OK here’s another one:

Less than five months after owners of the trailer park at 1915 Marion Road SE announced plans to develop the site into a senior housing complex, most occupants have either been evicted or removed as trespassers.

So let me get this straight: mobile home parks can be developed into other uses? Gee, maybe that would mean that residents need to applaud higher rent to keep them from being shut down and redeveloped?

Until the residents and media understand that the park owner is not bound by law or duty to be in the “trailer park” business – and that all land has a higher and better use – there will be a constant stream of these articles.

It seems the utmost of hypocrisy when the same media outlets that publicly shame park owners for raising rents and bringing old properties back to life suddenly make out like mobile home parks are a valuable resource. Here’s the key quote from this article:

“Even so, the uncertainty — the specter of receiving notice at any moment that she may have to leave, like those who lived in the 15 now-unoccupied spaces before her — gnaws at her. The future of Cedarwood, located at 189 Main St. in Layton, has been the focus of public debate since the summer of 2021, when news emerged that Provo-based owner Boulder Ranch wanted to vacate the park, which contains around 70 trailer spaces in all, and redevelop the site.”

If you don’t want more Cedarwood stories, the media and residents need to cut out all the complaints about park rents going up and instead embrace those needed changes and be thankful the park is not redeveloped – because if rents don’t go up, then all parks ultimately close for redevelopment.

Better get ready for a ton more articles that start with this mantra:

“Dozens of people living at the North Cheney Mobile Home Park are now fighting to save their homes, as a plan to develop the property could force those living there to find someplace new to live.”

If the media and those who live in mobile home parks don’t get with the program and realize that low rents equate to “development land for sale” signs going up then they are in for a big shock.

And it’s also worth noting – since this journalist has zero real-life experience – that the residents cannot block the park owner’s right to develop the land into any use they want. The city makes that pretty clear when they state “"He talked about standard multi-family housing, he talked about a commercial space for some mixed use, concept, his representatives at the committee meeting, they were non-committal what the final site will actually look like," said Mark Schuller, city administrator for the City of Cheney.

City fathers celebrate when mobile home parks get torn down, so if the residents are looking for some help in that regard they are completely out of luck – which is one more reason that people need to stop trying to block higher mobile home park lot rents.

What neighborhood would not want to have the land next door filled with homeless people and a sign that says “A Kzoo Pod Community – A Place of Dignity”? I bet you $1,000 that not a single person on the Kalamazoo committee that is promoting this concept lives anywhere near this proposed disaster.

Kind of funny to see the shoe on the other foot. The State of Texas leased this guy’s land for 50 years and when the lease ended he decided to sell it for $110 million to a developer. Maybe Texas should have paid a higher lease amount? Sounds kind of like the typical mobile home park article these days, right?

No affordable housing concept works unless it is 100% subsidy-free. This one was not. Mobile home parks are. They operate without subsidies of any type. Yet they get no public acclaim for doing what bureaucrats have failed to do for the past century.

“The main reason Mobile Home Parks are hot investments is that Mobile Homes are not mobile. It can cost as much to relocate a manufactured home as it would to move a stick-built home. The terms “Mobile Homes” and “Mobile Home Parks” falsely portray these homes and homeowners as portable.” DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE? The writer obviously has zero investing skills. What they are alluding to is that mobile homes can’t move and therefore the residents are extremely stable and tolerant of rent increases. People live in mobile home parks because they are cheaper than all other forms of housing, and they stay put because of that simple theorem. It’s not solely because the homes are difficult and costly to move.

Let’s first address the concept that rents are high at this park. Here’s the stats for Killingworth, CT: SF homes average $411,000 and apartment rents are over $2,000 per month. Although the article refuses to state what the rents are now or what they were in the past, unless they’re $1,000 per month then they’re too cheap (based on the old rule of lot rents needing to be around 50% of apartment rents – which has no scientific basis at all).

As for the complaints about the property’s maintenance, let’s look at those complaints again:

“One disabled resident complained of a large beehive in front of her porch. The management company said they did not have money in their budget to remove it. The tenant paid herself to get it removed. Another tenant complained that her stairs lacked rails and were loose. She reported that maintenance agreed they were dangerous, but management has yet to fix them.”

Are you serious? That got the attention of the Attorney General of Connecticut? He must be really, really bored. The article does not even state if the homes belong to the tenants or the park (I’m betting the tenants) in which case those issues are not even a part of the park’s responsibility.

SUN is one of the best operators of mobile home parks in the U.S. They are a REIT. There are two sides to every story and I would personally bet that SUN’s story is the correct one – which this journalist chose not to share it at all.

If you own a home in Volusia County, Florida, you better sell it as fast as you can for whatever you can get. Can you imagine the decline in property values when you suddenly make mobile homes legal on thousands of acres in your county? Although this is not a “mobile home park” story – as none of this land is legal for mobile home parks but only individual mobile homes on land – it goes to show how stupid bureaucrats can be. Not sure that city employee started this concept, but I imagine that every single-family home in Volusia will be listed on Realtor.com shortly.

The City of Blaine is working overtime to come up with a politically correct way to tell mobile home park developers to go jump in the lake. Here’s the classic quote from this article “The people I know who came to the meeting aren’t antidevelopment,” Leeland said. “They’re, ‘Let’s make sure the development aligns with things that are good for Blaine.”

Obviously, the city would like to say “no” but in today’s politically correct America they can’t be honest, so instead they are working on a response that talks about the benefits of affordable housing yet still says “no”.

I understand that the industry wants to change its negative stigma, but let’s just give up on the old argument on what you call a mobile home. This article is all about a couple prominent financial podcast hosts daring to use the words that all Americans do when describing the industry: “trailer” and “mobile home”. The article states “In all languages, definitions and the meanings of words matter. A “manufactured home” is not a motor home or trailer, and although it is often called a “mobile home,” it is not that either.”

Here's the problem. The people have voted and the winner is “mobile home”. Why do I say that? Because Google analytics show that 90%+ of all searches on-line are using the words “mobile home”. And “trailer” scores just as many searches as “manufactured home”. You can’t argue with those stats. That’s why the people who are the most vocal about using “manufactured home” use the words “mobile home” in all their on-line marketing. Pretty hypocritical, huh?

Those podcast hosts used “trailer” and “mobile home” because that’s how their audiences refer to the product. If I invented a new term for mashed potatoes called "manipulated carb units" and then put that on grocery store shelves, I wouldn’t sell any because nobody would know what I’m talking about. You can’t blame any speaker for using the terms that their audience uses.

Before the internet, the discussion on what we call mobile homes was interesting. Now it’s just stupid.

You gotta love the audacity of California bureaucrats. This is a terribly rundown park that is being sold for $2.7 million to a developer. But the city doesn’t want it to go. So they’re dreaming up alternatives. One they like a lot, apparently, is to force the seller to instead sell the park to the city. So here’s their logic:

Given that figure, the pro rata value per mobile home pad is $60,750. Compared to the high six-figure cost of building a single unit of affordable housing, the city’s purchase of this property makes economic sense. 

Here’s a better, more Midwestern approach. Give every household in the park $60,750. Tell them to locate to a less expensive area and buy a stick built home for cash for $60,750 and live their lives free of rent or mortgage payments. Where can you find homes for $60,000? Small towns all over the U.S. Based on the photos, these residents are currently living in dilapidated travel trailers and 1950’s units. My proposal would be a blessing for all involved.