MCKINNEY, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Encore Wire Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: WIRE) announced today that the Company will release third quarter 2020 earnings Tuesday, October 27th, after stock market close. The Company will host a conference call to discuss the third quarter 2020 results followed by a Q&A session:

Date:

Wednesday, October 28th

Time:

11:00 a.m. Eastern

10:00 a.m. Central

9:00 a.m. Mountain

8:00 a.m. Pacific

To participate in the call, the dial-in number is 800-993-8735, and the confirmation number is 49908080. In order to be put through to the call, you will be required to give the call screener your full name and your company name. Please call in early to avoid being delayed by the information collection and missing the start of the call.

A replay of this conference call will be accessible in the Investors section of our website, http://www.encorewire.com, for a limited time.

Encore Wire Corporation is a leading manufacturer of a broad range of electrical building wire for interior wiring in commercial and industrial buildings, homes, apartments, and manufactured housing. The Company focuses on maintaining a high level of customer service with low-cost production and the addition of new products that complement its current product line.

Read more here:
Encore Wire Announces Earnings Release and Conference Call - Business Wire

By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter

West Boylston Have you been thinking about updating your kitchen or bath? Or have you been working from home and find your present space isnt meeting your needs? Jim and Helena Donlevy, proprietors of The Stone Cobblers, and their team of designers can find a solution to meet your needs.

We are a kitchen and bath showroom. We sell several different lines of cabinetry and we have two designers on staff. And we also fabricate our own countertops granite, quartz, marble and natural and manufactured stone.

The company began as a countertop fabricator in Worcester and eventually they added cabinetry to their repertoire.

Jim and Helena are celebrating their 15th anniversary in business, but they have over 30 years of experience in the industry. They have been in their present location at 317 West Boylston St. for almost six years.

Seeing is believing. They carry several trusted brands of cabinets that are beautifully displayed in their showroom, such as Omega Cabinetry, Wolf Designer Cabinetry, Wolf Classic Cabinetry, Homecrest Cabinetry and Presidential by Legacy Cabinets, to name a few. They offer a range for every price point.

We have our own template people and our own installers that install the counters, but we subcontract for the cabinetry installation or we can use an installer of our clients choosing, he said. We also supply sinks and hardwareWe do it all.

What sets us apart from other kitchen and bath places is that we fabricate our own countertops in addition to providing cabinetry. This allows us to offer a full design service to our customers, Jim explained.

Jim strives to make it clear that people dont have to go through a full remodel to update their space.

You dont have to redo your whole kitchen for us to do your countertops, he said. We often place brand new stone over existing cabinets.

When asked what trends they are seeing now in countertops, Jim replied that quartz was extremely popular. Because quartz countertops are made mostly from natural quartz, with the remainder being resins, pigments and binders, it is exceptionally durable with minimal upkeep.

With quartz you can be more creative with color and it can be produced with a consistent design, without the variation found in granite, which some people prefer, Helena remarked. It can be made to look like natural marble.

We take time with our customers to make sure that they make the right decisions and the right choice for their homes, Helena stated.

Helena added that they offer full-service design noting that that extends to cabinetry and surfaces for professional and home offices an emerging niche market because of the pandemic.

The Stone Cobblers enjoy a solid A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and have many satisfied customers. As such, Lynne Massi-Mussulli wrote on Facebook: They designed my kitchen and installed my granite, and cabinets. I highly recommend them! My kitchen came out beautifully!

As part of their successful business, they also fully subscribe to giving back to their community through service. Helen is quite active as a Rotarian with the Wachusett Area Rotary Club and Jim is on the Board of Directors of the Wachusett Area Chamber of Commerce.

Follow them on Facebook and Instagram, theirwebsite at http://www.thestonecobblers.com or give them a call at 774-261-4445.

Photos/submitted

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Customer service is the secret to The Stone Cobbler's continued success - Community Advocate

Sun Communities (NYSE: SUI) is the largest residential REIT, or real estate investment trust, focused on manufactured homes by market cap, according to Nareit's most recent update. It's an industry consolidator with a long history of creating value for investors. The REIT has outperformed both the major REIT index and the S&P 500 over the last decade by steadily growing its community count, cash flow, and dividend.

