Manufactured home shipments for November 2011 were 5,301 new homes, up 53.1 percent from November 2010. Increases were across the board with shipments of both single-section and multi-section homes up compared with the same month last year. Single sections accounted for the bulk of the increase, with shipments up 114.6 percent over the figures for last November. These increases were, in part, due to the purchase of 1,735 homes (mainly new single section homes) by FEMA, in the last quarter of 2011 (see note).

Compared with 2010, shipments of new manufactured homes declined in each of the first seven months. August marked the first year-over-year monthly gain with the upward trend continuing through the current month. Industry shipments for the year-to-date stand at 47,768 homes compared with 47,265 homes in the previous year, a net increase of 1.1 percent.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of shipments was 68,389 in November, up 18.9 percent from the rate of 57,523 in October 2011. The SAAR corrects for normal seasonal variations in shipments and projects annual shipments based on the current monthly total.

Total floors shipped in November 2011 were 7,485, up 35.7 percent from the same month in 2010. The number of plants reporting production in November was 125, up two from the number in October, and the number of corporations was 45, unchanged from the prior month.

If you are an MHI member, you can access the report on MHI’s website at www.manufacturedhousing.org/reports/.

Note: Shipment and production figures were impacted by the purchase of approximately 1,735 manufactured homes by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The FEMA homes were built and shipped in October, November and December of 2011. While a breakdown of FEMA homes by state and month is not available, these homes are included in the production and shipment figures provided in this report. States that serve as staging areas for warehousing homes or that received new homes in response to natural disasters, have the FEMA homes included in their monthly and annual shipment figures. In particular, in November a significant number of FEMA homes were shipped to Maryland, Alabama and North Dakota.