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Private equity firms are buying up land in mobile home parks across the nation, and some New Jersey lawmakers have a plan to stop residents from experiencing double-digit rent hikes.
A bill, S2953, working its way through the New Jersey Legislature would put a 3% cap on rent increases in the state’s “manufactured home” or mobile home communities.
Any annual rent hikes higher than 3% would have to receive approval from the state’s Department of Community Affairs, under the plan. Landlords requesting approval for the rent increase would have to show that current rents aren’t enough to cover the cost of maintenance and tax increases.
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Roughly one-fifth of mobile home parks across the nation have been purchased by large-scale investors in recent years, according to a 2022 study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a nonprofit foundation based in Massachusetts.
I’m not sure if the author of this story bothered to do any fact-checking, but there are around 44,000 mobile home parks in the U.S. and if 20% were purchased by large corporate investors in the last few years that would equate to around 10,000 parks. The actual number is probably more like 500 parks tops (ELS – the nation’s largest MH REIT – only owns around 400 in 30 years). And that’s around 1% NOT 10%. But the facts don’t much matter in this case because corporate ownership has nothing to do with higher lot rents.
The real reason rents are increasing across the nation is not because of large corporate owners, but simply because mobile home park lot rents are insanely, ridiculously low compared to $400,000 houses and $2,000 per month apartments. It’s called the free-market system, and it’s the backbone of America capitalism. Price controls are a part of socialism and “can lead to shortages, black markets, and reduced quality, ultimately hindering economic efficiency”. And that’s why the legislature in New Jersey hopefully won’t fall for this nonsense.