Here's a look at what seems to be ahead for the leading REIT focused on consolidating highly fragmented real estate sectors.

Sun Communities currently owns and operates 426 manufactured housing and recreational vehicle (RV) communities across 32 states and Ontario, Canada, consisting of more than 143,000 developed sites. It primarily leases sites and manufactured homes to those seeking affordable housing options under annual contracts. It also generates income from transient RV site rentals and manufactured home sales.

Sun Communities has spent more than $5.8 billion since 2010 to acquire new communities, growing its portfolio more than threefold. During the first half of 2020, the company bought five communities for $132.3 million, adding 1,445 sites.

This steady diet of acquisitions will likely continue over the next three years. Given the company's acquisition prowess, it has lots of visibility into the current pipeline of opportunities as well as those that will likely come available in coming years. It also has a strong balance sheet to support this growth, with a low leverage ratio and minimal upcoming debt maturities through 2024.

While Sun Communities' primary focus has been on acquiring manufactured housing and RV communities, that will likely change over the next three years. That's because it recently agreed to buy Safe Harbor Marinas for $2.11 billion. Safe Harbor is one of the largest, most diversified marina operators in the country, as it owns and operates 101 locations and manages another five on behalf of third parties across 22 states.

The marina sector, much like both manufactured housing and RV communities, is highly fragmented. The top five operators -- led by Safe Harbor, which is more than three times larger than its next rival -- control a mere 4% of the country's 4,000 marinas, leaving significant consolidation potential. Sun Communities plans to allow the company to operate independently and continue acquiring marinas.

Meanwhile, Sun Communities has three notable organic expansion drivers within its RV and manufactured housing operations:

Sun Communities should have no problem continuing to expand its portfolio over the next three years. It will soon operate in three highly fragmented industries (manufactured housing, RV communities, and marinas) with abundant consolidation potential. Meanwhile, it sees internal expansion opportunities in both its manufactured housing and RV community segments as it continues to increase the supply of affordable housing options in the country.

Sun Communities is a consolidator. It has been steadily buying up manufactured housing and RV communities over the last decade, growing into the largest operator in this still highly fragmented space. Meanwhile, it's adding a new growth platform in marinas, another highly fragmented industry ripe for consolidation. As long as the REIT maintains a strong financial profile, it should have no problem continuing to expand its portfolio, earnings, and dividend over the next three years.

Read this article:
Where Will Sun Communities Be in 3 Years? - Motley Fool

Global Manufactured & Mobile Homes Market 2020 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2025 recently added to the wide-ranging database of MarketsandResearch.biz comprises massive information concerning the outstanding and attentive study of the scale, trends, division, and look out of the market in production and supply. The report features a recent discovery and examines the impact of key interferences on the markets future development. The report covers historic data up to 2019 and gives a forecast for 2020-2025. It gives a comprehensive analysis of all the regional and major player segments that give closer insights upon present market conditions and future market opportunities along with drivers, trending segments, pricing factors. This report focuses on current business and present-day headways, future methodology changes, and open entryways for the market.

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The segmentation is used to segregate the market into smaller sections or segments like product type, application, and geographical regions. The common characters are also being considered for segmentation such as global market share, common interests, worldwide demand, and supply of Manufactured & Mobile Homes. Moreover, the report compares the production value and growth rate of the global market across different geographies.

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For studying various competitive dynamics of the global Manufactured & Mobile Homes market research, company profiling of key players is considered to gain overall market growth. Major market players present in the market and profiled in the report are: Bouygues Construction, Cavco Industries, Seikisui House, Lendlease Corporation, Modular Space Corporation, Laing ORourke, Algeco Scotsman, Champion Homes, Clayton Homes, Daiwa House, Irontown Homes, KEE Katerra, Red Sea Housing, Woodlund Homes, Jacobsen Homes, Palm Harbor Homes, Redman Homes, Pleasant Valley Homes, Kwikspace Modular Buildings, Nobility Homes, Blu Homes, Professional Building Systems, Commodore Homes, Wardcraft Homes, Chief Industries, Nationwide Homes

On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue (Million USD), product price, market share, and growth rate of each type: , Manufactured Homes, Mobile Homes

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ACCESS FULL REPORT: https://www.marketsandresearch.biz/report/106093/global-manufactured-mobile-homes-market-2020-by-manufacturers-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2025

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This report can be customized to meet the clients requirements. Please connect with our sales team (sales@marketsandresearch.biz), who will ensure that you get a report that suits your needs. You can also get in touch with our executives on +1-201-465-4211 to share your research requirements.

