Finance woes continue

I blogged about this on one of the other sites, but its newsworthy enough to blab on some more. Just today I received word that Origen Financial is officially done writing chattel loans. This is very bad for the manufactured home industry. Origen was one of the biggest originators of chattel (home only) loans in the entire nation! Only 2 years earlier, Greentree, also one of the largest note makers in the U.S. for chattels, bowed out of the arena. OUCH! Painful stuff... The fallout from this will be without measure. Even before these 2 giants went down, there were so few lenders out there doing these kinds of loans on manufactured homes. I think it hurts mobile home communities more than any other segment of the industry. Retailers can shift gears, like we have, to land/home. Land lease communities will feel the pinch, because no one will be able to buy homes in their park. Not if they need to finance the home anyway. Very sad. Home sites will go unfilled in the parks. No new homes will be able to be placed either. Dominos...