The Census Manufactured Housing Survey has tracked shipments monthly and annually back to 1959. That long series can help a park owner frame supply conversations, but it does not measure local vacancies, move-ins, or demand.
What the survey measures
The survey is sponsored by HUD and collected by the Census Bureau. It covers new homes that received a federal inspection. The Census page says the data includes shipments, average sales prices, and selected characteristics. A park operations team should therefore treat it as a supply and product dataset, not as a property-management ledger.
The survey publishes national and state shipment estimates, while average sales price is available at several geographic levels. A local operator can compare the direction of the series with its own lead and vacancy records, then keep the two sources separate.
A useful operating workflow
Have a virtual assistant save the monthly table, record the release date, and log the exact series used. The operator can then review whether the comparison period matches the community's leasing period. Link each note to the internal record for permits, pad readiness, and completed move-ins.
Do not turn a shipment count into a forecast for one park. A home may be shipped to a dealer, another state, or a FEMA-related destination. The source defines the coverage; the local record supplies the operating context.