The country’s entire annual shortage of 300,000 homes is for low- and middle-priced housing.

Manufactured homes in blue-collar communities may alleviate the severe housing shortage for America’s working population. Consider this: Almost a quarter of home-owners, and half of those who rent their homes, pay about a third of their monthly income for housing.

This wholly unsustainable statistic is an outcome of the double whammy that has hit the lower echelons of the housing market: Recent Census data shows that over the past two decades, the median cost of rent and utilities has risen 13%, while median income has grown less than 1%.

Developments in the housing market have made matters worse. Builders have countered rising costs by focusing on the high-end market to ensure a profit. Their apathy towards affordable housing has resulted in a scarcity of homes in this segment. It’s unsurprising, therefore, that in recent years prices for the lowest-priced houses have grown consistently twice as fast as prices for the highest-priced houses.

Manufactured homes could help out in this situation

Sam Landy, president and CEO of UMH Properties, Inc. said in a video interview that almost 3.6 million affordable homes are needed around the country. “One-third of all people are cost-burdened in that they are spending more than a third of their income on housing,” he added.

Landy asserted that manufactured housing costs as much as 50% less than conventional housing. “So we are the affordable housing solution,” he said. “There’s a lot of demand that we can satisfy.”

UMH is a publicly owned Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). It commenced business in 1968. It establishes manufactured home communities and then leases the homes to private residential homeowners. UMH currently has 122 manufactured home communities comprising 23,000 home sites.

The REIT focuses on housing for blue-collar workers.

Related Story: Mitsubishi Prepares to Launch U.S-Based REIT