular houses, which are also made in factories, can’t achieve the same economies of scale because they have to meet each individual local code. In both cases, using factories allows for more automation, and construction in bad weather, which also helps lower costs.
A recent study from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies that compared the cost of manufactured homes to conventional houses—the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms and similar finishes—found that manufactured homes were far less expensive. The most expensive manufactured home, the CrossMod, costs more than a quarter less than a comparable site-built house.Double-wide and single-wide manufactured homes cost even less. “It’s naturally affordable,” says Siegel says. “It doesn’t need to be subsidized.” The cost of land matters, though; the cost advantage is greatest in areas where land is relatively affordable.
MHProNews note: Some research like that linked by Fast Company is essentially commissioned by corporate and/or nonprofits. It bears examination with that and the CrossMods research linked herein in mind.
“It’s important to understand that manufactured housing isn’t the right solution for every place,” she says. “We’re in D.C. Manufactured housing would not be a solution here because homes should be built more densely than that. But anywhere a single-family home can be built and would be the right type of housing for that area, a manufactured home could be used as a substitute and be much more affordable and faster to build.”
In Hagerstown, the new homes are aimed at moderate-income families, with prices in the $300,000s, including the land. “What we see is that consistently we’re able to beat new single-family home construction” on cost, says Tom Heinemann, principal at MH Partners, one of the partners behind the project. The highest-end home in the new development, with four bedrooms, is around $30,000 less expensive than a comparable newly built traditional home in the area.
Because the houses are going into a new neighborhood, rather than filling in existing empty lots, the development had the additional cost of building infrastructure including a road, sidewalks, and utilities. The homes also have covered front porches, backyards, access to nature trails, and a variety of finishes.
“It was important to us that each home looked different, and that each home did not look like a traditional manufactured home,” says Heinemann. “The goal was to make the community as beautiful as possible while also being cost-effective. Even with all that, we are still significantly cheaper than site-built homes.”
In Petersburg, Virginia, his firm is working on a project with a different model: adding manufactured homes to dozens of vacant lots purchased from the city. In the community, with a low-income, majority-Black population, houses often sell for less than $200,000. It wouldn’t be financially feasible to build new traditional homes at such a low cost, but manufactured homes are “a tool for revitalizing cities that have depressed property values,” Heinemann says. The new houses will be low-income rentals; the project is also converting an abandoned school in the neighborhood to apartments for seniors.
MHProNews Note: presuming the accuracy of the quotes herein, Heinemann could well be mistaken. When an area is run down, vacant lots are often less costly than in more upscale areas. While it may not be possible to build a larger multi-sectional manufactured home for less than 200K, it is possible to have a new manufactured home for 2ook or less. See the latest national and regional facts on manufactured home costs and more linked here.
Right now, manufactured homes make up only a tiny percentage of new housing units built each year. But that could begin to change with new options for financing. Fannie Mae now offers standard mortgages for higher-end manufactured homes, something that buyers couldn’t get in the past. Because buyers previously had to rely on expensive personal loans, it suppressed demand.
MHProNews Note: That’s mistaken and misleading at best, or factually inaccurate at worst. Reporters aren’t supposed to rush a story, rather, a journalist is supposed to double check their facts and get a story like this factually correct. FHA Title II, VA, USDA (Rural Housing) lending and other forms of lending have similar rates on the kind of mortgage financing for mainstream manufactured homes that one can obtain for conventional site built housing. While Fast Company’s Adele Peters may have heard similar things from everyone she spoke to, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes of reading online could have revealed a different reality to this de facto promo for CrossMods. Fast Company should have Peters and/or the editors on that story issue some apparently needed corrections.
And a handful of cities, like Hagerstown, are beginning to rethink where manufactured homes can be built. In some places, it’s easier than others. In Hagerstown, “when we told the planning office that these homes are set on permanent foundations, have higher build quality, and are eligible for 30-year fixed-rate conventional mortgages, they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s good for us. It’s clearly not a mobile home, and those rules don’t apply,’” Heinemann says.
In Jackson, Mississippi, the city recently launched a pilot project to help demonstrate how manufactured homes could bring affordable housing to vacant lots. The city planning department “realized that what you see in homelessness and crime and the degrading of our community is actually a symptom of poor planning,” Chloe Dotson, Jackson’s director of planning, said in a video about the pilot. Allowing a new type of construction could begin to address some of the historic injustices that made homes unaffordable for so many people. Zoning didn’t allow manufactured homes in city limits; it took around two years of education to convince the city council to change the rules.
The pilot includes a model home that residents can tour, and the city will help interested families build homes of their own. Just seeing one of the new homes in person can change attitudes, says Siegel. “Once a person walks through it, then they sort of have that ‘aha’ moment,” she says. As projects in places like Hagerstown and Jackson get built, and “people see the homes and see how much more affordable they are, I expect that that’s going to help other localities start to say yes and to change their zoning laws to make them more accessible,” she says. ##
MHProNews note: for remarks on that last segment of the report, see below. For the photos, captions, and credits, see Fast Company’s article linked here.
