HUD Secretary Scott Turner, at right-center, is guided through the three homes set up by Champion at MHI's Congress and Expo in Orlando May 5. Photo courtesy of MHI/Shawn Pence.
In mid-May, executives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development toured a Champion Homes facility and sales center in Leola, Pennsylvania.
HUD Assistant Deputy Secretary and regional administrator Joseph DeFelice and HUD Office of Housing Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Frank Cassidy toured the manufacturing facility to experience “firsthand the efficiency and quality of our construction process,” Champion Homes President and CEO Tim Larson said.
“These visits reflect HUD’s growing support in addressing the nation’s affordable housing shortage with offsite construction,” Larson added.
The group in Pennsylvania, on May 8, toured two of Champion’s newer single-family manufactured home models, the Embrace Sunlight and the Embrace Calm.
Attendees were able to see where the homes are built, showcasing the streamlined, efficient process that standard home building challenges, including delays and inconsistencies that come from multiple work crews involved in varying phases. Working in a factory allows for greater quality control, consistency, and speed, with each step integrated from start to finish.
Streamlining and coordinating the workforce in a centralized location helps to address increasing labor cost and shortage trends in the construction industry, while providing skilled labor a year-round workplace that’s sheltered from the elements.
“The excitement around our housing solution was evident as the group toured the facility and walked through our homes,” Champion Homes Regional Vice President David Reed said.
By transforming how we approach housing production, communities can create immediate, meaningful progress in addressing critical housing shortages
By Ryan Kilpatrick
Ryan Kilpatrick, Flywheel Companies
The housing crisis isn’t just a statistic — it’s a deeply human challenge that touches every corner of our nation and requires solutions now. Most markets are dramatically under-producing housing, falling short by a staggering three to five times the number of homes needed to support the growing number of households in a region.
Talk to local builders or lenders, and you’ll hear a familiar refrain of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Skilled trades are stretched thin. Financing options are limited. Developable land that is properly zoned is scarce. The entire ecosystem appears to be operating at maximum capacity, leaving little room for growth.
Beyond Roadblocks: A Practical Vision for Change
Creating a healthy housing ecosystem isn’t about waiting for perfect solutions — it means creating immediate, meaningful progress with an attitude of continuous improvement over time. And let’s be clear, no one can afford to wait years for systemic change.
Right now, local businesses are trying to hire. School districts are seeking educators. Young professionals are launching their careers. Seniors are struggling to maintain their independence.
To those who are close to the industry, it seems like the perfect moment in time to transition to more off-site construction where labor supply and environmental factors are less volatile, yet many local communities are nervous about adjusting permitting frameworks to accommodate off-site housing production.
The key is to start small, but think strategically.
Create Tangible Momentum
Cities and towns rarely mobilize around abstract concepts, but they can rally around concrete, visible progress. If you’re in an area that is just beginning to consider the potential for off-site construction, try a small number of simple but potentially inspiring starting points:
• Build a pocket neighborhood for year-round residents on a previously overlooked parcel. A small neighborhood of six to 12 quaint cottage homes clustered around a common green space with smart landscaping and parking tucked in the rear. It could be a quick win for a locale that is housing challenged. It also can become a great prototype for the local permitting office to get accustomed to the housing type and installation process.
Greenspur’s Bentonville, Arkansas, pocket neighborhood was built using SIP panels.
• Rehabilitate an underutilized mobile home park with new manufactured homes, improved infrastructure, and community amenities. While getting a vacant parcel of land zoned to allow for new manufactured housing can be difficult in many places, there are hundreds of older communities that could use attention. These can be excellent opportunities for site cleanup, better landscaping, and new homes to reset the local community’s understanding and acceptance of this type of housing.
The City of Los Angeles has supported more than 5,000 new ADUs in just the last five years.
• Partner with a handful of homeowners in a specific neighborhood to provide backyard cottages or accessory dwelling units. Work out the financing with three to five homeowners in a local neighborhood to ensure they will achieve a positive return on investment from rental income or savings that stem from caring for an aging loved one at home rather than paying for assisted living. Then quickly install all five backyard cottages over the course of a few weeks and host a neighborhood block party and open house so that the whole community can walk through these new units and hear from the homeowners about why they made the choice to add a modular unit, for instance, to their property.
These aren’t just housing projects — they’re transformation initiatives for local governments and the communities they serve. Use them as opportunities to communicate broader housing needs and to show how off-site production can help to support meaningful and positive changes in their own communities. Start small, then scale. And talk about it incessantly.
