Mobile Home Park News Briefing

Mobile Home Park Investing Audios | Mobile Home Park Investing Videos | Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast



Flathead Beacon: Agencies Establish Emergency Fund for Displaced Mobile Home Residents

Preview:

For the last 14 years, 61-year-old Debbie Wallace has lived in her 1978 trailer with her husband at Spring Creek Mobile Home Park on South Cedar Drive in Evergreen where, until recently, they have paid a few hundred dollars per month in lot fees.

But when new owners took over the park last year and abruptly started raising the rent, charging a base rate for utilities and tacking on additional costs like late fees while removing grace periods, Debbie — along with her neighbors — started to get nervous.

As surveyors frequented the park and repeatedly shut off the water without notice, park residents became suspicious that the new owners...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

I hate to rain on another fantasy parade, but the homes in those photos are from the 1970s and 1980s. They are clearly in extremely poor condition. They will never survive the move from that property. On top of that, none of these residents will ever be able to afford private land or the $10,000 needed to put in a well and septic. This is just a bunch of hopeless nonsense. The residents had a great run at the world’s cheapest housing under an all too lenient mom and pop owner, but the new investor appears poised to take this property to the next level – benefitting the remaining residents who have pride of ownership – and these homes need to be demolished, not moved. This is not a story of an evil park owner but of residents who did not maintain their homes, to the detriment of their neighbors, and their actions finally caught up with them. It’s called personal accountability.

Colorado Community Media: Littleton mobile home park residents get closer to making offer on land

Preview:

The residents of Meadowood Village, a mobile home park in Littleton, have learned that the city will provide $225,000 in financial support to help them make an offer on the land beneath their homes.

The residents of the park, located on the west side of Santa Fe Drive just north of Breckenridge Brewery, received notice in January of a corporation’s intent to buy the park.

Fearing displacement due to redevelopment or increased rents and fees, the residents formed a cooperative to try to buy the park themselves, per a Colorado law that offers them 120 days after notice of a potential sale to make their own offer.

The Meadowood Cooperative...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

Littleton City Manager Jim Becklenberg said at a city council study session this week that the city does not currently have housing purchase subsidies funding to grant the residents’ original $2.6 million request to help them buy the land. Instead, the council directed staff to contribute $225,000 — some of which will be refunded — to go toward earnest money and pre-purchase expenses.

Clearly, this deal is not going to happen. It was a nice gesture by the city to save face, but to pull this off the residents will need a gift of around $1 million and a non-profit to personally guarantee the mortgage.

Of course, it’s probably better this deal dies quickly as many of these “blindfolded half-court shots” rack up monstrous diligence costs before finding out that they can’t come up with the money.

ForexTV: UMH PROPERTIES, INC. WILL ATTEND AND SHOWCASE TWO DUPLEX HOMES AT THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT’S ANNUAL INNOVATIVE HOUSING SHOWCASE

Preview:

FREEHOLD, NJ, June 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — UMH Properties, Inc. (NYSE:UMH) (TASE:UMH), today announced that the Company will attend the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual Innovative Housing showcase for the 4th year in a row. The event kicks off with a Showcase Opening Ceremony at 9am on Friday, June 7, 2024, on the National Mall in Washington, DC. 

Samuel A. Landy, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented “At this year’s Innovative Housing Showcase, UMH will be showcasing two HUD code duplex models in partnership with Cavco Industries, Inc. and Skyline Champion Corporation. We plan to market one duplex model...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

Mobile home park duplexes are the bastion of “man camps” and parks that are filled with temporary, transient workers who are there to do a job and go home. To pretend that anybody else would live in these dreadfully small, depressing things is completely asinine.

Cheapism: Living Small: Charming Tiny Home Communities Across America

Preview:

If social and economic anxieties have you thinking about the ultimate in lifestyle downsizing, you are not alone. The disruption of the pandemic had many wanting to spend less, own less, and worry less, leading to renewed interest in the tiny home movement — especially since tiny home communities are often distant from chaotic population hubs. Rules and regulations about them vary considerably by state and municipality, but any of these tiny home communities are worth a look by the curious.