Part II Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
The linked videos above are posted below. On this date, the number of views and about when posted are as shown in the respective YouTube page descriptions.
Interview with Chloe Dotson, Director of Planning and Development – “A conversation with Director Chloe Dotson, Director of Planning & Development Department with the City of Jackson regarding the vision of affordable housing for constituents in the City of Jackson. …” The video is apparently produced by the Mississippi Manufactured Housing Association, which is presumably still an MHI state affiliate. On the date and time this report was drafted and posted, per YouTube, it had 224 views and was posted on Aug 17, 2023.
Per the YouTube page, the second video says: “Manufactured Home Tour” City of Jackson Planning & Development, which has only “11 subscribers.” It has “377 views: and was posted: “4 months ago: per YouTube. It says in part. “Come view the City of Jackson’s Manufactured Home Tour!”
No mention is made by Fast Company of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA), nor of its “enhanced preemption” provision.
2. Also missing in this report are the various crossties to MHI, see the above and what follows, even though MHI is not specifically mentioned. In fairness to Fast Company’s Adele Peters, MHI removed their membership list from their website. That may have been due in part to an anticipated wave of litigation that names several MHI members. Those MHI members appear to be in violation of MHI’s so-called Code of Ethical Conduct. Per the most recent information available (again, MHI has for some time not responded to such inquiries and MHI has removed their membership list from previously publicly available view. In certain circumstances, the copy MHProNews obtained of a prior MHI membership directory can be made available – contact us by email for details.).
3. While problems of aggressive site fee hikes are mentioned in the report above, what isn’t mentioned are the links between that practice and MHI membership. See #2 above. Note that to date, among firms commonly cited by mainstream media and/or by manufactured home resident advocates for such practices, Havenpark Capital, has reportedly withdrawn from MHI membership. MHI has not clarified that issue when asked.
4. As a housekeeping point, under fair use and other laws, fisking and fact checks are among the permitted uses to reproduce the text of a given source, so long as the proper disclaimers and credits are made. As the George Washington School of Law and their School of Communications says in the document linked here: “Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law does not provide an explicit authorization for the specific use in question.” Highlighting in that pull quote are added by MHProNews for clarity and emphasis.
Given that MHI is apparently not doing the job that some of their own leaders said should occur, there is an obvious social benefit to fisking and fact checks like this report, analysis and commentary. Such articles often rank well in Google or other searches. If a reporter/editor is attempting to generate a balanced and factually accurate report, this site and MHLivingNews will often appear in well-crafted search results. For example, is this Q&A posed to AI-powered Bing Copilot.
> “The Manufactured Housing Institute has been criticized for failing to defend the industry’s reputation. Tim Williams, prior Manufactured Housing Institute chairman, told MHProNews some years ago that the industry should respond to every inaccurate report, fact, or claim. The Roper Report, commissioned by the Manufactured Housing Institute, pointed out the concerns the public has on manufactured housing. Can you provide links to articles or responses to such items?”
8. To shed more light on that trend, MHProNews published a deep dive report on mainstream media that cites sources and names names often associated with mainstream media with specific examples.
9. As will be unpacked in a planned follow up, on 1.4.2023 MHI said in an email to their email list: “Learn more about how the Manufactured Housing Institute supports you and unlock the benefits of membership” at the Louisville Show. There is no apparent and specific mention in that MHI email regarding the previously reported MHI item reported in the Masthead report linked below. Louisville has now become, by their own definitions, an MHI event. Questioning MHI and or doing anything at that MHI ‘event’ could be grounds for removal, or worse. See their new policy with analysis in the report linked below.
10. Tom Heinemann posted this report by Fast Company on his LinkedIn page. But oddly, the Fast Company‘s report cites MH Partners, while Heinemann’s profile reflects his firm as being “MH Advisors.” On 1.4.2024 a search of MHPartners.org does not show Heinemann’s name. Yet, Heinemann on his LinkedIn profile proudly touts that report. While there may be an innocent explanation, this appears to be yet another error and/or miss in this report. MHProNews plans to ask Fast Company to double check their reporting and revise as needed.
Summary and Conclusion
In the preface that set the foundation for Part I, MHProNews shared the following.
It is over 6 years since Tim Williams/21st Mortgage/prior MHI chairman announced in an exclusive to MHProNews that they would hire a communications professional to deal with the media. It was in that context that the remarks by Williams was made.
It is over a dozen years since Kevin Clayton, President and CEO of Berkshire-owned Clayton Homes, said in a relaxed puff-piece style video interview that the manufactured home industry (often code-words for MHI) was ready to do a national image and education campaign to promote the sale of more manufactured housing.
It is about 20 years since former MHI president and CEO Chris Stinebert told The Wall Street Transcript (TWST) that the manufactured home industry’s post-1998 decline had essentially hit bottom and that manufactured housing was set for a rebound. As the graphic in Part II below reflects, that obviously didn’t happen as manufactured home production today is lower than when Stinebert made those remarks.
