Texas Manufactured Home Shipments in February 2020
February
Manufactured home shipments hit the highest February total on record in our data set and while it was a leap year, the additional calendar day did not add any production days over 2019.
The decline from January was solely a function of less days for factories to build houses, as the pace of homes shipped per production day was slightly higher in February than in January.
With factories continuing to operate in March and working off of backlogs, we expect March shipments to remain fairly strong. Our forecasting model has March shipments at 1,540 homes, but it has no understanding of the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak currently putting much of the US and global economy on ice for the foreseeable future.
No one knows exactly how this will all play out and what the ramifications for the Texas economy will be.
The Dallas Fed’s Manufacturing Outlook Survey plummeted in March.
Crude oil was trading at $20 on Monday, which the Fed expects to cause Texas to lag the nation in job growth while prices remain below the breakeven mark of $49 a barrel.
And Gov. Abbott issued an executive order yesterday requiring residents to remain at home except for “essential services and activities only” until April 30.
But the industry came into this fight running at full speed. We have advocated to ensure that factory-built residential construction is considered an essential service and we have already heard from member manufacturers that they are fulfilling orders to build emergency units to help our health care professionals in their heroic effort to treat COVID-19 patients.
Because the shipment and title data that we report on lags real-time events of the magnitude that we are currently living through, we have built a new Manufactured Home Builders Stock Index to help discern daily information on how our sector is doing in comparison to the broader residential housing market, and the larger US equity market as a whole.
I hope that all of you and your families are healthy.
We have posted information on the new emergency grants available as part of the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and the new Paycheck Protection Program that was included in Congresses recently passed CARES Act.
We will continue to post all relevant information that we can for you and your businesses in the news section of texasmha.com.
Stay safe and stay healthy friends.
| Shipments | Singles | Multis | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total for February: | 709 | 741 | 1,450 |
| Change from January (%): | 3.8% | -9.5% | -3.5% |
| Change from January (Units): | 26 | -78 | -52 |
| Change from February of 2019 (%): | 19.4% | 23.9% | 21.6% |
| Change from February of 2019 (Units): | 115 | 143 | 258 |
Annual Totals
| Shipments | Singles | Multis | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total for 2020 YTD: | 1,392 | 1,560 | 2,952 |
| Change from 2019 (%): | 14.2% | 25.8% | 20% |
| Change from 2019 (Units): | 173 | 320 | 493 |
Charts
Here are the annual totals for manufactured home shipments in Texas from 2012 through 2019.