The stigma attached to manufactured housing has long perpetuated the myth that manufactured-home loans have higher delinquency rates, lead to more foreclosures and losses, and are not a good credit risk. But our 20 years of success in offering single-family lending for manufactured homes to low-income borrowers tells a very different story.

Our approach to providing loans for manufactured homes and developing underwriting guidelines, known as Welcome Home Loans, require an innovative and bespoke approach. 

We believe that living in a manufactured home doesn’t mean that a borrower isn’t creditworthy or deserving of homeownership. It means that as a lender, we need to be flexible. We believe in a one-size-fits-one philosophy with an understanding that our borrowers want a type of housing that fits their lifestyle and sets them on the path to wealth building.

Our lending has preserved or introduced homeownership for nearly 11,000 households, but there’s more work to do. There are an estimated 30,000-plus manufactured homes in N.H. Many of them are at risk unless the residents are able to form a resident-owned community (ROC) so that owners own not just own their homes, but control the sale of the land beneath them.

There are only 316 resident-owned communities (ROCs) across the entire United States. To date, 150 manufactured-home parks in N.H. have converted to ROCs. And we’ve played a central role in reaching this milestone.

Our first manufactured-home loan was made in January 2003 to purchase a home in Freedom Hill Cooperative, one of New Hampshire’s ROCs. The initial Cooperative Home Loan Program (CHLP) has morphed into the present-day Welcome Home Loans. As of June 30, 2023, we have lent over $94 million to over 1,600 borrowers.