Tag Archives: nai horizon

Fannie Mae to provide mobile home financing to tenants

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The aging of the mobile home stock and lack of dependable and economical chattel financing has resulted in the inability of many mobile home owners to replace older, substandard homes in rental parks.

The aging of the mobile home stock and lack of dependable and economical chattel financing has resulted in the inability of many mobile home owners to replace older, substandard homes in rental parks.

Russ Warner | NAI Horizon

In what may soon be considered the most significant development in the manufactured housing industry in several decades, Jeffery R. Hayward, Fannie Mae’s Executive Vice President and Head of Multifamily, announced at the 2017 Manufactured Housing Communities of Arizona Conference (MHCA) in Chandler, Ariz., that Fannie Mae will soon be initiating a chattel lending program.

Fannie Mae has been in discussion for several months with manufactured housing industry professionals to develop a plan whereby it would provide a lending platform for federally insured chattel loans to mobile home buyers in land-rent mobile home parks.

A pilot program is under development and is expected to be implemented in 2018. Paul Barretto of Fannie Mae Product Innovation and Affordable Lending reminded participants that public comments are due July 10, 2017.

The decision to provide chattel financing for manufactured housing owners in land-rent parks was a result of the “Duty to Serve” provisions of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 as amended by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.  This statute requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to serve three specified underserved markets:  manufactured housing, affordable-housing preservation, and rural-housing markets.

The aging of the mobile home stock and lack of dependable and economical chattel financing since Green Tree Financial faltered in the late 1990s has resulted in the inability of many mobile home owners to replace older, substandard homes in rental parks. Park owners typically lack the capital to acquire and finance the acquisition of new homes; tenants typically lack the financial ability to buy new homes for cash.

Over the past several decades, homes built in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — when affordable chattel financing was available to mobile home owners — have deteriorated and/or have become obsolete.

New mobile homes sales have been relatively tepid the past few years not because of the lack of demand, but because financing options have not been affordable to most end users. Often, chattel lenders require FICO scores above 650 or 700 for borrowers to qualify. The result has been that vacancies in many mobile home parks have not been filled and lower income citizens have not been served.

The housing market recovery has pushed housing prices and apartment rents to new highs. And as the affordability of single-family homes and apartments has fallen, the pent-up demand for manufactured housing has risen.

The development of an efficient financing vehicle will help improve the affordability and availability of manufactured housing, expand the supply of safe low-cost housing, and increase the need for skilled workers in the manufactured housing industry and the industry’s suppliers.

A successful rollout of Fannie Mae’s chattel lending program will be a blessing to the industry and to those seeking more affordable and safe housing alternatives.

Additional information is available from Susan Brenton, Executive Director of Manufactured Home Communities of Arizona. Susan has been directly involved, along with the MHCA board of directors in helping to provide public input for the Fannie May “Duty to Serve” Program.

Susan can be reached at:       Susan Brenton
Executive Director
Manufactured Housing Communities Arizona
Phone: 480.345.4202
Email: [email protected]

Link to “Duty to Serve” Program Website: http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/about-fm/duty-to-serve.html

Russ Warner is a Senior Vice President in the Manufactured Housing Group at NAI Horizon. He has brokered MH communities and RV resorts for almost 20 years. He has been involved in the sale of more than $250 million in RV and mobile home parks.

Vibrant Uptown Phoenix office submarket hitting its ‘Peak’

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By Barbara Lloyd

Spurred by expanding businesses and new startups, Metro Phoenix is seeing office vacancy rates tumble and rental rates steadily increase.

Case in point is the Piestewa Peak Corridor, which is experiencing a 5 percent rent growth the past year and overall vacancy down to 15 percent compared to more than 20 percent during the downturn. 

This submarket offers professional businesses a more affordable and quality office product that is easily accessible to Downtown and Midtown Phoenix, Sky Harbor International Airport, and the Camelback Corridor. Rents in the Piestewa Peak submarket are generally 30 to 40 percent lower than those in the Camelback/Esplanade area. 