More Than Construction: A Learning Opportunity
Each housing initiative is a chance to do two critical things simultaneously:
1. Create Housing: Address immediate needs for housing at a variety of price points
2. Build Community Understanding: Illuminate the broader context of housing needs and common barriers to housing where broader solutions are needed.
In your communication materials, you’ll want to ask and answer the crucial questions:
• Who will be served by this housing?
• Why are these residents important to our community?
• How many others share similar housing challenges?
• What would it take to scale this solution? What are the barriers in the way of doing more of these projects?
• Who can help in the community and how can they get engaged?
Turn Barriers into Opportunities
You’ll inevitably still encounter obstacles — overly restrictive parking requirements, the building department isn’t communicating well with the planning department, utility connection fees aren’t what you were told they would be, or a couple of neighbors simply don’t want to see any changes on that vacant lot. But here’s the revolutionary approach: view each barrier as a communication opportunity.
Use these barriers to educate the local residents and stakeholders about how this difficult process is indicative of the broader regional housing shortage. Build a broader understanding of how each piece of the process, no matter how seemingly small, is impacting the area’s ability to grow. And create alliances for systemic change. Don’t ever miss an opportunity to align your goals and objectives with those of another influential organization or person.
These initiatives will feel endlessly frustrating. But if you toil for months (or years) on one project and view all the problems as things you never want to face again, what was the point of the exercise? Instead, view all of those obstacles as the things to lean into the hardest.
The obstacle is the way.
The Path Forward: Intentionality as the Greatest Tool
Housing isn’t just about buildings. It’s about people. It’s about creating spaces where individuals and families can thrive, where communities can grow, and where potential can be realized.
Transformation doesn’t happen by accident. It requires delib- erate, strategic action — a commitment that goes far beyond a single project or isolated effort. Each housing initiative is a potential blueprint, a learning opportunity that could inspire hundreds or even thousands of similar developments. But this potential can only be unlocked through intentional, transparent communication, and rigorous problem-solving.
The Anatomy of Sustainable Change
Every project will face challenges, and some will be systemic — deeply rooted in outdated regulations or complex economic constraints. Others will be more immediate and practical: poor planning, project management hurdles, neighborhood dynamics, or resource misalignments. The true measure of a small government’s resilience isn’t the absence of these challenges, but its collective ability to:
• Recognize obstacles transparently
• Document and share lessons learned
• Develop adaptive strategies
• Build a network of support and knowledge exchange
Community as Collective Problem-Solver
The most powerful resource in addressing housing challenges isn’t money or policy — it’s collective will.
By starting small, staying persistent, and maintaining a com- passionate, strategic approach, we can transform our housing ecosystems — one initiative, and one conversation at a time. But this transformation demands more than good intentions. It requires unwavering commitment, political will, and a shared vision of community well-being.
Our housing future isn’t predetermined. It’s carefully, intentionally crafted — by us, for us, with every challenge we face and every solution we implement.
Ryan Kilpatrick, owner of Flywheel Companies, has a background in economic development, housing finance, community design, and development finance. He is the former executive director Housing Next, where he helped to define access to housing as a core economic development issue for West Michigan through data-oriented dialogue and partnership with employers, local municipalities, chambers of commerce, and developers. He is certified professional with the American Planning Association and the National Development Council’s Economic Development Finance Professional, and is co-author of the Michigan Statewide Zoning Reform Toolkit.
The Riverwalk from Skyline® Homes in Sugarcreek, Ohio, won the Manufactured Home Design – CrossMod® category. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,300-square-foot home is built to CrossMod® standards and is a U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home, a high-performance home with a renewable energy system that can offset most or all the home's annual energy use. Photo courtesy of Skyline.
The Manufactured Housing Institute each year celebrates the industry’s successes during the previous 12 months with the MHI Excellence in Manufactured Housing Awards. The program honors professionals in manufactured and modular housing who “continue to pave the way to success by providing outstanding products, customer service, creative solutions, and state-of-the-art homes,” MHI said in its awards release.
“The winners of this year’s MHI Excellence in Manufactured Housing Awards exemplify the determination, commitment and innovative approach that defines our members and industry,” MHI President Mark Bowersox said.
