The role of home and land tenure in shaping opportunities and challenges for manufactured home residents

This article examines how home and land tenure shapes manufactured home (MH) residents’ access to financing and consumer protections. Three tenure categories are explored: homeowners who own both home and land (own–own), homeowners who do not own land – often paying to rent it (own–rent) and home renters who also rent their land (rent–rent). A new nationally representative US survey sheds light on the characteristics of these residents, with a focus on metropolitan compared with non-metropolitan locations, landownership, house titling, the type of home financing used by borrowers and financial stability. This survey provides detail previously unavailable in other data. Results show that US MH buyers are much less likely to use mortgages compared with site-built home buyers. Instead, MH owners who currently have a loan for their home are more likely to use home-only (‘personal property’ or ‘chattel’ loans) or contract financing arrangements such as rent-to-own, seller financing or contract for deed. Mortgages have the strongest consumer protections, so use of these alternatives leaves buyers more at risk of eviction, foreclosure and financial instability. Challenges with access to mortgage financing and robust consumer protections are especially acute for MH owners in metropolitan areas because they are more likely to rent their land. However, local-, state- and federal-level policy updates can improve access to safe and affordable homeownership, and for renters, policymakers can mandate formal lease agreements to improve housing stability.