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Global Manufactured & Mobile Homes Market 2020 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2025 - re:Jerusalem

This story was originally published by Civil Eats and is republished here by permission.

On September 12, Iverson Family Farmsposted ominous images on social mediaof their fields under a ruddy red sky, thick with a stagnant, dense hazea stark contrast to the vibrant annual Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, a well-known spring attraction in Oregons Willamette Valley. As the Beachie Creek and Riverside fires raged roughly 25 miles away, the farm was in Stage 3 evacuation for 10 surreal autumn days.

Its a scene that has played out throughout the western U.S. as roughly40 large fires, amplified and accelerated by climate change, burned in September. The coastal states were most heavily impacted: California, in particular, hasendured an unprecedented span of fireover the last two months. As of today, Californias devastating Glass Fire has damaged, if not destroyed,nearly 30 wineriesin Napa and Sonoma counties.

Ash has been raining down on farm fields for weeks. Farmers of most crops from fruit to lettuce have been able to wash it away with minimal impact to operations, says Christopher Valadez, President of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. Still, since farmers dont necessarily have the labor to clean produce,consumers have been advised to take extra precautionsand wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly before eating them.

Iverson Family Farms did not experience direct fire damage but will not know how smoke damage has affected their crops for some time.

Photo courtesy of Iverson Family Farms

Luckily, Iverson Family Farms, a diverse, third-generation operation growing grass seed, tulips, wine grapes, and hemp, did not experience direct fire damage. Beyond worries over community losses, I was concerned with embers that could have drifted onto the farms and ignited fields and homes, says Giavanna Accurso, director of research and development for Iverson Family Farms and FSoil, the familys hemp oil processing facility.

As the smoke clears, however, many farms, including Iverson Family Farms, are taking steps to make sure no invisible damage occurred in high-value crops susceptible to smoke notably cannabis and wine grapes. Unfortunately, answers wont be swift in either case.

In grapes, smoke damage imparts a burnt, ashy, even medicinal taste to the resulting wine. When wood burns, it releases volatile compounds, called phenols, which canbind to grape sugars, only to be released during fermentation. Cannabis may also be similarly impacted by volatile compounds, and possibly other chemicals if buildings and not just wildlands burned nearby.

The potential for widespread impact has left the labs that test grapes for smoke damage backlogged with requests, says California Farm Bureau Federation director of media relations, Dave Kranz. Tests that would typically take two to three days to process, are now taking several weeks, he says. A message on the website of California-basedETS Laboratories, one of the primary facilities able to test grapes, says they are unable to give customers a timeline to expect results.

One big difference this year is the fires occurred earlier in the season. During the October 2017 fires, only 10-15%of the crop was left on vines by the time the fires started, says Anita Oberholster, a viticulture specialist at University of California at Davis. This year, the wildfires started when only 10 to 15% had been harvested; most grapes were still on the vine, she adds.

An estimate of the amount of smoke damage is really difficult.

An estimate of the amount of smoke damage is really difficult, says Oberholster. Glenn McGourty, a University of California viticulture advisor in Mendocino County, agrees. He says suspended particulates, which you can see in the atmosphere, dont do much damage. Its the volatile phenols, which are released in close proximity to the fire that can bind to the sugars in grapes to form compounds called glycosides.

During fermentation, glycosides break apart, releasing the phenols that have a smoky flavor. In general,red wines, especially ones made with thin-skinned grapes like Pinot Noir,tend to be most affected. And thats why its impossible to predict damage without testing.

