MHMSM.com presents Factory Built Housing Industry News at Noon with Erin Patla.
Coming up – Manufactured Home Sales Rise
We begin with these stories:
IF YOU’RE CONCERNED your carbon footprint is too big, Clayton Homes has an answer. Popular Mechanics recently ran a feature on Clayton homes I-House. I-House is an innovative prefab home that can be powered for a dollar a day, thanks to Low-E windows, solar augmentation, high-efficiency appliances and superior insulation. It’s not a net-zero home, but the solar panels do cut energy consumption in half. The home features a tankless water heater and a cistern collects rainwater from the roof for use in the garden. Clayton hopes to deliver the 992-square-foot home for about $100,000. The company is exploring a partnership with Ikea that would feature display models at stores and even allow people to design and order their own I-Houses from the Ikea Web site. The furniture retailer isn’t new to the home industry. Ikea stores in several European countries currently offer two-story kit homes.
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MANUFACTURED HOMES IN THE NEWS…
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS gave a wider audience to a Sun Herald story this week about new modular concrete homes coming to Gulfport, Mississippi. The homes will be built by Royal Concrete Concepts in Okeechobee [oh-kih-CHO-bee], Florida and will make up a new subdivision called Turtle Creek. Built in Southwestern Adobe style, the houses will range in price from $140,000 to $170,000. Funding for the project was provided by a Hurricane Katrina Community Development Block Grant.
IF A REPORT FROM AMARILLO, TEXAS is correct, manufactured home retailers should be having a good summer. NewsChannel 10 interviewed several of the region’s retailers and found sales up as much as 25 percent. While manufactured home sales are up, traditional home sales in Amarillo are slow. The reason may be explained by area agents who find a lot of customers are looking to scale down and spend less money for the space.
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“Up next, Market News”
But first, this podcast of News at Noon is sponsored in part by: MHMSM.com/solutions.
Do you have vacant homes or sites? Does your financing, market, sales or management need a boost? From high Return on Investment online marketing, to public relations, sales, lead and management systems and more, make us your Solutions Resource. When you are ready for the answers to your needs, visit MHMSM.com/solutions.
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IN MARKET NEWS…
THE FEDERAL RESERVE has concluded the economic recovery is losing its steam. The official statement was: “the pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated,” and the report concludes household spending is increasing gradually, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Business spending on equipment and software is rising; however, investment in nonresidential structures continues to be weak and employers remain reluctant to add to payrolls. Housing starts remain at a depressed level. Bank lending has continued to contract. Nonetheless, the Committee anticipates a gradual return to higher levels of resource utilization in a context of price stability, although the pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated. The Fed took fresh steps to lower borrowing costs, announcing it would use proceeds from its maturing mortgage bonds to buy more government debt. Analysts said the move represents a significant policy shift. In a report issued Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco indicated another recession is a “significant possibility” by 2011 or 2012.
FREDDIE MAC REPORTED MONDAY it had a net loss of $4.7 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, compared to a net loss of $6.7 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. The company had a net worth deficit of $1.7 billion at June 30, 2010, compared to a net worth deficit of $10.5 billion at March 31, 2010. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, as Conservator, will submit a request on the company’s behalf to Treasury for a draw of $1.8 billion under the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement. Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman, Jr. said in a statement that the company has helped more than 150,000 struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure and provided funding that enabled more than 865,000 American families to buy or rent a home in the first half of 2010 – during which the GSEs again supplied the majority of all the liquidity to the U.S. mortgage market.
PALM HARBOR HOMES recently topped a list by the web site SmarTrend or companies in the homebuilding industry as measured by the price to sales per share ratio. The site says often companies with the lowest ratio present the greatest value to investors. Palm Harbor Homes has a price/sales ratio of 0.16x based on a current price of $2.15 and trailing 12-month sales per share of $13.1. Also listed by the site were site builders Beazer Homes, Hovnanian Enterprises, M/I Homes and Standard Pacific
THE DOW CLOSED DOWN half a percent or 54 points and the manufactured housing composite value was down nearly two and a half percent. Leading the declines for the trading day were Cavco Industries and Meritage Homes, both off yesterday’s close by more than three percent. Palm harbor Homes and Skyline were both off more than two percent. UMH Properties was the exception today, up .35 percent from yesterday’s close.
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“On behalf of Production and IT Manager Bob Stovall, Editor L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, Associate Editor Catherine Frenzel, INdustry in Focus reporter Eric Miller, and the entire MHMSM.com writing and support team, this is Erin Patla. G’day!”