Reports by Other Organizations


Office of Minnesota Attorney General Manufactured Home Park Handbook
This handbook explains the Minnesota laws concerning manufactured home park residents and park owners. A right or privilege guaranteed by law cannot be waived.

Complete List of Manufactured Home Parks in Minnesota
This data was compiled by the Housing Preservation Project from the lists of parks licensed by the Minnesota Department of Health and various county health departments.

Manufactured Housing: A Home that the Law Still Treats Like a Car
The Consumers Union looks at how manufactured homes are subject to repossession laws written for cars and couches, and how these laws lack the protections offered conventional homebuyers in the foreclosure process.

Raising the Floor, Raising the Roof: Raising Our Expectations for Manufactured Housing
This report is intended as an introductory resource for non-profit developers, lenders, housing counselors, and advocates who wish to "raise the floor" of manufactured housing.

What's it Worth?
The Consumers Union looks at how murky pricing hurts consumers in the manufactured housing industry.

Moving Home: Manufactured Housing in Rural America
This HAC report includes a data analysis regarding manufactured housing in rural America plus short pieces written by local rural housing providers, national organizations, and a representative of the manufactured housing industry illuminating some of the pros and cons of using these structures to provide affordable sustainable homeownership.

Is Manufactured Housing a Good Alternative for Low-Income Families? Evidence from the American Housing Survey
A study by HUD that contradicts several preconceived notions regarding manufactured housing. This paper employs the American Housing Survey (AHS) between 1993 and 2001 to compare owned manufactured housing to rental housing and traditional owned housing as a tenure alternative for low-income households.

Why Advocates Need to Rethink Manufactured Housing
Richard Genz lays out a clear agenda to "reinvent manufactured homes." His article also outlines the multiple challenges: a hodgepodge of federal, state, and local laws and regulations; financing issues; negative stereotypes; and minimal consumer protection.

Manufactured Housing Community Tenants: Shifting the Balance of Power
Owners of manufactured (or 'mobile') homes face unique problems as consumers when they rent a lot in a community for manufactured homes. This report by the AARP Public Policy Institute presents a model statute that addresses these problems.

Manufactured Housing: Not What You Think
This report is part of the Affordable Housing Project of the National Conference of State Legislatures and received funding support from the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Focus: Manufactured Housing
This issue of fedgazette focuses on Manufactured Housing and features six articles covering topics such as: understanding the difference between mobile, manufactured and modular housing; secondary markets for MH loans; MH dealers; and industry statistics and trends.

Appreciation in Manufactured Housing: A Fresh Look at the Debate and the Data
As a step toward a more complete understanding of the equity-building opportunities in manufactured housing, Consumers Union assessed the financial appreciation of manufactured-housing units, by examining the relative appreciation rates of manufactured housing and site-built housing, as well as the factors affecting the appreciation rate of manufactured housing.

Examination of Manufactured Housing as a Community- and Asset-Building Strategy
This report assesses the primary issues that affordable housing advocates interested in the asset-building implications of MH should consider: characteristics of the housing stock, finance issues, MH's role in affordable housing, examples of community development strategies using MH, and challenges for practitioners interested in the housing stock's asset-building potential. The report also includes a comprehensive literature review, classified by topic.

Housing Facts & Findings
This issue of Housing Facts & Findings focuses on Manufactured Housing and features articles by I'M HOME Director Dave Buchholz, I'M HOME partner Paul Bradley from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, and I'M HOME grantee Skipper StipeMaas from the Georgia Community Loan Fund.

HUD User - Manufactured Housing Publications
HUD USER is HUD's Policy Development and Research information service. The site lists all of HUD's manufactured housing-related publications which address technical, regulatory, financial, and other practical aspects of working with manufactured housing.

Innovations in Manufactured Housing: Six Case Studies in Affordable Manufactured Housing Development
In June 2004, NeighborWorks America issued a request for proposals for its first Manufactured Housing Design Innovation Pilot Program. The goal of the pilot program was to support development using manufactured or modular housing to demonstrate that both housing types can be part of a viable affordable housing strategy. The six pilot projects cover different geographies and different approaches to development. This report presents the six case studies in an effort to inform interested organizations and individuals about the project specifics, as well as the challenges and lessons learned.

Partnership for Advancing Technology and Housing
PATH is a public-private initiative, supported by HUD, that promotes the development and adoption of innovative new technologies in the housing field. The site includes a range of research focused on both specific technical aspects and the broader implications of MH development. The recently released Factory Built Housing Roadmap may be of particular interest. The report proposes research priorities for the factory-built housing industry in 6 areas: the Home, the Plant, the Site, the Market, the Consumer, and Energy Performance. It also provides some background on market forces that are helping to shape the industry's research agenda, such as the confluence of the modular and HUD-code industry segments. Building asset value for owners of manufactured housing is listed as one of the top six research priorities, with I'M HOME cited as an example of initiatives pursuing this goal.

Section 502 Loans
USDA website on section 502 loans which include loans for manufactured housing.