Supporting Ivory Prize Finalist ROC USA with Market Expansion Research
Image courtesy of ROC USA
Ivory Innovations supports Ivory Prize finalists and winners with pro bono projects. ROC USA asked our team to evaluate the manufactured housing landscape in Utah and determine the highest priority communities for ROC USA’s team to focus their efforts. Read more about what we learned below.
The History of Manufactured Housing
The manufactured housing idea started in the early 20th century when wealthy people built custom-made trailers to use for sleep while on the road, as highway hotels and motels were not popular then. The concept of mobile home parks started when cities started dedicating free pieces of land for these trailers to park, hoping that this would attract wealthy owners to spend more time and money in their towns. Shortly after that, during the Great Depression between 1929-1939, people started using these trailer homes as permanent residences.
Mobile home parks were not always about affordable housing. It all started as a way to attract wealthy people to spend money and time in cities along highways. During World War two, the US government needed a lot of housing units for the new troops joining the army. After the war ended, the government moved these trailer homes near universities across the United States to house all the troops who joined universities for free under the GI bill. In the 1950s and early 1960s, mobile homes were all about upscale and wealthy housing styles. In that era, the average income of an individual living in a mobile home was higher than that of an individual living in a traditional stick-built house. In the mid and late 1960s, those people started establishing families and moving to bigger homes in the suburbs, and that is when the demographics of the people living in trailer parks changed and turned from housing wealthy people to an affordable housing solution.
Manufactured Housing Communities Today
According to an Industry overview report issued by the Manufactured Housing Institute in May 2022, more than 43,000 manufactured housing communities house around 22 million Americans in 2022. In 2021 the industry produced around 106,000 manufactured homes at an average sale price of $106,590 at an average cost per sqft of $72.46 compared to $139.20 for traditional stick built construction, without the land cost.
Ivory Innovations Supports ROC USA Market Expansion
ROC USA, a previous Ivory Prize Finalist, is a non-profit organization founded in 2008. Its mission is to scale up home ownership in the manufactured housing sector by partnering with homeowners in Manufactured ("Mobile") Home Communities who want to purchase and operate their communities as Resident Owned Communities ("ROCs").
According to ROC USA, there are several benefits to Resident Owned Manufactured homes communities, such as reinvesting the rent money in maintaining and upgrading the community and helping stabilize the rents.
Today, ROC USA works with more than 290 resident-owned communities coast to coast. In Utah, ROC USA is currently working with one community that includes 56 homes.
We always look at Ivory Innovations for new ideas to promote housing affordability and home ownership. We help all the companies nominated for the Ivory Prize and all our partners by establishing connections with other stakeholders and doing research to advance their work. For example, Ivory Innovations supported ROC USA’s expansion efforts by preparing a comprehensive list of all the manufactured housing communities in the top 5 most populous counties in Utah (Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, and Washington counties). This list includes the community address, the number of pads, amenities, year built, age restrictions, owners’ names, and contact information. Table 1 below demonstrates a summary of our findings.
Priority criteria were established to rank these communities based on their potential to become Resident Owned Communities (ROCs) with ROC USA’s help. These criteria prioritized communities with:
More than 50 pads, the size at which ROC USA has found it feasible for residents to make use of ROC USA’s financial support. Smaller communities were considered if there were multiple communities in the same vicinity that might transition to resident ownership together.
Owned by an individual rather than a real estate management company that might be less likely to sell to its residents
As a result of this analysis, we now have a comprehensive list of all the manufactured housing communities in Utah’s five most populous counties, including information that will help ROC USA expand their presence in Utah’s market. If anyone is interested in supporting our efforts to promote resident-owned communities through ROC USA by creating similar lists, please do not hesitate to contact us via our email (info@ivoryinnovations.org).
In conclusion, we want to emphasize that the manufactured housing sector is an essential piece of the puzzle to solving the housing affordability issue as it provides a low-cost housing solution with good amenities. Unfortunately, building new manufactured housing communities (MHCs) is no longer feasible as most US cities do not approve new MHC developments. In the meantime, we want to ensure that the existing ones remain affordable and focus on reducing zoning restrictions and improving financing options to help the market add around 700,000 units in a decade, according to a forecast by the Urban Institute.
By Amro Al-Nimri
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