Manufactured Home Borrower's Profile

Manufactured Housing = High-Performance Lending

As a financial professional, you may not be aware that the manufactured home of today is significantly different from the mobile home of the 1970's and earlier. Since 1976, all manufactured homes have been required to meet exacting building standards mandated by HUD; in fact, many of today's conventional homes do not meet the rigid requirements of manufactured homes.

And the borrowers in this market are solid. Consider the demographics of the manufactured housing market:

• Average age of borrower is 49.9.
• 55% have at least some college education.
• 56% are married couples.
• 57% of household heads are employed full-time; 23% are retired.
• Median household income level is $34,700.
• Average household size is 2.7 people.

Based on industry statistics*, 7% of all new single-family homes were manufactured homes. 72% of these homes were multi-section homes that, when combined with single-section homes, equal $7.5 billion in new retail sales. For pre-owned homes, sales totaled $10 billion. In 2006, over 71% of manufactured homes were placed on private property, while the remaining 29% were sited in residential land-lease communities.

*From "The Market Facts," a publication of the Foremost Insurance Group and "Opportunities and Challenges," by Bruce Savage, MHI Vice President of Government Affairs. Based on most recent data available.