In the wake of Obaba’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, many people are wondering if throwing a lifeline to borrowers will have its intended impact.

The big banks appear to like the plan.  So does Fannie Mae.  The market was mixed.  Bank stocks fell on the day, but overall, the Dow was about even. The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Page is already coming out against the idea.

The doubt stems from research that shows that a high percentage of modified loans still end up delinquent, in default, and potentially in foreclosure.  John Dugan, Comptroller of the OCC, recently published research that shows that more than half of all loans modified in 2008 ended up in default.  The research only covered first lien loans.  So, that is some pretty (more…)

At the end of the housing bubble, many Americans lost their homes when mobile home parks were cleared out to make room for speculative single-family site built real estate development.

The latest example is reported in Salt Lake City, where the Meadows Mobile Home Park in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was cleared to make way for redevelopment.  The park had 150 slabs.  The developer intended to build 29 “mansions” on the land.

Delaware Manufactured Homeowners Association director Ed Speraw is quoted, making the oft-spoken point that “manufactured housing is the largest source of (more…)

A proposal before a North Carolina town would evict residents living in singlewides in order to create more affordable single family site built housing.  The middle income housing development, called Veridia, would also have sustainable amenities.

The Board of Aldermen of Carrboro, North Carolina have heard a request from Trip Overholt to redesign Pine Grove Mobile Home Park.  Overholt owns the park, which has 42 lots for singlewides.

The new homes would be about 1350 square feet and sell for almost $300,000.  Overholt believes this is an affordable price point.  He says that an appraiser analyzed the homes in the neighborhood near the park, and found that they are routinely greater than 3,000 square feet and sell for about $700,000. His plan would put 39 homes in the footprint of the existing area, set within a co-housing plan with common spaces for residents.

That price is probably affordable to middle class residents with two jobs.

A local paper refers to Carrboro as “the Paris of Piedmont.”  It recently celebrated Dennis Kucinich Day.  The Board of Aldermen have passed resolutions against the Patriot Act and the Iraq War.  A small town of just under 17,000, It is home to many academics, a local slow food movement, and a decidely different sense of land use.

The developer is seeking to exempt the development from an affordable housing requirement.  Carrboro’s rule would stipulate that six homes in this development be priced under $120,000.

The Aldermen might be attracted by the development’s plans to include a special water catchment system, its 18 solar panels, community garden, Energy Star homes, and common house.

Unsaid, but perhaps already acknowledged, is that the people living in the singlewides will have to find a new home.   The area of Carrboro is surrounded by Chapel Hill to the East and some land zoned for agriculture to the West, South, and North.  The town of Hillsborough is about nine miles away.

The developer acknowledges that he is not building this development to make a huge profit.  It is a dream to see this kind of idea made into reality.

It is a dilemma, though, for Carrboro’s leadership.  The plan presents an opportunity to put in place some ecologically sound land-use planning.  It comes with a definite cost for the homeowners that will be forced to move on, made homeless by government fiat.

This is an example of selective progressivism.   If Carrboro lets this go ahead, they will be complicit in allowing low-income households to be set back.  It is nice to utilize plans that build community.  Energy saving solar panels and rain water catchment are good ideas that more developers should consider.  But sustainability should be kind, not elitist.

Carrboro has some definite credentials as a blue Town.  But blue for whom?

One of the unfortunate side-effects of housing strategies that seek to improve places is that sometimes residents are displaced.

Many housing and economic development strategies put places before people.  It may not be intentional, but some plans have led to displacement over and over again.  While the issue of displacement has been well documented in older housing developments, it is also going on in our manufactured housing communities.

Hope VI was one of the more recent, and controversial, housing interventions to create a wave of displacement.  Hope VI sought to replace the tired and dysfunctional housing developments erected after World War II throughout the country.  That plan was implemented through the creation of new housing developments that mixed low-income residents with market-rate homes.

The idea was laudable — let’s not warehouse the poor in concentrated ghettos, where substandard housing (more…)

H1700, the bill to prevent the displacement of residents from manufactured housing communities, exited the North Carolina General Assembly’s House this week. It passed by a vote of 113 to 5, with two abstentions. The bill, in its fourth version, goes to the Senate this week. Its first stop will be with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Small Business, and Entrepreneurship, chaired by Senator R.C. Soles, Jr.

The bill seeks to reward park owners that sell to resident owned groups or to non-profits. The carrot behind the bill is to provide a financial incentive. In an earlier version, the “carrot” consisted of a seven percent credit on the likely capital gain made by the owner.

Paul Stam, a Republican from Apex, pointed out that the bill’s structure would do little in instances when (more…)