Oberholster says that not every farm will necessarily be impacted. Smoke exposure and risk is really complex, she says. For example, only when smoke is really fresh is there a correlation between the density of smoke you see with the naked eye and actual exposure. And any breakdown of phenols in sunlight depends on atmospheric conditions. We dont know the half-life of [phenols], but there is some anecdotal evidence it could be 24 hours, maybe longer, says Oberholster.

Oberholster advises growers to have their grapes tested if they experienced smoke at all, and especially if the wind blew fresh, dense smoke directly towards them. In the case of the current fire the Glass Fire raging in Napa and Sonoma, that could mean a lot of grapes.

We are telling people to wait until as close to harvest as they can to test, she says, for two reasons. With so many fire events, growers should only send grapes ready to be picked to avoid overloading laboratories with samples and unnecessary, additional costs. First, labs inundated with samples will slow the results and cost the grower more. Its around $150-200 per sample to determine which grapes are impacted. And insurance requires that growers test every block of every variety they grow.

But despite the ongoing concern in the industry, and the fact that some wineries have already decidednot to make a 2020 vintage, Oberholster cautions against condemning the entire crop.

I dont want people to look at fire maps and think everything is impacted and all wine from 2020 is going to be bad because thats not true, she says. Air quality and smoke exposure risk is not the same thing.

McGourty agrees. There will be plenty of places that make good wine this year, he says.

But the testing may need an overhaul too. Currently, labs search for between two to seven marker compounds of damage, but there is evidence from Australia, which has been dealing with smoke-tainted grapes for 15 years, that there are up to13 marker compounds of smoke damage, according to Oberholster.

West Coast wildfires turn the skies orange over the Iverson Family Farms hemp fields.

Photo courtesy of Iverson Family Farms

Cannabis, too, may have smoke damagebut, compared to wine grapes, there is far less research yet available on the impact of phenols. TheGlobal Hemp Innovation Centerat Oregon State University has just formed an industry collaborative to assess the smoke impacts on everything from smokable cannabis flowers to essential oils, such as CBD.

Given the sticky nature of cannabis flowers, traces of toxic chemicals in ash or smoke carry additional concerns. In Oregons Jackson County, home to the Rogue Valleys 6,300 registered hemp acres, the Almeda Fire burned a number of manufactured homes, raising concerns about heavy metals for chromium to arsenic in pressure-treated wood that could be difficult to wash off.

In Oregon,17%of grow sites statewide faced imminent danger from wildfires in late September, which is roughly 10% of Oregons outdoor cannabis acreage, according to hemp industry analysis group Hemp Benchmarks. Growers, especially those who are relatively new to the crop, have had a lot of questions. More than 350 people attended a September 23 virtual hemp field day, seeking answers.

The most pressing questions were: what amounts of contaminants may affect quality and safety of products, and are residues, such as heavy metal contamination, left behind on the plants, says Jeff Steiner, associate director of Oregon State Universitys Global Hemp Innovation Center, which hosted the online event. We just dont have answers yet, he says.

Steiner is overseeing the formation of the Smoke Effects Working Group, an industry-based stewardship group that will develop methods and collect samples from around the West to analyze for quality, heavy metal content, and the same phenols that can impact wine. Accurso is part of that group. She is particularly interested in compounds including dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals, since she says we dont know what burned. Steiner and the growers she works with are doing what they can to determine if the fires had any discernable impacts. We want to be able to back up the quality and safety of our products with scientific data, she says.

Steiner says in addition to short-term research efforts to assess this years crop, the industry group will also develop long-term research and science-based management plans over the next five years to respond to anticipated challenges from wildfires in the western U.S.

Its a strategy similar to the one adopted by the wine and grape industry five years ago, he says. This is not a new issue for agriculture, he adds. Unfortunately, it appears it will be a more prevalent one.

Virginia Gewin is a freelance science journalist and 2016 Alicia Patterson fellow based in Portland, Oregon.

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How the West's wildfires impact crops High Country News Know the West - High Country News

The market has been down on Skyline Champion Corp (SKY) stock recently. SKY gets a Bearish score from InvestorsObserver's Stock Sentiment Indicator.

