Detailed Analysis of Texasäó»s Manufactured Housing Growth and Competition

Abstract

Manufactured homes provide a cost-effective alternative for satisfying the growing housing needs. Despite the industry commitment for improvement, manufactured home constitute small share of satisfying the housing demand. Supporting the future growth of this industry through public policy advocacy cannot be achieved without evaluating its historical production and demand trends. Available data from professional and governmental sources lack the ability to provide a granular picture of the characteristics of the industryäó»s manufacturers, customers, and product. Accordingly, this paper attempts to fill this gap by analyzing the available license record data for the manufactured homes in the state of Texas that cover the years from 1982 to 2015. The raw data included around 913,663 records of homes ownership and manufacturing. The data analysis included three main tasks: 1) data processing to integrate this large amount of data and eliminate outliers; 2) analyzing the competition characteristics of Texasäó»s manufactured housing market using descriptive entry and exit metrics; and 3) analyzing demand characteristics of manufactured homes in terms of their physical requirements the relations between their demand volume and inventory times. The conclusions of this paper would provide a more detailed understanding of the manufactured housing industry to support its growth as a viable cost-effective housing option.