2025 Excellence in Manufactured Housing Awards
Manufacturers of the Year
Clayton Home Building Group: Volume Manufacturer of the Year
Adventure Homes: Small Volume Manufacturer of the Year — Three Plants or Fewer
Retail Sales Centers of the Year
Oakwood Homes, Fletcher, N.C.: Retail Sales Center of the Year — East
Adventure Homes: Retail Sales Center of the Year — West
“We are honored to receive two of the top MHI national awards,” Flagship President and CEO Kurt Keeney said. “These awards recognize our unwavering commitment to providing both a high quality and affordable living experience for our residents. Our sincere thanks to the Manufactured Housing Institute for honoring the important work done by its member companies to enhance communities and support working families nationwide.”
Ocean View by Sun Communities, Inc.: Land-Lease Community of the Year — East
Willow Crossing by Sun Communities, Inc.: Land-Lease Community of the Year — West
Yale Realty & Capital Advisors: Manufactured Home Community Lender/Broker of the Year
Design Awards
The Ravenwood by Champion Homes/Regional Builders Group: Manufactured Home Design — Multi-Section
The Ravenwood from Regional Builders Group™ in Winston, Alabama won the Manufactured Home Design – Multi-Section category. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,216-square-foot home features a set of large exterior doors that open to reveal a bonus room, bringing outdoor living inside. This space is perfect for entertaining, with bar seating, a wood-burning stove, and a large back porch.
“Champion Homes has an incredible team and an outstanding portfolio of brands and products,” Champion Homes President and CEO Tim Larson said. “We’re thrilled to receive industry recognition by winning the MHI Excellence in Manufactured Housing Award for the 11th year in a row. It shows our dedication to providing our customers with high-quality, beautifully designed homes that are attainable and provide great value.”
The Tiffany J76K by American Homestar Corporation/ Oak Creek Homes: Manufactured Home Design — Single Section
“Being recognized again for The Tiffany shows how listening to our homeowners drives better design,” Oak Creek Homes CEO Dwayne Teeter said. “We’re proud that both of our single-section and multi-section homes meet today’s real-world needs in affordability, comfort, quality, and energy efficiency.”
The Yellowstone by Adventure Homes: Modular Housing Design Award
The Riverwalk by Champion Homes: Manufactured Home Design — CrossMod®
Aareas Interactive helps builders, retailers sell homes.
If a customer on the West Coast was interested in a new home on the Gulf Coast, how might that transaction go? How pricey would it be, how long would it take?
Frank Guido, Andrew Lett and team, with Aareas Interactive, have some burgeoning ideas about the experience that customers receive.
The experience provides a realist rendering of a home, neighborhood, or community of interest to the customer,” Guido said. “It gives an automated tour or allows the user to conduct a virtual tour at their own pace.
“During the tour, the customer can swap out finishes, materials, color schemes, and even turn the clock or change the season to see how the light of day and afternoon shadows affect the look of the home inside and out,” he said.
And it’s all very photorealistic.
The software’s user can test the same home or different home designs within a development or community as it would appear adjacent the tennis courts, alongside the general store, or on a wooded lot.
“Someone can make choices from California about how they might place a home in a community in Louisiana,” Lett said.
It’s customized purchasing, with mind toward the end user, the homebuyer, and that single person’s unique place in the market.
The founders have a background in the industry, having worked with Oakwood Homes before it was purchased by Clayton, before Clayton was a Berkshire Hathaway company.
Like many other organizations in the off-site built space, Aareas Interactive took a hiatus and focused on other asset classes — single-family homes and condos — when the manufactured housing industry was down.
They returned with enhanced technology about two years ago.
“At that time it was a sales office and the following year we had everything online,” Lett said.
The Toronto-based company and its partners, in late 2024, were honored with the Gold Muse Award and the Silver Muse Award, which recognize excellence in design, innovation, and creativity across various industries worldwide. There were more than 17,200 entrants competing for the prize.
“These accolades showcase our steadfast commitment to innovation in design, technology, and customer experience,” Guido said. “Our projects reimagine the home design and purchasing journey by integrating cutting-edge virtual reality and immersive technologies, enabling our clients to offer their customers highly engaging and interactive buying experiences.”
Working with Builders
Aareas in recent years has been working with builders at the corporate and plant level to log their homes and floorpans. All the new functionality is applied to geography, within a development, and with considerations for home dimensions in relation to a particular lot size and local rules.
“Again, you can tour at your own speed or you can do an auto-tour,” Lett said.
