Tag Archives: manufactured homes

The FHA has removed a valuation roadblock to increase the availability and affordability of manufactured housing as part of the Biden Administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan. Here’s how that could impact the industry.

“When factoring in the median value of a finished lot, the cost of manufactured housing relative to site-built falls to 54% for single-section homes, 70% for double-section, and 80% for CrossMods. As such, we suggest that manufactured housing may be most attractive in markets with lower land costs, but still offers savings regardless of land cost,” said Chadwick Reed of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

During a quarter of difficult buying conditions, Down Payment Resource’s Q2 2022 HPI report shows sufficient growth in homebuying assistance programs for the third consecutive quarter, despite economic conditions limiting available funding.

A new report finds that an increasing number of down payment assistance programs are allowing for assistance in the purchase of manufactured homes.

As more homebuyers look at manufactured housing to ease the affordability crunch, a recent study looked at four ways in which financing for these homes differed from that for traditional housing units. Here’s what it found.

Freddie Mac wants to help homebuyers become “mortgage-ready." The GSE is teaming up with housing intermediary Next Step Network and three nonprofit housing counseling agencies to implement an online education curriculum, with a focus on manufactured homes. Several lenders are already participating in Next Step’s SmartMH program, including Community Ventures, Credit Human Federal Credit Union, Frontier Housing, Forcht Bank . . .

In 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued guidelines to expand the range of loan products that can be considered high-cost mortgages under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA). According to the senators, the CFPB guidelines went into effect in January 2014 with the CFPB failing to recognize how unique manufactured home loans can be. After the guidelines were released a large percentage of small-balance loans used for the purchase of affordable manufactured housing were classified as high cost loans. As a result, lender liabilities associated with making and obtaining HOEPA high cost mortgage has increased. This could lead to a loss of credit available to those seeking to purchase manufactured housing.