Monday, October 24, 2016

Housing Market Shift Expected as Baby-Boomers Age | Retirees to Look to Manufactured Home Communities

Now as the baby boomer generation is coming to the point of retirement, several are seeking manufactured home communities as a means of affordable living. Many take the path to purchase a mobile home upfront, then place it on leased land within one of these communities.

“While land-lease communities are popular with people of all ages, those who are over 55 may particularly appreciate the affordability and lifestyle benefits they deliver,” Richard Jennison, president and CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute, said.

Mobile homes are significantly cheaper than the average stick-built single family residence, averagely priced around $68,000 (compared to a $275,000 SFR) with equivalent interior finishes and often costing up to 20 percent less per square foot than single family residences! Retirees understand affordability is a major considerable factor.

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Friday, October 14, 2016

Arizona Economy “As Good as it’s Gonna Get”

The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce (GPCC) and Cox Communications held the Economic Outlook 2017 event on October 11 at the Waldorf-Astoria resort, Arizona Biltmore. Economists Jim Huntzinger, executive vice president and chief investment officer of BOK Financial, Andrew Walker, Economics Correspondent of BBC World Service and Elliot Pollack of Elliot D. Pollack & Co. appeared, all making statements of their assessments of the local, state, national and international economies.

For the last 8 years, the country has battled through the recession, seeing the unemployment rate as high as 10 percent! Now, as unemployment has stabilized around 5 percent, economists are noting this may be as good as it’s going to get.

One of Pollack’s major points was Arizona economic development: although there is overall improvement in multiple areas across the state, it still does not feel as if the economy is getting any better. He noted that this is because historically, as a state, Arizona has grown accustomed to extreme growth rates and that even though it may not feel like it, the economy is still rising slowly, but surely.

“This is as good as it’s going to get. Normally at this point in the recovery cycle, unemployment is at about 3.5 percent. Right now, here it’s in the high fives. This is the boom for this economy,” he said.

Pollack went on to mention growth can be expected in the hospitality, leisure, health care, professional business services, education and construction sectors, but his major concern lies with losing high-wage manufacturing jobs to lower-paying replacement jobs.

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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Manufactured Housing Demand Escalates

Many people today are seeking affordable housing, but still can’t produce the income to pay the rising apartment and single-family residence rental rates. Some residents are starting to look towards manufactured housing communities, quickly filling vacancies and, in some parts of the country, pushing local rents down!

For Texas, occupancy has not been affected by shifts in the energy sector, so rates have most likely improved for those seeking affordable housing. Solid apartment
markets on both coasts, in Florida and California, show similar demand for manufactured housing communities; however, the climates that are much warmer during the winter tend to draw “snowbirds” to 55-plus resort-style locations. Most of these markets record higher occupancy due to the seasonal residents, but that does not mean there is a large tenant deficit by any means; several retirees nationwide prefer the close-comfort living-style of the smaller and older communities over elsewise.

Demand for these 2-star and 3-star parks has definitely closed the vacancy gap up quite a bit, but manufactured housing communities have started to raise the rent to equalize the market.


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