Guido said Aareas allows a home seller to have 10 home designs open for tours in a community, and at an active, in-person sales center where the customer could run through home options and design choices, but also be able to take that experience home with them and continue to work toward the precise design that they desire.
“The customer can completely configure the experience any way they want,” Guido said.
Real Time Purchasing, Pricing
The program ties all of the customers’ needs together and avoids many of the common problems that arise during the standard sales experience, which speeds up the time to market. The home gets placed more quickly, the home seller moves to the next deal, and the new home owner is in place, exactly where they want to be… right down to the final detail.
“If the buyer has chosen a gas stove it won’t let you forget the gas line and it won’t let you buy a connection for an electric stove,” Guido said. “If you choose a three-hole sink it will automatically provide you a quote that includes hardware for a three-hole sink.”
Darryl Searer, in front of the Manufactured Housing Industry Museum in Elkhart.
The RV Veteran Raised Elkhart Institution from Ashes
More than 20 years ago the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart was drowning in debt, in need of new leadership, and was desperate for an update.
A longtime promoter of the RV industry stepped forward to take on the task, to raise the money, and turn the hall around. Darryl Searer, who retired from the role this year, took on the immense challenge for a salary of $1 per year.
There is a reason the hall named its annual Spirit Award after him.
“I am most proud of providing leadership at the Hall of Fame and seeing the MH and RV industries step up and support the vision of the future that we established in 2016,” Searer said.
Through his vision and leadership over the course of more than eight years the hall expanded operations, and during the 2019 induction dinner Searer announced that the organization had paid its debt and was operating in the black.
“I’ve never been more excited to give this address,” Searer told the more than 400 attendees.
In the years since, the hall has opened a new 21,000 square-foot Manufactured Housing Museum and added a 36,000 square-foot event space to the convention center.
Searer was at the helm to keep the place afloat and all projects on course during the pandemic when the industry and all else was unable to have large gatherings.
Facilities at the Hall of Fame now include:
• An RV Museum displaying a rare historical collection portraying RV’s role in family fun, exploring nature and sightseeing.
• The Scoular Manufactured Housing Museum showcasing the industry’s involvement in providing the dream of home ownership to millions of people.
• Hall of Fame inductee recognition areas, gift shop, and a theatre.
• A library with archives of industry history and data.
• More than 78,000 square feet of convention, meeting, and exhibit space.
• A 21,000 square foot, year-round pavilion.
• Beautiful grounds and a convenient location on a major interstate highway.
Leo Poggione, a longtime Nevada-based retailer who volunteers his time with the hall as well as other leading industry organizations, said Searer in his nearly 12 years of service has been instrumental in this growth.
“As many are aware, Darryl very generously donated these services,” Poggione said. “It is my belief that the RV and MH Industries, as a whole, have no idea how much time and effort Darryl provided and the Hall of Fame would likely not exist today if it were not for Darryl.”
The RV/MH Hall of Fame in recent years has welcomed about 15,000 guests annually.
In addition to his service at the hall, Searer has served more than 20 years on the RVIA Public Relations Committee, as president of the RV Aftermarket Association, and as a vital member of the Go RVing Coalition.
Barry Cole, a member of the hall and its chairman emeritus, understood Searer’s passion for the institution. Searer, he said, had served the hall in the past, and returned “working night and day without pay.”
“Look at what happened,” Cole said. “Darryl resurrected the Hall, with the assistance of the board, and created an incredible, beautiful museum with a huge convention facility. Darryl’s results are clear as he is a true hero to the RV and Manufactured Housing Industries.”
A former drive-in movie theater in Maine is being converted into a manufactured home community that will provide 30 to 40 new homesites.
The Skowhegan Drive-In Theater, which had been in operation since 1954, closed in 2023. Municipal records show the property was purchased and is being redeveloped by A+C Properties, owned by Aaron Crocker. Dirigo Engineering and Randy Butler, of Fairfield, Maine, are listed as an authorized agent on the property.
Crocker said he is working through ideas on how to maintain some of the drive-in’s identity and the former use of the property with the new development he has in mind.
“People in the area are definitely nostalgic about the property,” Crocker said. “I remember going with my family when I was a kid, and I loved it.
“I saw the original Jurrassic Park in 1993,” he said.
A+C Properties also owns and manages a nearby apartment building, and have been working with manufactured homes in small villages on scattered sites.