After repeated outreaches to MHI leaders, including Williams, but also including others on the MHI board, senior staff (i.e.: CEO Lesli Gooch), and attorneys, no one at MHI has responded to deny any of these factual- and evidence-based points.
Each of those points have been demonstrated, but there is more. See the reports linked below.
It is absolutely true that “Manufactured Homes” are an “Affordable Housing Solution” that is “Hidden in Plain Sight.” MHProNews and/or MHLivingNews have made that points scores of times over the years.
Terry’s point is apt. His firm was and is an MHI member. But it also begs the question. Why has MHI failed for so long to break through on issues that would aid public acceptance?
Note: depending on your browser or device, many images in this report and others on MHProNews can be clicked to expand. Click the image and follow the prompts. For example, in some browsers/devices you click the image and select ‘open in a new window.’ After clicking that selection, you click the image in the open window to expand the image to a larger size. To return to this page, use your back key, escape or follow the prompts.
Huh, Tim. Why is it that years after you, your firm, Kevin Clayton, and MHI have made the claims shared in points 1-6 in the preface and summary above, that there is still a dearth of evidence that you and your colleagues on the MHI board of directors have done what was promised?
Part III – is our Daily Business News on MHProNews stock market recap which features our business-daily at-a-glance update of over 2 dozen manufactured housing industry stocks.
This segment of the Daily Business News on MHProNews is the recap of yesterday evening’s market report, so that investors can see at glance the type of topics may have influenced other investors. Thus, our format includes our signature left (CNN Business) and right (Newsmax) ‘market moving’ headlines.
The macro market move graphics below provide context and comparisons for those invested in or tracking manufactured housing connected equities. Meaning, you can see ‘at a glance’ how manufactured housing connected firms do compared to other segments of the broader equities market.
In minutes a day readers can get a good sense of significant or major events while keeping up with the trends that are impacting manufactured housing connected investing.
Reminder: several of the graphics on MHProNews can be opened into a larger size. For instance: click the image and follow the prompts in your browser or device to OPEN In a New Window. Then, in several browsers/devices you can click the image and increase the size. Use the ‘x out’ (close window) escape or back key to return.
Headlines fromleft-of-center CNN Business – from 1.3.2024
Epstein-linked John Does are about to be named publicly. Here’s what we know
Oklahoma teenager finally defeats the unbeatable game: Tetris
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building is seen on September 19, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Fed officials discussed rate cuts last month and hinted at end of hikes, minutes show
Xerox Corp. headquarters stands in Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.
Xerox shares slide after cutting 15% of its workforce
A pedestrian passes a gate to Harvard Yard on Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, MA on December 12.
Does the secretive board running Harvard get a failing grade?
People look out at the skyline of midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building as the sun sets in New York City on November 19, 2023, in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Manhattan apartment prices rose for the first time in over a year
Unsold 2023 Silverado pickup trucks sit in a long row at a Chevrolet dealership Sunday, June 18, 2023, in Englewood, Colo.
GM sales inch higher despite big strike impact
This police department is piloting a four-day work week
The US Treasury Department building is seen in Washington, DC, January 19, 2023, following an announcement by the US Treasury that it had begun taking measures Thursday to prevent a default on government debt, as Congress heads towards a high-stakes clash between Democrats and Republicans over raising the borrowing limit. – The world’s biggest economy could face severe disruption with Republicans threatening to refuse the usual annual rubber stamping of a rise in the legal borrowing limit, and this could push the United States into default.
US national debt hits record $34 trillion
A “Now Hiring” sign at a Lowe’s store in Glenmont, New York, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023. Lowe’s Cos. is expected to release earnings figures on November 21.
US job openings fell to fresh 2-year low in November
EV tax credits just changed again: Here’s where you can still get discounts
Ford recalls more than 112,000 F-150s for roll away risk
Here’s what you need to know about BYD, the Chinese EV giant that just overtook Tesla
After Harvard and Penn president resignations, focus of ire shifts to MIT’s Kornbluth
Maersk suspends shipping through key Red Sea maritime trade route ‘until further notice’
Multiple Mickey Mouse horror movies announced as Steamboat Willie enters public domain
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani says ‘truth has prevailed’ after top court orders regulators to wrap up probe
Starbucks will now let customers use personal cups for nearly all orders
Harvard President Claudine Gay resigns after plagiarism and campus antisemitism accusations
US box office in 2023 passed $9 billion, the best total since before the pandemic
China’s BYD is selling more electric cars than Tesla
Here’s what led up to Harvard president Claudine Gay’s resignation
Global markets kick off the new year on lackluster note
The screen capture yesterday evening failed. MHProNews regrets the error.
Notice: MHProNews invites the firms named in these reports to respond to any concerns about possibly inaccurate information via email that identifies the concern and offers evidence that sheds a different light on the topic discussed. That said, neither publicly MHI nor by email have MHI and their ‘insider brands’ done so. They’ve been repeatedly invited to do so, including an outreach on Dec 7, 2o23.