Regus has recently joined the Piestewa Peak submarket, occupying more than 15,000 SF @ The Peak, located at 7301 N. 16th St. The property features new building finishes and upgraded lobby and restrooms. There are only two spaces remaining for lease in the building, both of which are coming available for the first time in more than 20 years.

The suites are 2,304 SF and a 6,257 SF space with first floor lobby exposure.

Amenities at The Peak include upgraded conference rooms.

The property has easy access to SR 51 and is minutes from Downtown Phoenix, the Biltmore Corridor, and numerous retail and restaurant amenities. It also features a covered parking garage with an expanded parking ratio due to the property owner’s recent acquisition of the Pointe Business Plaza.

The Pointe Business Plaza, right up 16th Street from The Peak, is also undergoing renovations to offer existing and new tenants a fresh look and updated property amenities. Available space at the Pointe ranges from 1,391-2,606 SF and suites are ready for move-in.

For more information you can contact the NAI Horizon team of myself ([email protected]), Lane Neville ([email protected]) or Nathan Pancrazi ([email protected]).

Barbara Lloyd is Senior Vice President of the Investment Services Group at NAI Horizon. She is an investment sales broker with a focus on asset disposition and acquisition. As a sales and leasing agent, she has closed more than $200 million in commercial real estate transactions and has sold and leased more than 1.5 MSF of properties.

 

 

 

 

ICSC RECon recap: Retail evolving, enjoying a revolution

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By Patrick Anthon

Since the recession, those who attend ICSC’s annual RECon Global Retail Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas have given a tepid thumbs up when the May event is over.

This year, the overall mood was very positive at ICSC. Attendance was up with more than 37,000 attendees. It is always a good sign to see people walking around with a smile on their face from one conference hall to the next.

The booths are also a good indication of how the market is doing. Many retailers and developers tend to have much larger elaborate booths when the market is doing well.

NAI Global is doing a great job bringing offices together to be more collaborative, and that was very evident at ICSC. That is especially important and helpful when referring business to another office. The strong platform allows them to can better serve a client in their local market. The NAI booth was alive with client meetings and NAI agents from across the globe.

The buzz over the Metro Phoenix market seemed vibrant. That was the sentiment shared by owners, retailers, developers, and brokers. Everybody seemed to be feeling very positive about upcoming projects and/or expansion plans and optimistic about the foreseeable future.

Landlords/developers and tenants seem to be more willing to work together in order to make each other successful instead of slowing down deals over small points. Key factors are consumer spending patterns and how we continue to see these increase over time.

Trends we’ve seen are the shifts in big box and mini major tenants. Grocery and fitness are the two strong categories that seem to be sturdy anchors in new retail developments. They drive heavy traffic for the rest of the center. With rates continuing to go up it’s tough for historical anchor tenants to consume so much square footage.

We are seeing tenants such as Target start to roll out their smaller, urban prototypes. Restaurants continue to be able to pay some of the highest rates, along with financial/banking tenants. These higher rates are more likely in the new construction projects with labor costs continuing to rise.

Overall, owners and developers are afraid of retail and shouldn’t be. There seems to be a common misconception that retail is struggling. Reports have surfaced about some of the larger department stores and sporting goods stores closing. The reality is that retail, like any other market, is evolving.

Consumers are now smarter shoppers. Millennials and Gen-X consumers factor in convenience more than ever. Shoppers want to get in, find what they need, and get out. Retailers are working to find how they can evolve, much like their customers, in order to keep up with the way people perceive shopping and shopping habits.

Restaurants continue to do great volume and lead the way in rent they can pay per square foot. A large factor to that is, once again, the Millennial and Gen-X consumers. The younger generations eat out more than ever, but they prefer a lower price-point, and quicker service.

We believe that we are not yet at the peak and that retail will continue to grow. Retail is not struggling. Instead, it is being revolutionized in order to better serve consumers’ shopping habits.

Patrick Anthon has been with NAI Horizon since 2014 and is an Associate with the Retail Properties Group. He specializes in landlord/tenant representation; retail/restaurant leasing and sales; and locating local and national retailers. Patrick provides clients with detailed property information that fit their needs.