H.R. 4969 — Keep Mobile Homes Affordable Act

This section directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to investigate whether prices for pad sites (i.e., lots rented to owners of manufactured homes) in manufactured home communities are manipulated through market manipulation or artificially increased by price gouging. The section requires HUD to submit a report to Congress and publish it on the department's website within 270 days of enactment that includes (1) a long-term strategy for HUD and Congress to address such price manipulation, utilizing data on race, gender, and socioeconomic status, and (2) a description and analysis of how institutional investors in these communities impact seniors and underserved communities. The section exempts information collection for the investigation from the Paperwork Reduction Act.

This section requires the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to monitor purchases of manufactured homes and pad sites in each U.S. housing market area for excessive acquisitions by any single purchaser, including institutional investors. If, since January 1, 2015, such a purchaser has acquired more than 2,500 manufactured homes or pad sites made available for sale in any market area, HUD must investigate whether the purchaser engaged in (1) price gouging, (2) rental increases significantly above the area's median rent price increase, or (3) failure to provide utilities; and, not later than one year after concluding the investigation, submit a report to Congress and publish it on HUD's website.

This section defines, for purposes of the Act, (1) "manufactured home" as having the meaning given in 42 U.S.C. 5402 but including any structure described therein without regard to compliance with standards under that Act or date of manufacture (thus encompassing pre-1976 homes and noncompliant units); and (2) "manufactured home community" as any community, court, or park equipped to accommodate manufactured homes for which pad sites or pad sites and homes, or both, are leased to residents primarily for residential purposes.