Sentiment uses short term technical analysis to gauge whether a stock is desired by investors. As a technical indicator, it focuses on recent trends as opposed to the long term health of the underlying company. Updates for the company such as a earnings release can move the stock away from current trends.

Changes in price are generally the best indicator of sentiment for a particular stock. At its core, a stock's trend indicates whether current market sentiment is bullish or bearish. Investors must be bullish if a stock is trending upward, and are bearish if a stock is moving down.

InvestorsObserver's Sentiment Indicator factors in both price changes and variations in volume. An increase in volume usually means a current trend is stengthening, while a drop in volume tends to signal a reversal to the ongoing trend.

Our system also uses the options market in order to receive additional signals on current sentiments. We take into account the ratio of calls and puts for a stock since options allow an investor to bet on future changes in price.

Skyline Champion Corp (SKY) stock has gained 1.76% while the S&P 500 has fallen -1.63% as of 9:47 AM on Tuesday, Oct 20. SKY is higher by $0.47 from the previous closing price of $26.71 on volume of 33,036 shares. Over the past year the S&P 500 is higher by 13.98% while SKY has fallen -11.95%. SKY earned $0.93 a per share in the over the last 12 months, giving it a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.34.

To screen for more stocks like Skyline Champion Corp click here.

Skyline Champion Corp operates as a producer of factory-built housing in the United States and Canada. It's business activities consist of designing, producing and marketing of manufactured housing, modular housing, and park models to independent dealers and manufactured housing communities. Its segments are U.S. Factory-built Housing and Canadian Factory-built Housing. It markets its homes under the brand names including Skyline Homes, Champion Home Builders, Athens Park Models, Dutch Housing, Excel Homes, Homes of Merit, New Era, Redman Homes, Shore Park, Silvercrest, Titan Homes in the U.S. and Moduline and SRI Homes in western Canada.

Click Here to get the full Stock Score Report on Skyline Champion Corp (SKY) Stock.

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Should You Buy Skyline Champion Corp (SKY) Stock After it Has Fallen 4.19% in a Week? - InvestorsObserver

In 2019, homes sales increased in real market values in Benton County, according to a reportpublished on the Benton County website Thursday. This increase will be reported to property owners in tax statementsthis fall.

A propertys taxable value is not affected by an increase in real market value, instead, property is taxed on its assessed value. According to the county, A propertys assessed value is the lower of its real market value and its maximum assessed value. The maximum assessed valueis the taxable value limit established for each property and is limited to a 3% annual increase unless there is a change or addition to the property.

Surprisingly, values for manufactured homes in Oregon have increased dramatically over the last five years. In Benton County, the average real market values have increased by 67% since 2016. These homes are classified as personal property and are located both in rural areas or in manufactured home parks, of which there are 17 in Benton County.

2020 tax statements, as well as certified values, will be mailed by the county no later than October 25, but they are also available now on theAssessors website.If you wish to speak with the Assessors office, it continues to request that you utilize phone and email communication. You can schedule an appointment to visit the office in person or ask questions about your property values by calling the office at (541) 766-6855 or by sending an email tobentonassessment@co.benton.or.us.

By Kyra Young

See the article here:
Benton County Property Values Still on the Rise - The Corvallis Advocate

Now that voting season is in full swing, I feel the time is right to speak up regarding the Ashtabula County Treasurers race. The incumbent Treasurer, Dawn Cragon has been an exemplary Treasurer in the state of Ohio. She has served the County Treasurers Association of Ohio (CTAO) in many rolls and as its most recent past president. Dawn has been a member of the Hospitality and Legislative Committees, she Chairs the CTAO Committee that represents County Treasurers in the Ohio Council of County Officials, Manufactured Homes Committee, and the State Auditor Advisory Committee.

Dawns knowledge of the issues and commitment to our association shows a work ethic that carries over to her duties as Ashtabula Counties Treasurer, Chief Investment Officer and Land Bank Chair.

Her passion for the work, passion for service and her passion for the people of Ashtabula County are what make Dawn Cragon, the right choice to continue as your County Treasurer.