“We have 18 units right now, including three new homes from Commodore that we were using as kind of an experiment while we decided if we going to buy this land,” Crocker said. “We’ve had a really good experience with them, and our tenants are very pleased.”
Crocker said he will bring a model home near the entry of the new community, and allow residents to design and purchase their own home. The property will be operated on a land-lease model.
“There is a large paper mill nearby, a local hospital is expanding, and New Balance shoes is expanding here, too, so there are a lot of new jobs and not a lot of affordable housing,” Crocker said. “We want to provide something that is nice, well kept, with new, affordable homes.”
The new community was considered and recommended for approval at the Feb. 4 meeting of the Skowhegan Planning Board. The property was purchased in May 2024 through Allied Realty, and will be subdivided for the project.
In addition to the approximately 36 new homes, the 11.23-acre property will provide six RV sites. The community will be connected to city utilities, and will require a stormwater permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The new owner also is required to obtain a community license and a campground license from the state.
Near the main entrance of the property, the movie screen will be pulled down and a new pond and stormwater drainage system is proposed. The entrance to the old theater and new community on Waterville Road is flanked by Skowhegan Tire Center and an American Legion post.
Crocker also will put in a new road, a roadside stormwater buffer, and a water meter building. The property will use existing hydrants for fire protection.
The manufactured housing industry’s premier event, the MHI Congress & Expo, returns to Orlando, Florida, from May 5 – 7, 2025, with more features than ever. This year’s program brings together industry leaders, innovators, and professionals for three days of education and exploration of the latest advancements in manufactured housing.
The event kicks off on Sunday, May 4, with the Oliver Technologies Golf Open and the Hart Kienle Pentecost/Lutz, Bobo & Telfair Clay Shoot.
These events provide attendees with a chance to meet with other industry professionals in a relaxed setting while supporting the industry’s advocacy efforts.
A highlight this year is the expanded Developing with Manufactured Housing Seminar. Now a day-and-a-half event designed for builders and developers, this in-depth program features training on obtaining land-use approvals, financing options, and case studies on manufactured housing developments. The seminar is led by subject matter experts and includes a tour of the manufactured homes on-site in the MHI Neighborhood.
Monday, May 5, marks the beginning of the National Communities Council Spring Forum, an annual event tailored for home community owners and operators. With the 2025 theme, “The Road Ahead: Innovating and Sustaining the Future,” the forum will explore key industry topics, including AI’s impact on the sector, effective community engagement strategies, and emerging market opportunities.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner has been confirmed as the keynote speaker at the event, MHI said in a recent statement.
In 2025, the expo hall is bigger and more dynamic than ever, spanning 60,000 square feet and featuring more than 170 exhibitor booths showcasing the latest products and services. The hall includes interactive lounges, afternoon mixers, and the debut of the MHI Learning Lab — a dedicated theater on the show floor where exhibitors will present educational sessions.
Scheduled speakers include representatives from GAF Energy, ManageAmerica, and Rent Manager. Additionally, Manufactured Homes Sales Mastery will launch a new, interactive training platform for MHEI’s Professional Housing Consultant program.
Another returning highlight for the 2025 Congress & Expo is the MHI Neighborhood, displaying a range of the industry’s latest manufactured homes. The outdoor installation will be open from Monday, May 5, at 5 p.m. through Wednesday, May 7, at 10:45 a.m.
To further enhance the attendee experience, this year’s event features three distinct workshop tracks:
Newcomers Track — Ideal for those who are new to the manufactured housing industry, with fundamental content and the popular Guided Newcomer Roundtable.
Industry Hot Topics Track — Covering pressing industry issues, including zoning, rent control, and lending challenges.
Networking Roundtables Track — Offering small-group discussions with industry experts across a range of key topics.
With an expanded lineup of sessions, an interaction exhibit floor, and an agenda packed with opportunities to learn and grow, the 2025 MHI Congress & Expo is set to be the industry’s most comprehensive and engaging event yet.
Visit the Congress and Expo event website for full details on speakers, exhibitors, sessions, and the event schedule.
A new manufactured home with features and amenities that fit into nearly any single-family residential setting.
What Is The State of the Manufactured Housing Industry? 2025 Updated Industry Facts and Figures
This post highlights some of the top-line trends in the manufactured housing industry, updated on an annual basis each spring. Manufactured homes continue to be a crucial solution to the affordable housing crisis, filling the gap in the middle housing market for many customer segments. Judging by the numbers from our 2025 “State of the Industry” report on manufactured housing industry trends and statistics, manufactured housing industry continues to show positive signs for growth.
