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Virginia Mercury: These new housing laws will take effect next month

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Manufactured homes, mobile homes, trailers — whatever they’re referred to as, this type of housing has offered tenants an affordable option to become homeowners. 

But they haven’t offered as much stability. That’s where Virginia lawmakers have passed some laws to help neighbors around the state have a little more peace of mind. 

For example, should a mobile home park be sold for redevelopment, a new law will require some financial assistance to help residents relocate and another new law strengthens protections for residents’ leases. 

The mobile-home-specific proposals are among a suite of housing laws that will take effect next month —...

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House Bill 73 — This will require courts to automatically expunge eviction records for cases that have been dismissed after 30 days.

House Bill 764 — This bill will give domestic violence or sexual abuse victims the right to terminate a lease agreement early should they have a permanent protective order and need to move residences for their safety. 

House Bill 86 — This bill mandates that during eviction cases, landlords notify tenants of any increases to any money that is requested. 

House Bill 477 and Senate Bill 50 – These bills extend Virginia’s eviction diversion pilot program for another year. 

House Bill 368 and Senate Bill 538 — These increase the maximum fine that localities can impose on repeated violations of the Uniform Statewide Building Code. 

House Bill 1203 — This bill increases tax credit amounts available to landlords who rent to Housing Choice Voucher holders. There is also an earmark for use in rural regions of Virginia. 

House Bill 478 and Senate Bill 49 — These allow localities to set up Community Revitalization Funds, which can be used to prevent neighborhood deterioration, such as revamping blighted structures for continued use. 

Senate Bill 489 — This bill establishes a workgroup that can analyze the possibility and options for creating a Virginia Residential Development Infrastructure fund. 

Apparently, the bureaucrats that run Virginia want all the parks torn down. These new rules are a good start.

Tampa Bay Times: Pinellas County extends deadline for residents of mobile home park told to leave

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Pinellas County has given residents of a frequently flooded mobile home park an extra year to elevate their homes to nearly 11 feet.

County officials had previously told homeowners at the Twin City park in the Gandy area they would have to complete the work or leave by the start of the hurricane season on June 1. Last month, the county sent Twin City residents a letter extending their temporary occupancy until June 1 of next year.

Tom Almonte, assistant county administrator for Pinellas, said staff chose to delay the deadline after communication between the county and the park’s management company broke down.

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Nobody with common sense would think for one minute that the reason the city is suddenly demanding that residents raise their homes 10’ off the ground – at a cost of $10,000 each – is because the city is so worried about future flooding issues. They’re obviously just trying to find a way to get the park shut down. But this one quote seemed even more misguided than the rest of the story:

Roth staked a for-sale sign in her front yard, but hasn’t received any serious offers yet. She’s asking $40,000 for her recently repaired home — Roth spent $26,000 of FEMA money after Hurricane Idalia pushed floodwaters inside. She has had few showings since. As soon as Roth discloses the park’s frequent flooding issue, it scares off prospective buyers.“Their eyes get wide and it’s like, ‘Oh, never mind,’” she said. “And they leave.” Roth said she’s worried about braving another hurricane season in her mobile home but doesn’t want to force her daughter and their two dogs into a cramped motel room. “I can’t stay here — can’t do it,” she said. “Because the next time water gets in, I can’t afford to fix it.”

She didn’t even pay to fix it the LAST time – FEMA did. What is she even talking about ??

And on the matter of stupidity, the U.S. government MUST stop coddling and enabling people in Florida to live in flood zones by removing the entire concept of personal accountability. If you live in a flood zone, in the state that has more flooding than any other, you must stop throwing good money after bad. Why did FEMA spend $26,000 fixing this home if it was already tagged as happening again in the future? They should have bought the resident a mobile home for $26,000, moved it inland, and been done with it, right? There’s an old saying that the very definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different outcome.

WLRN: In the crosshairs of the climate and housing crise

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Sue Hammel huddled with her four cats as Hurricane Idalia thrashed at the thin plywood and sheet metal walls of her mobile home. The roaring wind, thunder and rain competed for dominance, so loud she couldn’t hear the nearby cracks of plummeting pine trees.

Others sought refuge in a nearby laundromat, the only concrete structure at Hammel’s small mobile home and RV park in Perry, a city about 50 miles south of Tallahassee.

Before dawn, the hulking trunks of pine and oak came crashing down on eight neighboring homes, splitting them one by one.

“I was sitting there holding my cane, shaking like a leaf, thinking, ‘This is it, I’m going to...

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One solution is cooperatives, where mobile home residents pool money together to buy their park and share ownership. This way, they’re not subject to rent increases or displacement when the park land changes hands. However, this is an underused option, as only about 2% of manufactured housing parks were community owned in 2019, according to a Freddie Mac report.

Why do you suppose that in all these decades -- in the “bluest” of all red states -- only 2% of mobile home parks are resident-owned communities? After all, it’s not a new idea. The problem is, of course, that this concept requires an outside donor for the downpayment and then another non-profit to personally guarantee the loan. In none of these deals do the residents ever “pool their own money” to buy it – they have no money. It’s just a game of massive subsidies from outside the park. Apparently, very few groups want to give away free money or co-sign mortgages. With that reality in mind, can we please stop throwing out this stupid notion that, although it’s failed for decades, somehow it now suddenly has a shot of working? After all, 2% in 20+ years is not much of a track record to brag about.

