A new state law might mean manufactured housing can be financed less like a vehicle and more like a home.

The law, signed last month by Gov. Mark Sanford, lets people convert their manufactured homes into real property if they own the land where the home sits. Most manufactured homes now receive "title certificates," which are somewhat like car titles and make it hard for buyers to obtain conventional mortgages.

The new law lets buyers combine the home and land into a single piece of property.

With that change, buyers likely can obtain mortgages at rates closer to what people pay for site-built houses. Most manufactured home buyers pay much higher rates.

And what was once two tax bills - one for the home and one for the land - can become a single bill, making it easier to collect property taxes, said Rick Dolan, Lexington County tax assessor.

The change is important because nearly one-fifth of the state's housing units are manufactured homes, according to the 2000 Census. No other state has a percentage as high.

Making it easier to tax manufactured homes should help increase home values and boost local tax collections, maintains Mark Dillard, executive director of the Manufactured Housing Institute of South Carolina.

But Dolan said that remains to be seen, saying it is unclear whether the change will bring in more tax money. Richland County Tax Assessor John Cloyd said manufactured housing in his county is "taxed just like any other house."

Before the law, people buying a manufactured home either paid cash or faced interest rates as high as 15 percent, said Carol Rosich, president of Cooper Mortgage.

"It treats a manufactured home as a real house rather than personal property like a car," Rosich said.

Robert F. Dozier Jr. of Homeowners Mortgage,which typically does not finance manufactured homes, said the new law makes doing so "potentially more attractive."

"There is a need in South Carolina for easier, more palatable financing for people to buy mobile homes," Dozier said. "And if this is going to help, then that's great."

With the law, major lenders such as Freddie Mac will be more willing to secure loans involving manufactured homes, said state Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Richland, one of three sponsors of the legislation.

Freddie Mac buys mortgages secured by manufactured homes titled as real estate, whether on land owned by the borrower or leased under a long-term recorded lease.

Lenders want that reassurance before financing home-land packages, said manufactured home dealer Art Newton, who owns Congaree Home Center, with locations in West Columbia and Lexington.

"Not having the law hurt us the previous two years," Newton said. "Some lenders didn't want our papers."

Cotty, also a real estate attorney who has helped people buy and sell property for 30 years, said lower payments and better terms will fling wide the doors of home ownership to more people.

"It's still the American dream," Cotty said.

Reach Young at (803) 771-8659 or tfyoung@thestate.com.