 

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

I’m confused by who the target customer is for these things. 400 sq. ft. is way too small for a family with kids. So it must be focused on young single people or seniors. But these developments are located out in the middle of nowhere so there’s no jobs and, therefore, I don’t know how the young person can pay the rent (unless they work remotely, which is a very small market). That only leaves senior households, and those 400 sq. ft. homes are too small – and with awkward floor plans – that render them difficult to be truly functional.

Until you can solve this riddle, tiny homes have no future. But they do make for entertaining TV shows on the HGTV channel.

Mass.gov: AG Campbell Releases Updated Guide To Manufactured Housing Community Law

Preview:

BOSTON — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has issued an updated Guide to Manufactured Housing Community Law (“Guide”), which provides guidance to owners, operators, and residents of manufactured housing communities regarding state laws and regulations governing manufactured housing, including the Manufactured Housing Act (“Act”) and the Attorney General’s Manufactured Housing Community Regulations (“AG’s Regulations”). The updated 2024 Guide provides additional clarifications and explanations on a range of key manufactured housing issues that the Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) has commonly encountered since the Guide was last...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

Read these new rules from the Massachusetts Attorney General regarding mobile home parks:

  • Clarifies that community owners may not deny tenancy applications based on a single factor, such as credit score or income level, when there is other reasonable evidence of a prospective tenant’s ability to pay rent
  • Informs community owners that they must charge new residents entering their community the same rent as residents already living in the community so long as the new residents have similar lot sizes and receive the same services as those already living in the community
  • Clarifies the process that community owners must follow to discontinue the use of a manufactured housing community

So now tell me who would want to own a mobile home park in that state?

Ironic that the city that brought you the Boston Tea Party – the origins of the “freedom” movement – would be the place in which woke bureaucrats heap on new regulations that make property ownership completely unappealing.

Lynnwood Times: Forum exposes the dark practice of underfunding manufactured home communities

Preview:

LYNNWOOD—Almost 200 residents throughout western Snohomish County filled the dining hall of Homage Senior Services on Thursday, May 30, to attend a Manufactured Home Ownership Forum hosted by George Hurst, Lynnwood City Council President, and Pam Hurst, Legislative Lead, Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance; Dave Ross of KIRO Radio moderated the event.

The purpose of the forum was to bring together agencies, legislators, and residents to learn about economic eviction, share available services to help residents alleviate the burden from economic eviction, and hear the plight of residents.

“They are scared, they don’t know what to do and...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

“After I pay for water, electricity, cable, groceries, and my medication I am left with nine dollars at the end of the month,” one resident on fixed income, who requested to remain anonymous, told the Lynnwood Times.

I know that Washington state is blue as can be. I know that it’s the homeland of the woke “free rent movement”. But if you add up the items in the quote above, it means that the resident has a total income of around $1,000 per month. Exactly how would this person be able to live anywhere in the U.S. on that amount? They clearly need to get into the U.S. Section 8 program. But, of course, they can’t because there is a 10-year wait list or something like that. This is not the story of evil park rents but instead the story of a government subsidy system that is broken.

99.9% of park residents like higher lot rents because they bring with them better property condition and professional management. But instead, Washington is seriously contemplating policies that revolve around an incredibly small minority of tenants but will literally destroy the Washington housing market, as rent control has in all other states dumb enough to institute them.

Land Trusts Aim to Make Homes Affordable: Land Trusts Aim to Make Homes Affordable

Preview:

ANGIE MILES: As both homelessness and home prices have increased, Virginians have been searching for innovative ways to make shelter available and affordable for more people. Vouchers for subsidized housing, tiny homes, accessory dwelling units, these are some of the solutions. Another is looking not at buildings, but goes to the ground level with the community land trust, or CLT.

AMELIE RIVES (CEO, VIRGINIA STATEWIDE COMMUNITY LAND TRUST): So, a community land trust is an affordable housing model that separates the ownership of a home from the land that it sits upon. A buyer buys that home, and then a community land trust owns the land....

