The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has launched a new Manufactured Home Community loan product, which will provide an FHA-insured financing option for the purchase, refinance, and revitalization of manufactured home communities. A vital source of affordable housing, manufactured housing communities may now garner more attention for preservation, stabilization and revitalization as housing costs rise to crisis levels.
“Manufactured home communities offer a stable and affordable housing option for many families. Today, HUD is providing new resources for preserving and revitalizing these communities by providing FHA-insured financing to mission-focused groups to buy or refinance and revitalize manufactured homes,” said HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman. “This is just one of many ways HUD is empowering residents, industry leaders, and governments to expand access to innovative, affordable housing solutions, particularly in rural communities.”
Noting that this effort is intended to help avoid institutional investors from acquiring manufactured home communities, HUD is encouraging certain mission-focused entities such as resident-owned manufactured home communities, cooperatives, non-profit entities and consortia, state and local governments, community development financing institutions, and Indian Tribes, that are eligible to use this new program to finance the acquisition or improvement of existing communities, including making updates to common area resources and helping to maintain rent affordability.
“As manufactured housing owners want to exit from ownership, HUD acquisition financing could become very interesting for residents seeking to own the community cooperatively,” said David Young, Managing Director at Greystone. “Generally, resident-owned communities (ROC) financing has been done through smaller Community Development Financial Institutions Funds. Given that the program also allows for repairs to be financed, it could become as popular as when HUD allowed for refinancing and rehabilitation of the older Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly.”
HUD’s Manufactured Home Communities program leverages FHA’s Multifamily 223(f) program, providing permanent mortgage financing for these types of communities that may have previously been ineligible, and for previously ineligible manufactured home cooperative borrowers to be eligible to acquire and obtain financing for existing communities.
For more information about the new Manufactured Home Communities program, click here.