Bill Ogg

Treasurer

Scioto County, Ohio

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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Fellow treasurer backs Dawn Cragon | Letters To The Editor - The Star Beacon

In response to an urgent need for low-cost, dignified, and quick-to-construct housing in sub-Saharan Africa brought on by accelerating rates of urbanization, the Bergen, Norway-based building tech startup Othalo is simultaneously seeking to tackle another pressing issue by incorporating the global surfeit of plastic waste into affordable new dwellings.

The patent-pending technology to manufacture building systems using recycled plastic waste developed by Othalo has caught the attention of UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, which marked World Habitat Day 2020 earlier this month in part by announcing a partnership with Othalo. The plan is to further develop the technology and complete three housing prototypes built from 100 percent recycled plastic waste within the next 18 months before moving to the mass production stage. There is only one technology in the world today that can do something real about Africas housing deficiency and the plastic waste problem, and that is Othalo, said Vincent Kitio of UN-Habitats Urban Energy division in a recent press statement.

The three pilot dwellings will be constructed in the rapidly growing cities of Nairobi, Kenya, Dakar, Senegal, and Yaound, the capital of Cameroon, using componentsroofing, flooring, wall partitions, etc.that have been manufactured in an Estonian factory. Following the pilot phase, a factory is planned to be built in Kenya.

The partnership comes after four years of research and development of the technology by Othalo founder Frank Cato Lahti, working alongside SINTEF, a 70-year-old independent research organization in Trondheim, Norway, and experts at the University of Troms. To help further realize Lahtis vision of mass-producing much-needed housing out of plastic waste for UN-Habitat-spearheaded developments in Africa, Othalo has teamed with Norwegian entrepreneur Silje Vallestad and Belgian-born architect and pre-BIG Bjarke Ingels partner Julien de Smedt of JDS Architects.

From the sounds of it, the team has their work cut out for them. As described by Othalo, 160 million new housing units are needed now to lift people out of slums on the outskirts of African cities and into sturdily-built, and considerably-designed homes. (Roughly 60 percent of people living in Africas urban areas live in unsafe and unsanitary informal settlements that lack basic infrastructure, per UN-Habitat). That number is expected to increase to 360 million homes within the next 30 years. Traditional building methods, described by the startup as being neither efficient, economical, nor sufficiently sustainable to succeed simply arent viable considering the urgency at hand.

Othalos tech-based solution makes use out locally-sourced waste plastic, which theres certainly no shortage of. As noted by UN-Habitat, from 1990 to 2017 African countries imported roughly 230 metric tons of waste plastic, with the bulk of it winding up in dump sites. One 645-square-foot Othalo home involves the upcycling of eight tons of plastic waste according to the startup. This may seem like a lot but, again, theres plenty of the material to go around.

Like the sourcing of waste plastic, Othalo aims to keep the manufacturing of housing components local to spur new economic opportunities. Vallestad describes Othalos vision as being like a Kinder Egg, serving three-gifts-in one: affordable quality houses for the one billion who live in slums, large-volume recycling of plastic and job creation.

Othalo imagines that the technology can have a wide range of applications beyond housing that it hopes to eventually expand into including mobile storage units for food and medical supplies, refugee shelters, and larger modular buildings like schools and hospitals. Design renderings of Othalos housing developments being planned with UN-Habitat depict boxy, stacked apartment blocks made of interlocking modules accented by splashes of color, shaded outdoor terraces, and social spaces, and irregularly shaped windows. Climatically appropriate, playful, and responsive to and respectful of local customs and traditions, the Othalo housing system is intended to be safe and accessible to all.

In thinking new environments we will set our focus towards the co-creation of living conditions in direct partnership with the local communities and end users, said de Smedt in a statement. What we find particularly uplifting in our approach as a company and as architects is the desire to bridge the manufacturing world with the one of the local crafts and culture.

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Norwegian startup Othalo eyes plastic waste recycling to solve the housing crisis - The Architect's Newspaper

OKEMOS, MI / ACCESSWIRE / October 6, 2020 / Many predicted a strong housing market in 2020, and other than a dip this spring due to mandatory COVID-19 shutdowns, the housing market appears to be stronger than ever. With loan interest rates at near historic lows, potential buyers are battling limited housing inventory and high prices, causing homebuyers to offer over asking price or getting into bidding wars. It's the perfect storm for a housing affordability crisis. So, what is the solution? The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association (MMHA) believes it's the perfect time to look at manufactured housing, and offers some insights.