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

This is not going to work. Just more subsidies for the taxpayers and donors to pay. Can’t anyone come up with an idea that is not reliant on hand-outs?

The Observer News: Workshop at Bethune Park addresses vision for Wimauma downtown developmen

Preview:

A workshop this month in Wimauma addressed the stages it will take to transform the area of mobile and manufactured homes into a vibrant, walkable downtown community centered around the Boys & Girls Club building at Bethune Park.
There, at 5809 Edina St., maps and photos of what is and could be were scattered throughout the community room, where a smattering of community members dropped in to offer their wishes, concerns and assessments for one piece of the puzzle, a revitalized Bethune Park

Taking time to discuss the matter overall was John Patrick, division director of the Hillsborough County Community and Infrastructure Planning...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

And another one bites the dust … This time you have a city that is tearing down the “trailer park” to build a “recreational park”. Well, at least it’s still in the “park” family.

I always love the fact that when a private company tries to tear down a park the media goes crazy and demands that the city fathers stop them but when a city does the exact same thing the media thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Perhaps they can bottle up America’s sheer hypocrisy and use that as an alternative energy solution. It’s the most plentiful product America produces at the moment.

Route Fifty: Are modular homes the future of affordable housing?

Preview:

In Buena Vista, Colorado, there’s a factory that builds houses. Not double-wides or A-frame kits, but bonafide, full-size, single-family homes. The factory, home of the manufacturing company Fading West, is immense. Like a giant air hockey table, its floor is covered with air jets powerful enough to move whole rooms. And right now, the facility is churning out up to two homes per week. 

Housing experts have toyed with the idea of modular housing as a solution to the affordable housing crisis for decades. In the 1970s, the federal government dumped millions of dollars in subsidies into modular home factories across the US. But the...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

The answer is “no”. Looking at modular homes is like looking at car styles from the 80s – certainly no longer cutting edge. Personally, I would bet that 3-D printed homes are the future of affordable housing when you’re talking about putting attractive small homes on small lots at lower price points in stick-built neighborhoods. Modular homes look lousy and cost way too much for what you get, which is a glorified mobile home. That’s why – even though modular homes have been around for a long time – nobody buys them. Time to move on.

NBC Montana: 'Only viable solution': Evergreen trailer park owner breaks silence on evictions

Preview:

EVERGREEN, Mont. — The property owner of Evergreen’s Spring Creek Mobile Home Park is speaking out following a report of residents facing a mass eviction later this year.

NBC Montana covered the unexpected 180-day eviction notices, which tenants received a few weeks ago. The notices came months after new property owner Brett Kelly told the Flathead Beacon in January that his goal was to keep renting to residents.

Ending the current lease agreements and removing the trailers was the “only viable solution,” Kelly wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday night.

Kelly cited extensive repairs needed to the park's decades-old infrastructure,...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

"Kelly cited extensive repairs needed to the park's decades-old infrastructure, specifically the water system, as the reason for the evictions…"

And here we have yet another park being torn down – and it’s the same old story. The lot rents were too low to pay for needed infrastructure repair and the land was now worth more than the park.

Have I mentioned that LOW LOT RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT enough yet?

ABC 7: 2 IE mobile home parks facing power shutoff after operator allegedly fails to pay electric bills

Preview:

YUCAIPA, Calif. (KABC) -- At least 200 residents at two mobile home parks in the Inland Empire are facing the threat of a power cutoff, because the operator of the properties allegedly hasn't paid the electric bill in more than a year.

"We're on our own, and we're worried," said Stephen Kennedy, who has lived at Oak Glen Retreat for more than five years. "Where are we going to go?"

Oak Glen Retreat is operated by Halo Resorts, which is also responsible for operations at Fisherman's Retreat near Beaumont.

According to a notice provided by Southern California Edison to residents of both resorts, "(SCE) has been working with Halo Resorts,...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

I know absolutely nothing about these parks – and I wouldn’t own one in California if you gave it to me – but more than likely the park has rents that are way too low and it finally caught up with the owner. When you stop paying your utilities, it’s normally the last straw. However, before all the residents jump up and down on their dream of trashing the owner, they better remember that the owner will more than likely be selling the park off as raw land for development as their next step, since the park clearly is not cash-flowing.

