Biden’s 2024 Economic Report Includes Expanding Manufactured Home Delivery and Financing in Rural Areas

Many Americans than ever are priced out of the housing market and President Biden has outlined steps his administration is taking to increase development of affordable housing. 

The comprehensive report includes his agenda of budget and policy proposals aimed at increasing affordable housing including: 

Zoning Reform to Increase Affordable Housing:  Including Direct Subsidies to Cost-burdened Households: 

Reducing Supply Constraints with Federal Taxes and Other Subsidies

All of those subjects include actions that would benefit affordable quality manufactured housing. The following actions outline proposal that directly relate to manufactured housing. 

Expanding Manufactured Home Delivery and Financing in Rural Areas.

Manufactured housing cost 45 percent less to build than site-built housing, possibly providing affordable housing and alleviating supply complaints. However, expanding the manufactured housing supply often runs afoul of land-use regulations, and traditional government mortgage programs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot offer loans for manufactured homes because the owners will not own the land on which the homes sit. Instead, owners must take out “chattel loans” with higher interest rates, shorter repayment periods and fewer protections.

**President Biden wants federal incentives to encourage improved state and local zoning policies for manufactured homes, and he pointed out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “have identified the financing of manufactured and rural housing among the activities targeted by their 2022-24 Duty to Serve Plans, including the plan to begin purchasing loans as titled as personal property in 2024, and to increase the purchase of loans titled as real property.”

The President said the persistent failure to create sufficient affordable housing has created a role for government.

“Fortunately, local, State, and Federal polices can boost the housing supply through incentivized changes to zoning policies, tax credits that subsidized construction costs for affordable units, and other block grants that prioritize affordable unit construction,” he wrote.

**Authors note: The most interesting part of the Biden plan for manufactured housing is the addressed opinion that in 2024 the financing of manufactured homes not attached to real property will possibly be financed utilizing a financing plan endorsed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That would be a game changer for the industry and new homebuyers.