Bringing Manufactured Housing into the Real Estate Finance System

Eight percent of the United States population - more than 23 million people - live in manufactured homes (also called mobile homes). In some years, more than 30% of the new homes sold have been manufactured. Moreover, manufactured housing is the most important form of unsubsidized affordable housing in this country. Up to two-thirds of the new affordable homes built each year have been manufactured. However, the manufactured housing industry currently is struggling to survive a meltdown in its sales and finance markets. A tremendous obstacle to the industry’s recovery is that most manufactured homes are characterized as personal property, though they have evolved tremendously from their earliest ancestor, the travel trailer. Today, only 1% of manufactured homes are moved after being sited on a lot. Recharacterizing manufactured homes as real property would reflect modern reality and would provide purchasers and owners with access to the mortgage market, which would increase credit availability and affordability and would provide manufactured home owners the same legal protections that owners of site-built homes enjoy