As always, LOW LOT RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT.

FOX Carolina: Mobile home park shut down after being labeled ‘nuisance’ in Rutherford Co.

Preview:

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, N.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office announced that a mobile home park was ordered to shut down recently following a court ruling.

Deputies said on May 16, a Superior Court signed a consent judgment for a Chapter 19 Nuisance Abatement action against the owner of a mobile home park along Jacobs Lane.

Deputies explained that under the judgment, the property must shut down by July 1, and the mobile homes on the land must be removed within 120 days. Deputies added that the judgment also forbids future “nuisance-related activities,” such as criminal acts, on the property.

“For years this mobile home...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

“The nuisance abatement law provides a solution for problem locations that disproportionately demand law enforcement resources and reduce the quality of life for citizens of North Carolina,” said Scottie Shoaf, the Special Agent in Charge of the Nuisance Abatement Team. “It was a privilege to work with this community and restore peace to the residents living in this community.”

And another one bites the dust… This city had an original idea to get the “trailer park” out of town and that was to use a “nuisance abatement law”. I’ve never heard of that one before. The Park owner was probably OK with that decision as it clears the land for him to redevelop without much fanfare, and he can blame it all on the city.

Fresnoland: Fresno pitches in $3.5M for troubled mobile home park, but will the bankrupt company sell it?

Preview:

The city helped bring the residents of a litigation-ridden local mobile home park one step closer to ending their years-long dispute with their park owner, but other legal battles may be coming soon. 

The Fresno City Council unanimously approved a resolution to give developer Self-Help Enterprises a one-time $3.5 million subsidy to pursue the purchase of La Hacienda Mobile Estates from property owner Harmony Communities. The developer would keep the park open as affordable housing, saving it from the closure initially pursued by the park owner. 

The vote was 6-0, with Councilmember Mike Karbassi being absent from Thursday’s meeting. 

The...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

So let me get this straight. A private company buys an old mobile home park with the intention of tearing it down to build something new. The city fights them tooth over nail and ultimately forces them into bankruptcy so that they can now buy it and do effectively the same thing that the original developer intended. But, of course, it’s OK for the city to do this because they inject the word “affordable” into their announcement every other word or so.

Did anyone notice how odd it is that the city is buying out all the mobile homes themselves as part of the transaction? Clearly, that’s so they can get rid of them later on. Until then, in phase one, they are going to let some nutty start-up build out around 30 units of stick-built housing on the currently unused part of the tract. Of course, they don’t tell anyone that phase two will probably be to tear down the 38 mobile homes the city just mysteriously bought and put stick-builds on those, too.

Another case of the residents playing the patsy for the city’s intended closure of the mobile home park.

Marin Independent Journal: Novato poised to update mobile home rent-control law

Preview:

The Novato City Council is moving forward with a plan to revise its rent-control ordinance governing mobile home parks.

The changes under consideration would cap annual rent increases on mobile home spaces at the consumer price index (CPI) or 4%, whichever is lower. Other revisions of the law would make it easier for park owners to recoup expenditures on beneficial capital improvements.

The council introduced a version of the ordinance for a first reading at its May 7 meeting. The reading was postponed until the council’s June meeting, however, after the sponsor, the Los Robles Mobile Home Park, requested minor changes.

The Los Robles...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

The Novato City Council is moving forward with a plan to revise its rent-control ordinance governing mobile home parks. The changes under consideration would cap annual rent increases on mobile home spaces at the consumer price index (CPI) or 4%, whichever is lower.

Why not call this by its true name: “Redevelopment Insurance”. How can you explain the concept that park owners should not be able to raise their prices more than 4% if inflation is 9%? You can’t. And with the passage of this ordinance, I would imagine that there will be no mobile home parks in Novato within a few years WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THE CITY LEADERS ARE HOPING FOR.

Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth mobile home nightmares eclipse the dream of homeownership for some

Preview:

Mayra Leyva and her husband knew they wanted to move into their own house one day.

However, her husband’s $30,000 annual income from his server job and Leyva’s inability to work because of her disability meant the couple could not qualify financially to buy one. 

So, in 2018, they decided to buy a mobile home instead. The Leyvas purchased a $37,000 used mobile home and started renovating it — new windows and floors, new lighting, new bathroom and bedroom. By the time they finished, the house’s value increased to over $60,000, Leyva said.

“It was worth it,” Leyva said. “We really put our efforts into that house.” 

Eventually, they landed in...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

For some, the purchase of a mobile home offers a low-cost alternative to homeownership. But in many cases, mobile homes lead to exploitation, said Hannah Lebovits, an assistant professor of public affairs and planning at the University of Texas at Arlington. “That specific space in the U.S. creates a lot of opportunities for manipulation and exploitation because we don’t really see that class of people as having power,” Lebovits said. “In fact, we see them as very disempowered and disadvantaged, and that creates opportunities to further marginalize them through systems of exploitation. It’s similar almost if we think about the dollar store model, to where we have these dollar stores popping up in communities that don’t have full grocery stores,” Lebovits said. “And the theory is, well, it’s cheaper because it’s a dollar store, but actually, the per unit cost for most items at a dollar store is significantly higher than at regular grocery stores.Unlike brick-and-mortar homes, mobile homes do not accumulate value over time and create wealth for the owner. The owner is not building equity, Lebovits said. It’s the opposite. The second you purchase that home, you are diminishing the value of the home. The second you begin to live in the home, you’re diminishing the value of the home, which is, again, that economic exploitation,” she said. 

Who wouldn’t expect a woke assistant professor at UTA to declare that mobile home parks are all about “manipulation and exploitation”. Let’s break her arguments down into bite-sized pieces of idiocy to easily refute them. So here goes:

People live in mobile home parks because it’s inexpensive. Yes, mobile homes do not appreciate like single-family homes. Residents are not living in mobile home parks because they are banking on appreciation. What motivated them is that they’re paying around $500 per month for a 3/2 when the surrounding stick-built homes cost $400,000 on average. If they can afford the $400,000 – and look at housing as an investment with huge returns in the form of higher future values – then they should definitely buy that. Nobody is standing in their way. But for most Americans today, $400,000 is a little out of their budget. I guess you could say the same thing about cars. If you bought a $250,000 Ferrari, it might appreciate in value over the years. But if you bought a $25,000 KIA it would only decline in value. So if you can afford a Ferrari – and owning a car is your idea of a smart investment – then that’s what you should do. Definitely. But if your goal is affordable transportation the KIA is the right choice.

Yes, mobile home park owners hold all the cards as far as future land use. It’s their land. Because the residents don’t own the land they pay a fraction of the price of competing housing. If the resident can afford to pay $400,000, they should definitely buy a house that comes with land and that solves the problem. They could also buy an acre way out in the country and place their mobile home on that. Land ownership used to be the American dream, but inflation has made it unattainable. Buying a mobile home, without the land, is attainable. Mobile home park owners are what give residents this affordable option.

Yes, the quality of the products at Dollar Stores is mostly lower than the full-price alternative. But the difference is that everything only costs a dollar vs. $5 or $10 for the same basic commodity somewhere else. They sell the $1 dog bowl at Hermes for $500 if you prefer that. People shop at the Dollar Store because that’s what they can afford, not because they think it’s the place to go to get the highest quality goods.

SO HERE’S THE BIG CONCLUSION: IT’S NOT “MANIPULATION AND EXPLOITATION” BUT A FINANCIAL CHOICE OF THE CONSUMER AS TO HOW MUCH TO SPEND. One of the great things about America is that competition leads to a number of choices and price points, all with good and bad attributes for the consumer to decide. But it’s personal accountability once you make your decision.

