Impact of Manufactured Housing On Communities
Many years ago, before mobile homes evolved into today’s manufactured home, there was a belief that a mobile home placed adjacent or near site-built housing will result in the depreciating value of the homes in the surrounding area. There was also the belief that mobile home homeowners did not pay their fair share of tax revenues for increased local government public services. The result of these concerns resulted in changes to land use and zoning regulations by city, county, and state governments, which, in essence, discriminated against mobile homes being placed in many residential communities.
This conception began to change when the U.S. Congress passed the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (HUD Code). This legislation requires manufactured homes to be produced to equal or exceed construction standards for site built homes across the country. (In 1980 the designation of “mobile home” was changed officially to “manufactured home” in all federal references).
Even with the passage and implementation of the HUD Code, zoning and regulators still found ways to “zone-out” manufactured homes in many locales throughout the nation.
The manufactured housing industry has been dedicated to changing the public image of the manufactured home and industry, resulting in success in dispelling this perception of the manufactured home of today that bears little resemblance to the mobile home of 40 years ago.
In fact, many states have passed legislation over the last number of years that will permit manufactured homes, subject to local conditions, in any single family residential zone within their state.
Impact Of Manufactured Homes On Property Values
For years, many people have believed that having manufactured housing, either on a scattered site or in communities, near or adjacent to site-built housing would depreciate the property values of the site-built homes. There is little evidence to support this notion. In fact, all the recent studies on the subject have come to the conclusion that manufactured homes, either in communities or on individual lots, have no impact on the property values of site built homes that are adjacent to or in close proximity to them.
This was supported by a 1993 study by the University of Michigan’s College of Architecture and Planning. In its examination of the impact of three Michigan manufactured home communities on adjacent residential property values, the authors stated:
“….in all the cases we reviewed,the adjacent residential property values showed substantial rates of appreciation that were similar to the appreciation of comparable non-adjacent properties. We found that neither the private market nor local public officials differentiate between adjacent and non-adjacent properties when valuation levels are established.”
Impact Of Manufactured Housing on Local Community Services
Some local government officials have discouraged the use of manufactured housing in their community because of the belief that the tax revenues from manufactured housing is less than site-built homes and therefore will not be enough to offset the cost of additional local government services (e.g. schools, roads,sewers,etc.). Obviously, all housing developments, whether they are site-built or manufactured, have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis as to their impact on services, but it is unfair to characterize manufactured housing as not paying their fair share.
Where manufactured homes are titled as real property, those homeowners are assessed property taxes at the same rate as the owners of site-built homes, so they are paying their fair share. And many people also do not understand that in the case of land-lease communities, the homeowners pay taxes on the house and the community owner pays property taxes on the land. Some community owners also pay taxes to the local government on the rental income derived from the community. Also since most streets and utilities in land-lease communities are installed and maintained by the developer, local governments are spared the cost of installation and maintenance of this infrastructure.
