|
Introduction
Leading Issues for Policy Makers
In today’s high priced real estate market, manufactured housing has become the housing choice for many families. Some 8.8 million American families live in mobile homes, and many dealers target the low-income market. Manufactured homes dot the landscape inside urban areas as well as in the countryside.
Public and nonprofit housing programs over the past two decades have emphasized that a first house is a major asset and home buying helps families build wealth over the long term. Our research indicates that significant problems, ranging from predatory lending, unstable tenancy, and installation and warranty problems all too often strip equity from the families who purchase manufactured homes. These problems must be addressed before manufactured housing can be counted on to consistently provide safe, durable, and asset-building housing to the public.
The resources below explore in detail the problems that plague this industry and provide suggestions to both consumers and policymakers. We discuss how community development organizations can extract the technological advantages of factory built housing while avoiding industry practices that ruin its promise. Most importantly, we make recommendations for reforms that policy makers can implement to better manufactured housing for everyone.
|
|
