Debit Card for Prisoners Gaining Interest: Continental Prisons Systems (CPSZ) share prices doubled on Thursday. On Friday, it moved another 34 percent.  Continental Prison has a kiosk and a card that enable prisoners to transfer funds. The cards save prisons a lot of money and help to avoid the issues that come with writing checks to convicts.  For the prisoners, it is a tradeoff: they can support family and friends on the outside, they can walk out with a card and (more…)

Recent data from the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey shows that people living in mobile homes spend far less on keeping up their homes than do residents of stick-built homes.

America’s infatuation with home-ownership didn’t include much interest in getting people into manufactured homes. It was an exception to a larger gospel about home ownership. With the best of intentions, many housing experts encouraged low-income households to build assets by buying a home.

More than any other factor, “experts” didn’t get on the manufactured housing bandwagon because of one thing – a perception that mobile homes do not appreciate in value.  There’s probably more than (more…)

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has just issued a notice of proposed rule-making that will change how the GSEs approach the acquisition of manufactured housing. It is part of a larger response on the treatment of under-served markets, and the proposed rule would effect not just manufactured housing, but also affordable housing preservation and rural housing.

This rule-making is a long time coming, but I am going to contradict the gospel of progressive non-profits acting in this field and say that I think it the very proponents of manufactured housing have conspired to limit the gains that could have come from the FHFA’s interest.

The new rules put the GSEs on the hook to buy more manufactured housing mortgages, and to at least venture into providing capital for parks, too.

If you have followed the story of manufactured housing, you would know that this industry tanked in the early 90s when Greentree and Conseco withdrew from the secondary market for these loans. Good financing dried up. It is hard (more…)

Real estate values may have a long way to fall. While the stimulus had done a lot to prop up asset prices across the economy, real estate’s buoyancy is driven by its own activity.  That means that there is good chance that we will see less demand for real estate even in a recovery. Housing inventories are not declining, and in many cities, inventories are growing.

Construction jobs lead to housing demand.  Construction workers make $15 to $25 per hour. At that pace, their families can afford to own a home in most of the country. The earnings that people captured as roof layers and electricians are not matched by new work at a call center. Those jobs paid a lot of money. They paid a lot of money to men.  This is not just  a recession. It is a mancession. One problem, at least in terms of finding other jobs for construction workers, is that they face the same challenges that are bedeviling men throughout the workforce.  Men are less likely to have a college degree to fall back on.  Almost two in five construction jobs had evaporated in the last four years.  Two percentage points of U-3 unemployment can be attributed to this one sector.

Consumers took out home equity loans.  That debt fueled housing demand, but it also fueled employment in all kinds of other places.   (more…)

Clayton has produced a new manufactured home that should stimulate a lot of conversation about the viability of mh’s future.

The new “i-house” is both an aesthetic knockout and a legitimately green endeavor.  I would be surprised if the home is not snapped up by a whole new demographic of homebuyers.

This is significant because this product could expand the audience for manufactured housing.  It also might change perceptions surrounding the building practices.  Traditionally, manufactured housing has been a popular element among rural homeowners.  With that geography, an inference of a certain set of preferences is easily made.  Most of the homes have been perceived to be of relatively compromised quality, especially those built prior to the HUD code. Many would say that in the late 90s, that housing quality caught up with site-built standards.  Alternatively, some might argue that site-built slipped (with smaller 2 by 4′s, thinner walls, and more reliance on electric heating) to standards that are relatively equivalent to contemporary mh designs.

The i-house by Clayton, driven by design and green construction, could draw a new type of consumer to manufactured housing.

Either way, the new i-home is a break out.  Green design is more cost-efficient in the long-run, but often its up front costs present an obstacle to homebuyers.  It is similar to cars: often some of the poorest families are driving clunkers from the 70s.  Those cars are cheap to buy, but they need a lot of repairs and they use plenty of gas.

I like the i-house.  It uses big windows, tankless water heaters, low-e windows, and rainwater collectors.  Clayton says that the whole home can be maintained on just one dollar of energy per day.  Think how much energy this will save.  I suppose that many people living in the Southwest will find those features particularly relevant: rainwater comes in bursts but in general there is a lack of precipitation, and there is plenty of sun to brighten rooms.

Clayton must have chosen the name to connect with young consumers.  I-house is a great adaptation of Apple’s iphone, i-life, and i-tunes.  Did I forget ipod? If anything, Clayton has staked a claim on the name frontier.  Its a great move.

Clayton may soon be making some changes in its own corner of the world.