January 2017 Reports and February Preliminary Data

New titles for January of 2017 continued the month-over-month decline that started off in December with single-sections down 12% and multi-section homes down over 20% from the preceding month. The total of 699 new homes titled was exactly five single-section homes above January of last year’s total.

The good news is that looking at February’s preliminary data, titles are tracking with solid increases over January. The not as good news is that those increases are well below the impressive gains we saw for February last year, but sales are heading in the right direction after the winter slide.

Overall while the first title report for the year isn’t a head turner, shipments for February were excellent, the US oil rig count has been inching back up, the Fed raised rates at the end of 2016 and again in March, but APOR rates have actually come down from the start of the year, and Houston just posted it’s best March ever for real estate. So the overall market conditions still look quite favorable for MH.