Keep Mobile Homes Affordable Act

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (hereafter referred to as the Secretary) shall conduct an investigation to determine if the prices for pad sites in manufactured home communities are—

(1) being manipulated by any form of market manipulation; or

(2) artificially increased through price gouging practices.

Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Congress and make available on a public website of the Department of Housing and Urban Development a report on the investigation conducted under subsection (a).

The report shall include—

(A) a long-term strategy for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Congress to address manipulation of prices for pad sites in manufactured home communities, and in preparing the strategy the Secretary shall utilize data on race, gender, and socioeconomic status; and

(B) a description and analysis of how institutional investors in manufactured home communities impact seniors and underserved communities.

Chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, shall not apply to the collection of information under subsection (a).

The Secretary shall monitor purchases of manufactured homes and pad sites for manufactured homes in each housing market area in the United States, as determined by the Secretary, to determine whether any single purchaser of such homes or pad sites, including any purchaser that is an institutional investor, is purchasing an excessive amount of such homes or pad sites made available for sale in any such market area. If the Secretary determines that, beginning on January 1, 2015, any single purchaser has purchased more than 2,500 manufactured homes or pad sites for manufactured homes made available for sale in any market area, the Secretary shall conduct an investigation to determine if such purchaser has engaged in—

(1) price gouging;

(2) rental increases that are significantly above the area’s median rent price increase; or

(3) failure to provide utilities.

Not later than 1 year after the conclusion of an investigation conducted pursuant to subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to the Congress and make available on a public website of the Department of Housing and Urban Development a report of such investigation.

The term manufactured home —

(A) has the meaning given the term in section 603 of the National Manufactured Housing Construction Safety and Standards Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. 5402); and

(B) includes any structure described in such section 603 without regard to—

(i) whether the structure complies with any standards under such Act; and

(ii) the date of the manufacture of the structure.

The term manufactured home community means any community, court, or park equipped to accommodate manufactured homes for which pad sites or pad sites and the manufactured homes, or both, are leased to residents to be used primarily for residential purposes.