Once again, we’ve been contacted by a Chinese firm, exploring the U.S. and North American market.
Published reports and input from other sources both suggest that China’s industrialized builders ship their idea of modular units to some 80 different nations. Most every continent, save Antarctica, has seen Chinese housing plays; many include ‘industrialized housing,’ as we’ve reported previously in our Daily Business News department of MHProNews.
Muslim Refugee ‘Invasion’ of Europe fuels interest in factory-built homes
Areas of Europe impacted by the surge in refugees from Islamic nations rocked by war and violence are creating a growing interest in factory-built homes overseas. This is reflected in our site statistics, which senses (detects) the nation of origin.
So while some 95% (+/-) of our traffic is and has been domestic, the fluctuations of where that international website traffic comes from is interesting to monitor.
Before the shakeup earlier this year of Chinese markets, traffic from that nation was often a larger slice of that international traffic pie.
Other lands where investment dollars were plentiful also tended to be higher in our international readers.
With oil prices down, and China rattled some by its stock market slide, traffic from lands that benefit from oil or the Asian giant have slid.
However, now there is more traffic from counties hungry for affordable housing.
It seems the U.S. ought to be a player internationally. But all too often, America is not as active in the business of solving the global hunger for factory-built homes.
Which brings us back to the domestic U.S. housing scene.
Hawaii and other higher priced housing markets
Facts are facts, so let’s not oversimplify. We’re seeing higher readership on articles relating to Hawaiian manufactured or modular home news reports. Ditto some other markets in the mainland 48 states.
Affordable housing is a big issue in every state of the land. Bloomberg recently cited the fact that first time home buyers have hit a 28 year low here in the U.S.. that our Matthew Silver reported on in the Daily Business News. This at a time when rents are rising, and incomes for most Americans are flat or falling.
Tim Williams – MHI’s new Chair – said it, the historic conditions for an even stronger rise in MH shipments are ripe. See the graphics he provided us, below.
The next chart below tells a different part of the painful tale of the big bite taken out of the budgets of so many Americans for housing.
These are some of the reasons why Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling invitation for plans to reform HUD and address the causes of poverty are so important.
The CBO study cited in my report to Chairman Hensarling on a concept to reform HUD speaks volumes for the opportunities in the U.S. to move the needle for MH. Serious researchers should check that report out, linked now from over 1100 sites and is found in the proposal, linked here.
So far, in about 48 hours, over 1,000 sites has picked up our media release on the report shown.
Analysis and advocacy often can go hand in glove. Please see the Cutting Edge blog report on the traction being found in mainstream media from award winning journalist, Jan Hollingsworth’s report on fires, safety and MH.
Then imagine what it could be like if every week, many times a week, good news stories about MH were hitting the news and social media, from coast to coast.
There are companies in MH, typically publicly traded ones, that routinely do press releases. Those are often treated as what they are, business news. While important and valuable, their focus is narrow.
What we’re doing on MHLivingNews.com – reflected in the examples above – is broader, more general industry focused. Yes, it will benefit individual firms. But its news, and as a pro-industry trade publisher, designed to educate and raise the image of the MH Industry at large.
Trade publishing is quite rightly treated differently by others in media, researchers and special interest groups than a business report or an association report. Each has value. But our efforts are candidly filling a role that no one else in MH trade publishing is filling.
A positive MH Image and solid, fact-based education supports every other good effort in manufactured housing.
Let’s tie this once more into the headline, and call it a session.
Change most commonly happens for one of two reasons; the carrot or the stick. We frail mortals change:
(a) because we’re forced to change, because of some threat (Chinese mods in the U.S., you better believe we best secure our market now. Think about what happened when Japanese and then Korean automakers hit America’s shores in numbers); or
(b) because of some opportunity that is crying to be tapped.
We have both threats and opportunities for MH. The time for positive, profitable change is NOW. The time to define ourselves and take our rightful place in the U.S. – and international – housing markets is NOW.
We could be shipping more factory-built homes in the U.S., and overseas too.
Nature abhors a vacuum. If good U.S. Companies don’t do this, you should not be surprised when China, Japan or others step in and fill that vacuum in Europe and the U.S., as they already are in Africa, Asia and Latin America. ##