I recently flew on Delta and they have three classes of seating options: 1) First-class 2) Plus and 3) Coach. First-class costs three times more than coach. Plus costs two times more than coach. Coach is the cheapest and has very little legroom. If I choose Coach then it’s a decision I make to save money, and I can’t go to the airline later complaining that they used “manipulation and exploitation” to make me buy it. That’s a foundation of the woke initiative – that everyone is a weak and must be watched over. Not buying it.

Hannah Lebovitz is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. Not to be mean, but that’s a pretty lowly rated institution. Here’s what U.S. News and World Report says about it: The University of Texas at Arlington's ranking in the 2024 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, #236. Its in-state tuition and fees are $11,728;  So I guess you could kind of compare UTA to the Dollar Store of colleges, right? Do the students go there out of “manipulation and exploitation”? Apparently, based on her arguments.

8KPAX: Mobile home park tenants looking to relocate after eviction notice

Preview:

KALISPELL — Dozens of tenants at a mobile home community in the Flathead Valley just got eviction notices as the new owners change their business model. They have 180 days to vacate. Most are now facing an uncertain future with no other place to go.

“We’ve got people in here on fixed incomes. They can't afford move their trailers out, they're gonna lose their homes,” said Debbie Kiser Wallace, on eof the tennants at Spring Creek Mobile Home Park.

Tenants of the Spring Creek Mobile Home Park received eviction notices this month from the current owner of the park. The notice gives residents 180 days to leave the property.

“It's devastating....

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

Dozens of tenants at a mobile home community in the Flathead Valley just got eviction notices as the new owners change their business model. They have 180 days to vacate. Most are now facing an uncertain future with no other place to go.

Yes, this is the future of many, many mobile home parks if lot rents do not go up substantially. Property owners are not going to stick with a mobile home parking lot if there are more lucrative options. Since you can build apartments stacked two or three high on a single mobile home lot – and rent those apartments for $2,000 per month each – it is essential that lot rents increase significantly and fast.

As I’ve written about for years now, the basic message is “Low Lot Rents = Redevelopment”. It’s not rocket science – simply common sense.

Cardinal News: Officials say grant could give boost to Southside mobile home communities

Preview:

Mobile home parks and manufactured home communities throughout Henry County and surrounding areas could be eligible for infrastructure repairs, some for the first time in years. 

Representatives of the West Piedmont Planning District Commission held two informational meetings this week to detail their plan to secure millions in rehabilitative funding through a Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement, or PRICE, grant. 

The commission is looking to apply for a $13 million piece of the $225 million pool of grant funding. 

The PRICE grant is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s initiative...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

The commission is looking to apply for a $13 million piece of the $225 million pool of grant funding. The PRICE grant is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s initiative to improve mobile homes or manufactured home parks. Its goals include bolstering the housing supply and weather-proofing and repairing structures, among other things.“Roofing, plumbing, doors, anything that we would do in a normal home rehabilitation,” said Chasta White, the commission’s housing programs specialist, adding that infrastructure repairs are likely to impact multiple units. “We’re looking to do paving, well and septic tank updates … broadband in some areas. We’re looking to do lighting, curb and gutter, painting, all kinds of infrastructure repairs.”

Needless to say, I hope that this occurs. Bureaucrats would be smart to invest in helping mobile home parks to fix aging infrastructure as it reduces the likelihood of redevelopment into another use.

Of course, it’s been a pretty regular political reality to talk about things and never do them, so we’ll see if any of this actually happens. 

The Abbotsford News: Chilliwack man speaks up for seniors as mobile-home park eyed for redevelopment

Preview:

A Chilliwack resident is urging city hall to consider the plight of senior owners in Fraser Village Mobile Home Park who may soon be forced to sell their manufactured homes and move.

Terry Hanson said he and fellow park residents learned about redevelopment plans for the park across from Townsend Park after reps of Westbow Group held a meeting explaining their intent to build townhouses on the property.

Hanson estimates the market value of his trailer at about $225,000. But the reimbursement offer was only for $130,000.

