MHI’s National Communities Council (NCC) serves its members by being an effective advocate for manufactured home community owners, operator, managers, developers, lenders and suppliers, while also striving to improve the business climate for its members and increasing the professionalism within the industry. The past year has been a busy one for the NCC, and I would like to share with you some of the activities we have been undertaking on your behalf.

In the realm of advocacy, NCC has pushed federal legislation (H.R. 2139/S. 1741) to revitalize the FHA Title I program, which is the only federal mortgage insurance program supporting chattel “home-only” financing. The legislation would raise loan limits and allow more lenders to provide Title I loans. In a related matter, NCC is pursuing legislation (H.R. 1852) in this session of Congress to make it easier to finance leasehold mortgages for homes with long-term leases under the FHA Title II program and to eliminate the barrier to FHA insurance on manufactured home condominiums. Both bills have been passed by the House and are due for Senate action in the coming weeks.

On predatory lending legislation (H.R. 3915), the NCC was successful in working with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in addressing two major issues of specific concern relating to manufactured housing lending. Without these changes, chattel lending for lower balance loans, especially in communities, would be severely curtailed and most retailers would have been redefined as “mortgage originators.”

The NCC is also promoting GSE reform legislation (H.R. 1427) which would impose an enforceable “duty to serve the manufactured housing industry” on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which could spur more active GSE involvement in the chattel lending. The NCC also was actively engaged in the planning and execution of MHI’s first Finance Forum in New York City, which was designed to educate Wall Street analysts and investors about opportunities in chattel finance. One session was devoted solely to community in-house financing programs.

The NCC is at the forefront of efforts in Congress to defeat proposed tax legislation (H.R. 3996) that would tax “carried interest” as ordinary income (35 percent) versus the current capital gains rate (15 percent). The NCC has consistently pointed out the negative consequences of increasing taxation on carried interests, explaining that partnerships are the predominate business model used in real estate development, ownership and investing of all types properties including manufactured housing communities.

At the same time, the NCC was successful in modifying portions of HUD’s proposed Model Installation Standards, which would have required all community installations to have footers below the frost line, increasing community installations in cold climates by several thousand dollars per home. The NCC also successfully modified a requirement that all homes in communities have a 10-foot fire separation distance, regardless of local ordinances. This would have made placing new homes in older communities with small lots very difficult. Now community owners are allowed to use insulated skirting in lieu of footers below the frost line and are able to have less than a 10-foot separation if local ordinances permit.

The NCC also actively opposed the recent order of the Federal Communications Commission to ban future exclusive contracts and to abrogate existing contracts between multiple dwelling units (MDUs) and cable television providers. NCC had defended these exclusive contracts, saying that forbidding such contracts would be “an implusive regulatory overreach that could do more harm than good by wiping away, by regulatory fiat, many contracts which benefit residents of manufactured home communities.” As a result of the FCC order, the NCC is now preparing guidance for community owners as to their options under the law.

The NCC continues its efforts in this session of Congress to overturn EPA’s policy on submetering, which requires community owners to retest water if they submeter and bill residents for usage. The NCC is seeking an appropriate legislative vehicle to address EPA’s overreaching on the submetering issue.

In its role focusing on improving the business climate for its members, the NCC, in conjunction with the MHI Financial Services Division, continues to expand usage of the MHI Community Attributes System (CAS) to eliminate the subjective internal systems used by lenders to assess lending risk on homes in communities. Objective information on over 18,000 communities is now in the CAS.

And, for the second consecutive year, the NCC held a special forum during the 2007 National Congress & Expo focusing on a key community issue – sales and marketing. A sell-out crowd of 300 heard from their peers and experts in the field on successful community sales and marketing techniques in a challenging economy.

The NCC launched a new initiative, the Fall Webinar Series, which focused on key sales and marketing topics and allowed community owners and managers from the across the nation to access top experts in the field without leaving their own office.

Finally, after getting input from community owners across the country, the NCC adopted a five year plan in October 2007 which will guide the council’s work in five key areas: Advocacy, Finance, Preservation & Promotion of Communities, Property Management and Membership. This will make the NCC an even more effective advocate for the land-lease community asset class and help shape the programs and services that will be of greatest value to community owners in these challenging times.

These are but a few of the highlights of NCC’s activities during the past year. As you can readily see, much has been accomplished and much remains to be done. But the NCC can be proud of its accomplishments as it prepares for the year ahead.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts and comments with me at umh2@aol.com.

Best wishes for a joyous holiday season and a prosperous 2008!


Christine Lindsey
Chair, National Communities Council
Vice President of Sales, UMH Properties