The 12 Titles / Title III
Title III: Manufactured Housing for America
This title aims to expand the supply of factory-built housing. It lets manufactured homes be built without the traditional permanent steel chassis, pushes states to treat chassis-less homes the same as conventional manufactured homes, modernizes FHA loan limits for manufactured home purchases and home improvements, and creates a new competitive grant program to preserve and improve manufactured housing communities.
§ 301 Housing Supply Expansion Act Notable
Changes the federal definition of 'manufactured home' so a home no longer has to be built on a permanent chassis (the steel frame used for towing) to qualify. HUD must issue construction standards for chassis-less manufactured homes, which will carry a distinct label, data plate, and invoice notation so buyers and regulators can tell them apart. Each state must certify to HUD, within 1 year of enactment (2 years for states with biennial legislatures), that it treats chassis-less homes the same as traditional manufactured homes for financing, titling, insurance, sale, taxes, transportation, and installation, and must recertify annually; if a state misses the deadline, the manufacture, installation, and sale of new chassis-less homes is prohibited in that state. HUD must publish a list of compliant states, and no federal agency's energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes have legal effect unless HUD adopts them through the consensus-committee process; HUD must adopt minimum energy efficiency standards within 1 year and update them at least every 3 years.
Affects: manufactured housing industry, homebuyers, state governments, lenders, insurers, HUD
- State governments / HUD: States submit initial certification that they treat chassis-less manufactured homes in parity with traditional manufactured homes — 1 year after enactment (2 years for states with biennial legislatures) (≈ July 11, 2027)
- State governments / HUD: States submit annual recertification confirming continued parity treatment — annually, by a date HUD sets
- HUD: Adopt minimum energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes — 1 year after enactment (≈ July 11, 2027)
- HUD: Update manufactured home energy efficiency standards — at least once every 3 years after initial adoption
§ 302 Modular Housing Production Act
Requires HUD to review FHA construction financing programs to find barriers that keep modular home builders from using them, including how construction loan money is paid out in draws. HUD must publish a report on its findings and recommended changes within 1 year, then within 120 days of that report start a rulemaking on an alternative draw schedule for construction loans to modular and manufactured home developers, ultimately either issuing a final rule or explaining why not. HUD may also fund a study of a standardized uniform commercial code for modular homes to help serialize modules and coordinate financing.
Affects: homebuilders, modular home developers, manufactured housing industry, lenders
- HUD: Publish report on barriers to modular home methods in FHA construction financing programs — 1 year after enactment (≈ July 11, 2027)
- HUD: Initiate rulemaking on an alternative construction-loan draw schedule for modular and manufactured home developers — 120 days after the report is published
- HUD: Issue a final rule on the alternative draw schedule or explain why it will not become final — after the public comment period
§ 303 Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act Notable
Raises the long-outdated dollar limits on FHA Title I loans, which are used for home improvements and to buy manufactured homes. New limits include $75,000 for improving an existing single-family home (including a manufactured home), $106,405 for buying a single-section manufactured home ($195,322 for multi-section), and $149,782 for a single-section home plus a developed lot ($238,699 for multi-section); the lot-only limit rises from $23,226 to $43,377. The loans can now also finance construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs), with the limit set by HUD, and maximum loan terms can extend up to 30 years. HUD must index these loan limits annually and, within 1 year, develop or choose the indexing method; also requires a HUD study, due within 1 year, comparing the cost-effectiveness, quality, and 40-year maintenance costs of factory-built (offsite construction) housing versus site-built homes.
Affects: homebuyers, homeowners, manufactured housing industry, lenders, renters
- HUD: Develop or choose one or more methods for annually indexing FHA Title I loan limits (existing method applies in the interim) — 1 year after enactment (≈ July 11, 2027)
- HUD: Complete study and report to Congress on the cost-effectiveness of offsite construction housing versus site-built homes — 1 year after enactment (≈ July 11, 2027)
§ 304 PRICE Act Notable
Creates a new competitive grant program at HUD (the Preservation and Reinvestment for Community Enhancement program) to preserve and improve manufactured housing communities, such as mobile home parks. Grants can go to resident-owned communities, local governments, housing authorities, nonprofits, community development financial institutions, Indian tribes, states, and community owner-operators, and can pay for infrastructure and utilities, home repair and replacement, health/safety/accessibility and weatherization work, land acquisition for expansion, and resident services like relocation and eviction-prevention assistance. Communities must be affordable to low- and moderate-income residents (up to 120 percent of area median income), and HUD must prioritize projects that primarily benefit low- and moderate-income residents and preserve long-term affordability. Grant funds cannot rehabilitate homes built before June 15, 1976 (pre-HUD-code homes) but can pay to replace them; the program depends on future appropriations and sunsets 7 years after enactment.
Affects: manufactured housing community residents, resident-owned cooperatives, local governments, public housing agencies, nonprofits, Indian tribes, community development financial institutions
- HUD: PRICE grant program terminates (sunset) — 7 years after enactment (≈ July 11, 2033)
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