The crux of this is that many of the long-time owners won’t be able to purchase a home elsewhere to replace the one...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

A Chilliwack resident is urging city hall to consider the plight of senior owners in Fraser Village Mobile Home Park who may soon be forced to sell their manufactured homes and move. Terry Hanson said he and fellow park residents learned about redevelopment plans for the park across from Townsend Park after reps of Westbow Group held a meeting explaining their intent to build townhouses on the property.

I should start selling T-shirts that say ASK ME HOW LOW LOT RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT. If I sold them to displaced residents only my sales would be in the thousands of units.

Realtor: 5 Manufactured Homes Priced Below $300K That Will Surprise You With Their Luxe Style

Preview:

With rising housing prices and interest rates sky-high, buyers are on the hunt for alternatives.

We’ve shown you tiny houses, we’ve shown you floating homes, and this week we’ll show you manufactured homes, some of them with luxuries that will amaze you. Best of all? They also have prices that might surprise you.

And these aren’t tired old tin cans in a trailer park. These manufactured homes offer style and substance for less.

The five we’ve found have all been recently renovated and serve as proof that you can score a comfy, chic bargain—if you know where to look.

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

Look at the photos then look at the prices. What idiot would pay that much? In Missouri we’d call that “bad shopping”.

The Washington Post: Want affordable housing? Take the chassis off manufactured houses.

Preview:

With the median selling price of U.S. homes at nearly $400,000, the rising cost of housing is a top concern of many Americans. One reason homes both new and resold are so expensive is that almost all of them have been built the traditional way — on-site, and by construction workers.

Things were different in the quarter-century after World War II, when progress in manufacturing allowed homes to be built from start to finish within a factory and delivered to the buyer’s site. Often called “mobile homes,” they offered middle- and lower-income families an affordable housing alternative. By the early 1970s, roughly 1 in 3 U.S....

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

If Congress removed the permanent chassis requirement, manufactured homes would be safer, and they would be much more acceptable in traditional neighborhoods.

Few people are aware that the reason that mobile homes sit on a “boat trailer” foundation is because Congress mandates it to be that way – dating from when they did a hostile takeover of mobile home manufacturing in the 1970s. Clearly this was a decision made at the request of the single-family home building special interest groups who did not want their prices to be undercut and thought that affixing a boat trailer to the underside of a mobile home would render it a lesser competitive form of housing. Scandalous, huh?

Business Research & Insights: How land lease homes are reducing the costs of retirement

Preview:

Could home ownership in retirement be more affordable? Under the increasingly popular land lease model, the answer is a resounding yes.

In a land lease community (LLC), residents own their home but lease the land it sits on, paying a regular rent to the community’s developer to occupy the site. Without the land component, homes can be 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than if they were a freehold property in the same location.

For the vast cohort of Australians over 50 the main appeal is a lower cost of entry. This can free up significant cash that could be used to fund a more enjoyable retirement.

“When people sell the family home and move into...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

In a land lease community (LLC), residents own their home but lease the land it sits on, paying a regular rent to the community’s developer to occupy the site. Without the land component, homes can be 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than if they were a freehold property in the same location.

Looks like Australian journalists may have more common sense than their American counterparts, because this is an article from “down under” and they “get” the fact that people choose to live in land-lease communities because they’re cheaper and not in hopes of home appreciation. But don’t tell the assistant professor from the earlier article because she’d call this “manipulation and exploitation”. You can imagine what Crocodile Dundee would then call her…

KTVO: Hard deadline set for major step in Kirksville housing project

Preview:

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — A new ultimatum has been set regarding one of Kirksville’s most anticipated projects.

At a special city council meeting last week, the council agreed to a hard date proposed by Donnie O'Haver, the owner of the mobile home park located at 909 West Gardner Street.

O'haver will now have until June 10, 2024, to remove the trailers and debris from the property.

After the city originally purchased the property back in October of 2023, O'Haver was originally given until the end of December to clear the property, but after very little progress had been made, that deadline was pushed back until the end of April.

But due to things...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

The city is partnering with Kirksville R-III School District and is planning to use the property to build four tiny homes.