MMHA Member Donald C. Westphal of Westphal Associates is a developer of neighborhoods in the manufactured housing, RV and traditional housing industries. He's seeing a strong need for affordable housing options in all areas. Westphal contends, "You just can't build a house in an affordable manner using traditional construction. Manufactured housing IS the solution."

Manufactured housing is built with the same materials you would find in a site-built home, but the process is quite different, explains MMHA Director Darren Ing. He elaborated, "First, the manufacturers are able to buy materials, windows, doors and appliances in bulk at significant savings. Second, the home is constructed and managed by the facility's full-time skilled workers, carpenters and on-site inspectors, saving time and resulting in consistent quality. Third, homes are built in an indoor, climate-controlled environment, allowing manufacturers to avoid delays related to weather conditions, as well as damaged building materials and theft, which can be costly. All of these benefits result in a process that saves the buyer both time and money, and produces a high-quality home."

MMHA Member Jay Ciokajlo is the General Manager of manufacturer Champion Home Builders, Inc. headquartered in Troy, Michigan. He shared how the pandemic has affected the manufactured housing industry from his perspective. "From March to May, we experienced a huge decrease in home orders, and had to put many orders on hold while states (including Michigan) closed due to the pandemic, plus, many local building offices were closed and not issuing transportation or occupancy permits." Their facility suspended production for four weeks to put safety measures in place, and gave suppliers time to do the same. Ciokajlo shared, "By June, we saw a surge of pent-up demand as everyone seemed to catch up. More and more people were able to return to work and resume sales activity. Both with our community customer and our retailer activity surged. Now, we are running at near maximum capacity in an effort to keep up with current demand."

Story continues

The demand within the manufactured housing industry appears to be across all price levels, from starter-homes to fully customized homes. One area of value in manufactured housing continues to be the single-section homes within land-lease communities, with starting prices that are well-below traditional site-built homes. Westphal commented, "We are seeing a lot of interest in single-section manufactured homes in the $40,000-$60,000 range." But notes the other end of the spectrum is in demand as well, "We're also seeing retirees looking to downsize, and choosing higher-end communities, and buying large homes with expansive features and garages." Homes may run in the $100,000-$130,000 range, but still very affordable compared to similarly sized and appointed site-built homes.

And "appointed," they are. Ciokajlo remarked on the design of today's manufactured homes, "The options and amenities we are using today are the same you will find in many newly designed homes, including ceramic tile showers, barn doors, luxury kitchens with granite countertops and the latest appliances. We are able to achieve the same look and feel at nearly half the price per square foot of a site-built home." With the option to place homes on private property, manufactured homes can offer a faster and more cost-effective option for homebuyer who had planned a custom build on their own site.

Westphal concluded, "Homebuyers need to consider manufactured housing to actually get to a community, tour a model home or even just look at photos online. The homes are beautiful, with the floor plans and features that buyers want, for a much more affordable price."

The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association is dedicated to educating the public about the benefits of manufactured and modular home living and connecting people interested in finding a community or home with its members. MMHA is one of Michigan's oldest trade associations, founded in 1941. MMHA is a nonprofit association representing the manufactured and modular home industry in Michigan. MMHA works to improve the image of manufactured and modular housing by educating consumers, media and government about the quality, affordability, design and beauty of the homes. For more information, visit the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association at http://www.michhome.org or contact MMHA, 2222 Association Drive, Okemos, MI 48864-5978; 517.349.3300.

Contact:

All Seasons CommunicationsCheryl Russell,crussell@allseasonscommunications.com

SOURCE: Michigan Manufactured Housing Association

View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/609133/Michigan-Manufactured-Housing-Association-MMHA-Members-Contend-that-Manufactured-Homes-are-the-Solution-to-the-Housing-Shortage

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Michigan Manufactured Housing Association (MMHA) Members Contend that Manufactured Homes are the Solution to the Housing Shortage - Yahoo Finance