Manufactured Housing: Just The Facts

Understanding that responsible homeownership, in conjunction with affordable financing options, helps to put the American family on the pathway to financial stability and security – many are looking to learn more about today’s modern manufactured housing options. For the vast majority of hard-working American families, their home – and it’s appreciating value – represents the key to their financial future; and for the financially disadvantaged, homeownership represents an opportunity to begin the long climb out of a life of impoverishment.

 Manufactured Housing: Just The Facts

• In the United States, a home’s appreciation and its acquired equity is one of the major contributors to personal wealth. Americans currently derive roughly one-third (31.8%) of their household’s perceived wealth from their homes equity. For the financially disadvantaged, home equity plays an even larger role, comprising nearly 50% of the total net worth of families languishing in the bottom 60% of America’s financial food chain.
• The federal government understands American homeownership is good for stimulating the overall economy and thus delivered $137.6 billion in homeownership subsidies during the 2009 meltdown. During the economic debacle of 2009, the IRS  handed out approximately $86.4 billion in mortgage interest tax deductions (in essence a subsidy), and an estimated $90.8 billion in 2010 –  unfortunately for some, these  interest against principal deductions tended to benefit already affluent and middle-class homeowners.
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  Homeownership creates wealth

Wealth creator 

ManufacturedHomes.com believes that homeownership is an American right; that it’s one of the greatest resources for creating America’s wealth and should be vigorously protected. Today’s factory built homes create an opportunity for homeownership for countless American families who are currently priced out of many of the nation’s metropolitan housing markets, unable to afford a more conventional site-built home. Thinking outside of the traditional box, currently more than 17 million Americans call manufactured housing, home.

Affordable housing helps the economy 

• In the late 1990s, manufactured housing represented 66% of the new affordable housing produced in the United States, and it remains the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country. Today, there is still continued demand for manufactured homes as an affordable housing option; manufactured home communities demonstrated stable occupancy rates between 2008 and 2009, hovering around 90%.
• Since 1989, manufactured housing has accounted for 21% of all new single-family homes sold. In 2009, manufactured housing accounted for 43% of all new homes sold under $150,000 and 23% of all new homes sold under $200,000. As of 2009, the average cost per square foot for a new manufactured home was $41 compared to a cost of $94 for a new site-built home.
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  Today’s modern manufactured homes are stylish and elegant

Manufactured homes have long been maligned, defamed and discounted as a fiscally responsible source of affordable housing, thanks to archaic stereotypes of “mobile homes” and “trailer parks.” However, today’s manufactured homes are meticulously built and inspected, the modern manufactured home is both attractive and more energy efficient than many of the more traditional site-built units we see today popping up in new subdivisions around the nation. Manufactured home ownership opens the door to the American dream for millions of families.

Less wasteful, more affordable

• Built in a fraction the time and at half the cost of site-built homes, manufactured homes are assembled in a controlled, factory environment uses fewer materials and generates 35%-40% less waste than comparable site-built units.
• Appreciation
• By owning the land beneath their residence, owners of manufactured homes increase the likelihood of their home appreciating. Currently, approximately about 70% of new manufactured homes are placed on private property, while the remaining 30% our located in land-lease communities. Overall, however, an estimated 2.9 million manufactured homes – or 43% of all manufactured homes in the United States – are located in land-lease communities. In these “parks,” new ownership structures like resident-owned cooperatives and community land trusts offer homeowners enhanced stability and security.

Lenders like Cascade Loans, are tapping into this potential market and helping families build their future assets through manufactured homeownership.