So the city is tearing down a massive mobile home park in order to build only 4 tiny homes? I love the fact that – since a city owns the park and they are demolishing it – there is zero push back from the media on all the families being evicted. This makes me think we need to add to my earlier equation:

LOW LOT RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT = HAPPY CITY GOVERNMENT

Is that REALLY what rent control is all about? Wouldn’t shock me.

American Press: Rezoning request for mobile home park near Iowa rejected

Preview:

Jeff Davis Parish police jurors on Wednesday rejected a request to rezone property on Gro Racca Road near Iowa for a mobile home park, a development residents in the area opposed.  The Police Jury unanimously denied a request from Country View REI, LLC to rezone 60 acres located just west of U.S. 165 from agriculture to commercial.  Developer Nicholas Toti told the board that the development is an opportunity for the parish to have a mobile home park that is different from the others.

“We’re looking at providing a mobile home park with double or triple the normal lot sizes with restrictions on materials, usage, out buildings and years of...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

Shocker! Gee, never saw that one coming – NOT. When will people learn that the “moat” to our industry is a permanent thing as cities don’t want new mobile home parks and the citizens back that hatred. I talked to a guy that draws engineering plans for zoning variance applications for new parks recently and asked “so how many of these designs have been actually built so far?” and he answered “none”.

COMMON SENSE MISTAKE: THINKING THAT PEOPLE WANT NEW MOBILE HOME PARKS IN THEIR CITY BECAUSE THEY 100% DON’T.

Washington State Department of Commerce: Report: Lack of affordable housing options reaches critical levels in communities throughout Washington state

Preview:

Olympia, Washington – The lack of affordable housing options has reached critical levels in communities throughout Washington, according to the recently released Affordable Housing Advisory Board (AHAB) Five-Year Housing Advisory Plan. The AHAB report highlights the need for action, detailing that the state must add over a million new homes within the next 20 years to meet current need and accommodate population growth. This widely quoted estimate of housing needs was reported last year.

The Housing Advisory Plan emphasizes that nearly half of the new homes required in the coming decades must be affordable to households earning less than...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

If you google up rent control in Washington state, you’ll see the catalyst that drives woke writers crazy:

House Bill 2114 (HB 2114), otherwise known as rent control, that passed the Washington State House of Representatives February 13 on a party line vote, appears to have died in the Senate and failed to pass out of committee.

Look, I know the “free rent” advocates almost choked to death on their kale salad when it turned out that Washington state bureaucrats were not as woke as they hoped, but please give this issue a rest for a few years and then try again. Rent control is just not coming to Washington state at this point. Not even close. Sorry.

COMMON SENSE MISTAKE: REFUSING TO ACCEPT REALITY

KCRG: Iowa mobile home park closes storm shelter leaving residents with few options

Preview:

NEWTON, Iowa (WOI) - Jasper County has been hit with two tornadoes so far this year.

Both times, people in the Sunrise Terrace mobile home park in Newton have used a storm shelter to stay safe.

But now, management says the shelter is closing, leaving people with few options.

Residents have not been told why the storm shelter is closing, so many people are frustrated and concerned about the next round of severe weather.

 

According to Iowa Code in Newton, mobile home parks are required to provide storm shelter facilities.

Leaders with Jasper County Emergency Management say they just recently heard about the closure, and are working on a...

Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

Classic lie:

Trailers do give a unique issue when it comes to severe weather because they’re just not built to withstand even 70 mile an hour winds, we usually see those flip or start to come apart pretty easily.

Wow, somebody needs to get a hold of HUD because a mobile home going down the highway already has winds of 55 mph to start with and, if it’s going into a headwind of 30 mph, then it’s facing 85 mph winds and will apparently “come apart pretty easily”. I guess HUD needs to require mobile homes to be shipped only at 30 mph and on perfectly calm days!

The truth is that mobile homes are built perfectly fine and do about as well as stick-built homes in a tornado – they both get shredded. I live in the Missouri Ozarks and I have seen first-hand tornado damage and when a 200 mph wind hits a brick house it’s pulverized. Everything is.

COMMON SENSE MISTAKE: THINKING THAT ANYTHING CAN WITHSTAND A TORNADO – IT CAN’T.