Petaluma Argus Courier: Judge dismisses lawsuit brought by mobile home park owners against city

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A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Petaluma by owners of two mobile home parks who claimed the city infringed on their constitutional rights.

Owners of the two parks — the seniors-only Youngstown on North McDowell and all-ages Little Woods Mobile Villa on Lakeville Highway — claimed the city’s mobile home rent control laws and its park closure regulations infringed on their rights because owners are forced to operate parks at a loss and it’s difficult to otherwise sell or convert the parks.

The lawsuit was dismissed Tuesday by Judge Charles R. Breyer of the Northern California District Court.

Order granting motion to...

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With every other form of real estate, once you build it you’re stuck. If you build an office building you have so much money invested in the construction that – no matter what the city later declares – you have no choice but to accept it because there’s no other way out. But mobile home parks are basically just parking lots and it costs virtually nothing to tear them down and redevelop. As a result, while California may allow crime in retail centers without worrying about closure – because nobody can afford to tear their malls down – mobile home park owners have freedom of choice and no economic barriers to preclude them from building something back on the land that’s more profitable.

As a result, the city’s attempt to control the park owners is simply going to displace the tenants and not really harm the park owners that much. But perhaps that was the plan to begin with, since most cities want all the mobile home parks removed, right?

Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola mobile home park residents say safety, maintenance fall, while rent just goes up

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Takesha Montgomery, seven months pregnant with her first child, sits surrounded by several box fans in her mobile home at Oakstead Mobile Home Park. The 24-year-old woman has lived in the unit for almost two years and said from the time she moved in there have been problems with the condition of the trailer.

There’s a large hole in the wall she keeps covered with an unplugged television that she says is caused by water leaking through the mobile home. There are other holes that need to be fixed and she suspects an opossum she once found in her bathtub got in through one of them.

Most recently her air conditioner went out, about two months...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Everything in this article seems more than a little odd. The mobile homes shown in the photos are newer models and don’t look that bad. I’m not even sure that the park owner owns these mobile homes, since the monthly rent is $800 per month, which in Florida is around lot rent levels not including the homes. On top of that, the residents are claiming that the park needs to provide 24/7 security, which they don’t by law. And then there’s the resident that says she won’t call 911 because “it’s a pain”. None of it really adds up to me.

There are two sides to every story. I’m betting the news agency is getting “played for fools” by the residents, who are hoping to get their rent reduced as a result. Reminds me of the time that National Geographic did a segment at one of our parks and a resident conned them into going over to their house to “reveal” that we had sold them a mobile home with a furnace that didn’t work. We showed National Geographic that the reason the tenant’s heat was not working was because they had simply not paid their gas bill and they didn’t run that story as a result.

Again, there’s two sides to every story and this article only provides one of them.

WBNS: Lawsuit alleges mobile homes were wrongfully demolished after Indian Lake tornado earlier this year

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Residents of a mobile home park in Lakeview, a village hit by an EF3 tornado in March, are taking legal action against their landlords.

In the days after the deadly tornado on March 14, a lawsuit filed in Logan County Common Pleas Court alleges that the owner of the property at a mobile home park off U.S. Route 33 began demolishing homes without warning tenants.

“Within the first two days after the tornado, the owners went in and began to demolish the homes. They didn’t give any notice to the residents, they didn’t get to go in and get their belongings, they lost literally everything, so they are starting over from...

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Let me get this straight. A mobile home park is pulverized by a tornado in March. It’s officially closed forever in April since the owner just wants to develop the land into a different use rather than attempt to put it all back together. So he clears the land at 100% his own expense. The tenants did nothing to help nor did they pay a dime. And now they are suing the park owner because he carted away their destroyed homes for free yet did not give them enough time to sift through the debris to look for things like a “measuring cup”? As I see it, the tenants owe the park owner thousands of dollars, not vice versa.

KSLA12: Proposal to add about 70 homes to King Oaks draws opposition from official, some community members

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SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — “Nowadays, they want $1,000 a month for rent. If I can afford to pay $1,000 a month for rent, surely I can buy my own home,” said Carol Smith, a member of the MLK Community Development Corp.

At a time when hundreds of residents have been displaced due to unpaid utility bills and dilapidated properties in Shreveport, new housing would seem to be a solution.

However, Standard Enterprises Inc. (SEI), owner and operator of King Oaks, has faced opposition to a plan to add about 70 homes to the subdivision.

“Supposedly, some constituents do not want rental properties in the area when there’s an overwhelming need,” said...

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But some residents and District 2 Caddo Commissioner Greg Young say they would like to see more ownership in the area.

No, that’s not the real reason. It’s the politically correct reason, but not the truth. The reason that people don’t want to have a mobile home park built next to them is that it substantially reduces their property values. Just go to Zillow and look at a house next to a mobile home park and one three blocks away. The one by the park is about 30% less in value. Until you can fix that simple reality there won’t be any new mobile home parks built.

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

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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...

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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.

Cheapism: Living Small: Charming Tiny Home Communities Across America

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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.

 

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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.

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

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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...

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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.

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

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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...

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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.

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

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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....

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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?

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

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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...

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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

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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...

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“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.

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

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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...

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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.

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

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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,...

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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.

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

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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,...

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"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?

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

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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...

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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?

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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...

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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.

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

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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...

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“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.

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

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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...

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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.

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

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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...

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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

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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...

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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.

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....

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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?

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.

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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”.