Findings

Congress finds that— (1) more than 22,000,000 people live in HUD-code manufactured homes; (2) there are approximately 6,700,000 occupied manufactured homes in the United States, representing about 6 percent of the Nation’s housing stock, 9 percent of the single-family housing stock, and more than 12 percent of all new single-family homes sold in 2021; (3) owners of manufactured homes are disproportionately low-income households, and in 2020, the median annual household income for living in manufactured housing was $35,000; (4) over one-quarter of manufactured homeowners earn less than $20,000 annually, and two-thirds earn less than $50,000 annually; (5) more than half of all manufactured homes are located in rural areas around the country, and manufactured homes make up 13 percent of all occupied homes in rural and small-town communities; (6) the average sales price of a new manufactured home (excluding land) in 2019 was $81,700, and as of December 2023, that average sales price had increased to $121,300, an increase of 48.5 percent over the preceding 5 years; (7) despite this sharp increase, the average manufactured home costs roughly half the price per square foot of the average site-built home; (8) manufactured home communities provide critical affordable housing, but receive very little Federal, State, or local funds to subsidize the cost of manufactured homes; (9) an estimated 43,000 manufactured home communities, also referred to as mobile home parks, exist throughout the United States; (10) owners of manufactured homes in such communities may own the home, but they do not own the land under the home, which leaves the homeowners vulnerable to rent increases, disinvestment, changes in land use, and community closure; (11) an eviction or closure of a manufactured home community is very disruptive and can be financially devastating to a homeowner who may be unable to pay the thousands of dollars it takes to move the manufactured home or find a new location for the manufactured home; (12) manufactured housing where the consumer does not own the land generally does not promote wealth-building via homeownership; (13) for more than a decade, in an effort to preserve a crucial source of affordable housing and aid low-income homeowners, a national network of housing providers has helped residents purchase and own the land under the manufactured home community, and manage the manufactured home community as limited equity cooperatives; (14) nationwide, there are more than 1,000 cooperative manufactured home communities, of which more than 360, located in more than 20 States, are permanently preserved as affordable communities through limited equity cooperative or nonprofit ownership; (15) members of manufactured home community cooperatives continue to own such homes individually, own an equal share of the land beneath the entire manufactured home community, participate in the governing of the community, and elect a board of directors who make major decisions within the manufactured home community by a democratic vote; (16) site fee increases in limited equity resident-owned communities average just 0.9 percent per year, compared to 5.9 percent per year in commercially owned communities; (17) in New Hampshire, more than 40 percent of manufactured home communities are owned by residents; (18) resident-owned cooperatives and nonprofit owned communities have also flourished in Colorado, Vermont, Massachusetts, Montana, Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota; (19) nationwide, only 2.4 percent of all manufactured home communities are resident or nonprofit-owned; (20) 19 States have adopted some protection when a community is sold, and 8 States have strong notification and resident purchase opportunities, which provide homeowners in those States an opportunity to purchase the manufactured home community when it is put up for sale; and (21) in order to preserve manufactured home communities and help low-income homeowners live securely, safely, and build wealth through homeownership in the future, a Federal tax benefit should be established to induce manufactured home community owners to sell such properties to the residents when those residents or a nonprofit commits to preserving the community long-term.