Just like home buyers are confused by the differences between manufactured homes and Modular homes, our industry is just as confused about the differences between “Affordable” and “Attainable” housing.
Affordable housing typically means that the monthly mortgage or rent cost less than 30% of the gross income of an individual or family.
But that definition, middle-class working professionals who can afford to pay more are still locked out of the median-priced homes in their city or region. We see that when teachers, police officers, nurses, and firefighters, who make healthy salaries, can’t buy a home in the town where they work.
They are overqualified for low-income affordable housing but don’t make enough to buy a new or existing home. They simply need “Attainable” housing.
Now if only someone would build this “Missing Middle” housing. The modular and offsite industries are able to build this missing middle affordable housing, but thanks to rising land prices and building material costs, the industry’s view is that missing middle housing now requires subsidies.
Developers continue to embrace ‘affordability’ down to its most inexpensive roots. We are seeing many modular factories embracing the “Affordable” theme. It also encourages governments to fund the broader range of achievability or attainability, which includes upscale influential people and many more reliable voters. And affordable housing, of course.
With governments persuaded, the industry has access to subsidies for housing higher up the income scale, and to swell company profits.
Attainable housing comes to be known as the more profitable government-subsidized housing from the ‘missing middle’ on up. ‘Affordable’ becomes the term for households with very low incomes, which is of little or no interest to for-profit developers.
The next time an “affordable” housing project comes across the desk at a modular factory, ask yourself if it really is a low-income project where you will be working for a couple of pennies on the dollar profit or is it the more lucrative “attainable” housing project from a for-profit developer where you can make substantially more profit?
If I owned a factory, I know which type of housing I would rather do.
Related Articles:
- The Curse Of Rich Vs Not So Rich In Affordable Housing Market
- Did This Affordable Housing Community Find The Secret Recipe For Success?
- Major Cities Face Gentrification In Rush For Affordable Housing
Gary Fleisher is Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
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