A bill being introduced in Congress by Reps. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Stephen Fincher (R-TN), and Gary Miller (R-CA) is trying to fix what the legislators feel is an unintended consequence of new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that cover "predatory" or "high-cost" loans.
Here’s the deal: Mobile or manufactured homes typically cost a lot less than a typical suburban property. Basic math means that the cost of originating and servicing loans for those properties might be the same in terms of dollars, but are much higher, percentage-wise, in a small loan.
Result: Someone trying to get a loan to buy a manufactured home might find that the loan exceeds the cost guidelines of the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act. That would make it — officially, anyway — a high-cost or predatory loan.
Good luck getting a lender to offer one of those.
Thus the "Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Finance Act." It would change the Truth in Lending Act to modify the definition of "high-cost mortgage" so lenders would be able to make them more easily (among other things).
The Manufactured Housing Institute is, naturally, very much in favor of the bill; click here to read its explanation.