Competitive Advantage
What is the cost for a new manufactured home?
The average cost for a new manufactured home in 2024 was $109,400, down nearly 4 percent from the previous year. For a multi-section home the average cost was $164,678 and the price for a new single-section home averaged $81,281. For an existing manufactured home the average sale price in 2023 was $71,629, up 2.65 percent from the previous year.
What is the cost per square foot for manufactured homes?
The average cost per square foot for a manufactured home is $93.71. For a multi-section home the price per square foot averages $118.3 and the price per square foot of a single-section home averages $76.28.
Community Living
How many manufactured homes are there, and how many go to communities?
There are an estimated 4.3 million manufactured home sites in the United States. Approximately 55 percent of new manufactured homes are placed in a community. The U.S. has approximately 44,000 manufactured home communities. Approximately 18 percent of known communities in the U.S. were constructed prior to 1970. More than 60 percent were built during the 1970s and 1980s. About 5 percent of known communities have been built since 1991. Approximately 16 percent of known communities have an unknown, undocumented, or unclear construction date.
Communities by Size
Approximately 29 percent of known communities are in a size category of 25 to 99 homesites. The next largest group is shared at 16 percent, with the communities that have one to 24 homesites and communities that have 100 to 299 homesites making up more than a third of the market. Three percent of the market is comprised of communities with between 300 and 499 homesites. One percent has between 500 and 999 homesites. Only 0.2 percent of communities have 1,000 homesites or more. An estimated 34 percent of communities in the U.S. are listed as “unknown” size.
New manufactured homes at a land-lease community in Arizona.
How Many People Live in Manufactured and Mobile Homes?
MHInsider’s review of annual manufactured housing industry trends and statistics show 20.6 million people in the U.S. live in a manufactured or mobile home. Manufactured homes make up 9.3 percent of annual new home starts. About 76 percent of new manufactured homes are titled as personal property or “chattel”.
Resident Satisfaction
How much do residents and owners of manufactured homes appreciate their purchasing decision?
A 2022 study reveals 85 percent of people are satisfied with their mobile or manufactured home, a seven percent increase from the last survey conducted in 2018. Seventy percent of residents cite affordability as the key driver for choosing manufactured housing. Fifty-three percent of manufactured home owners said they purchased their home for its energy efficiency, and 49 percent choose their home for added space.
Manufactured Housing Production
How many manufactured homes were built during 2024?
Thirty-eight U.S. manufactured home builders operating from 152 plants across the country again cracked the triple digit mark, producing 103,314 housing units during 2024. Shipment levels increased from 89,169, recovering from the early sting of rising interest rates. Home sales were steady through 2024, experienced a sluggish start for 2025 but continue to show signs of growth.
Top Manufacturers
What are the top manufactured home builders by market share?
Builders work on a new home at Cavco’s Durango facility in Phoenix.
Clayton — 50.01 percent
Champion — 20.28 percent
Cavco — 13.55 percent
Live Oak Homes — 2.55 percent
Jessup — 1.92 percent
Legacy Homes — 1.74 percent
Adventure — 1.52 percent
American Home Star — 1.48 percent
Sunshine — 1.02 percent
Manufactured Housing Retail Markets
What are the top markets for manufactured housing retail sales?
New single-section homes for sale at a manufactured home retail center in Tucson, Ariz.
What’s The State of the Manufactured Housing Industry?
MHlnsider updated its annual manufactured housing industry trends and statistics infographic, originally published in the May/June 2025 State of the Industry edition of MHInsider magazine. The following infographic includes data provided in summary earlier in the post and expands on information gathered from our surveys, including insight on rent and occupancy and average days on market.
Manufactured Housing Industry Trends and Statistics Infographic
Resident screening technology company Boom is partnering with ManageAmerica property management software to create an entirely new experience in the development of purpose-built software for manufactured housing communities.
Boom is a new provider, and ManageAmerica has been in the business for more than 25 years.
As part of the April 24 announcement, the companies stated that the objective is to modernize resident screening for manufactured housing operators, to “move in top-quality residents faster, reduce site vacancies, and enhance the leasing experience for future residents.”
Boom has a comprehensive financial services software to mitigate fraud and increase leasing velocity. The result is a resident screening integration that delivers industry-first capabilities to streamline applicant underwriting, reduce site vacancies, and build better communities.
