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New Legislation Preserves Access to Manufactured Housing
One of the qualities that separate Ma Williams from other manufactured home providers is the time and care we take with each customer to guide them through the home loan and financing process. We’ve been in this business long enough to know how to advise buyers as they negotiate what can be a confusing system.
Andy Barr, a member of the House of Representatives from Kentucky, has also recognized how difficult it can be, so he introduced the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act of 2017. The bill passed the House with bipartisan support, and will hopefully achieve the same result in the Senate before being signed into law.
The bill is designed to make it easier to finance a manufactured home. “Bureaucrats in Washington, who know nothing about rural America, should not stand in the way of those…who want to invest in a home of their own, often at a lower cost than rent,” Barr said. “So-called consumer protections that deny hard-working, low and moderate-income Americans the ability to own their own home at an affordable price are harming consumers, not protecting them.”
The explanation of how the bill would actually accomplish this goal gets a bit technical, but it is based in altering regulations now in place at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). When the CFPB re-defined some loan products as “high cost” mortgages, it also increased the legal liabilities associated with them, which dissuaded some lenders from making these loans.
And while manufactured housing is sold at a lower price point than site-built housing, the industry has still been hampered by this re-definition of mortgage classifications. Barr’s bill would improve the “high-cost” mortgage definition by slightly increasing the maximum interest rate and points and fees cap for manufactured loans for less than $75,000. This will help preserve access to mortgage credit for low and moderate-income consumers who want to buy a manufactured home.
We will keep you posted on the progress of this important legislation. In the meantime, if you have any questions about financing a manufactured home, talk to a Ma Williams representative. We’ll review your options, help you find the most favorable terms, and if you choose to buy we’ll be with you every step of the way.