“Making sound decisions around resident screening is a cornerstone to managing a healthy manufactured housing community. Our new partnership with Boom will help drive actionable insights to support driving profitable occupancy for manufactured housing operators,” ManageAmerica CEO Caitlin Pomeroy said. “We are excited to deliver a step-change improvement in the applicant experience, drive a more streamlined experience for busy community managers, and improve transparency into the lead-to-move-in lifecycle for corporate users.
“This partnership is just another way we continue to deliver on our promise – to unlock potential in every property,”Pomeroy said.
In resident screening, compliance requirements continue to compound, data is increasingly difficult to access due to local regulations, and the threat of fraud is accelerating.
Typically, leasing teams incorporate additional workflows and logic into their application processes. When an application is received, operators must wait for reports to come back, collect documents manually, calculate threshold metrics by hand, and then manually “clear conditions” to get an applicant approved.
Limited solutions for applicant support and multi-page PDF screening reports generate additional applicant requests and review processes for leasing teams.
To help solve this, companies using the ManageAmerica and Boom integrated solution can:
Configure a consolidated index of screening services, such as identity verification, income verification, animal screening, and credit, criminal, and eviction reports
Customize application questions, fees, criteria, and branding down to a community-level
Offer both applicant-driven and community manager-supported applicant workflows, built to the needs of industry operators
Sync ManageAmerica reservations and availability with Boom application links, with industry-specific attributes such as home rent and site rent
Review ready-to-decision consolidated applications, with reports pulled instantly
Push application data to ManageAmerica to directly move to lease signing
Access Boom’s 24/7 applicant support and dispute management, providing applicants a single point of contact and operators a new extension of the leasing team to reduce work
Move seamlessly between Boom and ManageAmerica with Single Sign On (SSO) authentication
Tropical Palms, a Kissimmee, Fla., manufactured home community under the Encore brand from ELS.
MHI Announces HUD Secretary Scott Turner Will Be Keynote Speaker at 2025 Congress & Expo
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner will provide the keynote address at the 2025 Congress & Expo in Orlando, to be held May 5-7.
Housing Price Index Increases Slightly
The S&P Dow Jones Indices on March 25 released the January 2025 results, a leading measure of U.S. home prices. It recorded a 4.1 percent annual gain in January 2025, a slight increase from the previous reading in December 2024. The 10-City Composite saw an annual increase of 5.3 percent, up from a 5.2 percent annual increase in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a year-over-year increase of 4.7 percent, up from a 4.5 percent increase in the previous month.
Housing Starts Up in Feb, Down in March
Housing starts increased 11.2 percent in February, the last reportable month. Starts, down 2.9 percent year-over-year, reached more than 1.5 million, beating the expected 1.385 million. “After unusually cold weather and fires held back homebuilding in January, new home construction rebounded sharply in February…topping even the most optimistic forecast from any economics group surveyed by Bloomberg,” the First Trust Advisors team of Robert Stein and Brian Wesbury stated in response. The pendulum swung back the following month, with an 11.4 percent dip in March to a 1.324 million annual rate. “U.S. homebuilding continues to whipsaw as builders deal with all sorts of headwinds, tailwinds, and crosswinds,” the First Trust team stated.
Fed Holds Steady
The Federal Open Market Committee at the March meeting voted to maintain rates at the 4.25 to 4.5 percent range, which was widely anticipated. It stated its intention to make two rate cuts this and next year.
Consumer Sentiment Slumps to Near Record Low
The University of Michigan tracks consumer sentiment, and the March reading was among the lowest in the history of the index, slumping more than 34 percent year over year to 50.8. The reading is down 6.2 since the previous month. The latest number stems from “growing worries about trade war developments that have oscillated over the course of the year.” The index show sentiment is down regardless of age, income, geography, or political affiliation.
UM consumer sentiment research on the labor market shows high uncertainty.
Labor Market Remains Resilient
The U.S. Department of Labor on April 4 reported that non-farm payroll increased by 228,000 positions in March, beating the expected 140,000. The private sector rose 209,000. Education and health services were up, as was manufacturing, and government.
More than 1,500 manufactured housing professionals are expected in Las Vegas April 7-9 as the Manufactured Housing Institute’s Congress and Expo returns to the...
With more homes, more exhibitors, and more buzz than ever before, the 2026 Biloxi Show is expanding, and fast.
The Biloxi Manufactured Housing Show &...
