Mobile Home Park News Briefing

BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (WLS) -- Dozens of residents in south suburban Blue Island could soon be without homes.

The city said it's shutting down an embattled mobile home park after years of unpaid water bills and code violations.

Thursday is the deadline the city of Blue Island has given to the owners of Forest View Mobile Home Park to come up with a plan to shut the property down.

Officials have said the city has spent two years trying to get management to clean up its act. Its residents are now caught in the middle, unsure where they will go.

The park is currently made up of empty lots, broken up streets and abandoned and stripped-down...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - Find another solution to cool your home — that’s what the owners of trailers at Countryside Village in South Bend have been told since at least September of last year.

And come tomorrow (July 1), people living inside those trailers face a major deadline: get rid of their window A/C units, or face violations and be forced out of their homes.

Many people in the mobile home park own their trailers but pay a lot rent to YES Communities, which owns hundreds of parks across the nation. The company’s community guidelines that tenants are instructed to sign along with their lease states window A/C units are not...

San Jose is updating language in its rent control policy due to mobile home park landlords illegally raising prices on tenants living in RVs.

The city’s decades-old mobile home rent policy states property owners cannot raise rents more than 7% without city approval — but Western Trailer Park disregarded it on the grounds that recreational vehicles are not mobile homes. Housing Director Erik Soliván updated the policy earlier this month to clarify RVs are considered mobile homes on mobile home lots. RV residents live in 15 of the 58 mobile home parks within San Jose.

Jeff Scott, spokesperson for the housing department, said the official...

After the school bus swings by Aspen-Basalt Mobile Home Park, kids spill out onto the playground in the center of the neighborhood: kicking around a soccer ball, lobbing a volleyball and narrowly avoiding windshields.

It's been this way for decades, said resident Lorena Vargas. She lives in the park with her husband and their two daughters, right next to her in-laws.

“That's something that you find throughout the mobile home park. It's pretty multi-generational,” she said. “The people we grew up with are now having their kids there, and so our kids are growing up together.”

But in March, residents of Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley...

In the past several weeks, four local governments and two private businesses have given written commitments of at least $500,000 or more to two mobile home parks listed for sale in Basalt and Carbondale.

Aspen committed $3 million, as did Pitkin County. Meanwhile, Snowmass committed $1 million, Atlantic Aviation $1 million, Basalt $500,000, and SkiCo $500,000. Between just those five donations, there is $9 million on the table. More Roaring Fork Valley local governments are expected to consider committing money in the coming weeks. 

That substantial sum alone will not be enough to buy the mobile home parks, as the owners are asking for a...

Two forces will drive stock market returns over the next decade, and I’m purposely overweighting my investments in these categories.

The first catalyst is AI, which is disrupting many businesses and will generate substantial wealth for those who embrace technology. In a few days, I will be writing a detailed report on the best ways to invest in AI.

The second catalyst is the so-called silver tsunami, or aging population, that’s a huge demand tailwind which stands to benefit from demographics with Gen X (and soon elder millennials) aging into the cohort (ages 50-77), which is expected to gain 6.4 million people (+6% cumulatively) over the...

Dawn Beailieu has called Friendly Village, a mobile home park in Gorham, ME, her home for nearly 30 years. It’s quiet, affordable, and a safe place for seniors like her to age in place.

But a letter she received this spring threatened to upend that stability overnight. It revealed that an out-of-state developer wants to buy Friendly Village—along with seven other mobile home parks spread across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York—for a combined $87.5 million. Friendly Village’s slice of that deal alone is valued at $22 million, and under Maine law, residents have just 60 days to organize and make a counteroffer if they hope to keep...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Federal mortgage giants are helping corporate investors acquire mobile home communities across Florida, leading to dramatic lot rent increases, a News 6 investigation revealed.

Florida leads the nation with 235 private equity-owned mobile home parks containing nearly 56,000 lots, according to data from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit research organization.

News 6 has been investigating rising lot rents at mobile home parks across Florida. Residents tell us corporations are buying their communities then jacking up the lot rent. In a lot of these mobile home parks, residents own the home but lease...

A proposed redevelopment of the Provo Towne Centre is sparking a myriad of questions and concerns among Provo residents, most specifically those who live within close proximity of the mall.

In May, the Daily Herald was the first to report that property owner Brixton Capitol submitted an entitlement application to the city that outlines plans to transform the indoor shopping mall into a mixed-use development that would include retail, dining, entertainment and housing.

The project is in partnership with Provo-based real estate development and investment firm PEG Cos.

The plan, which is still in the conceptual phase, was presented for the...

SABATTUS (WGME) — Mobile homeowners at Begin Estates in Sabattus are scrambling to get help after receiving notice that the rent they pay for their lots will increase by $150 per month.

The increase comes just as a new state law aimed at protecting residents from extreme rent hikes is set to take effect.

“They don’t care. They don’t care about the residents,” Suzanne Armstrong, who has lived at Begin Estates in Sabattus for 22 years, said.

Armstrong and her neighbors received a letter last week informing them that lot rent, which covers the land beneath their homes plus water and sewer costs, will increase to $580 per month starting Oct....

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - The Forest Park Mobile Home community in northeast Charlotte is at risk of being rezoned.

Developers are wanting to move in and make room for nearly 400 residential units, townhomes, and retail space. Which means each of the families that call Forest Park home, would have to leave.

When you enter the Forest Park neighborhood, you immediately get the allure. It’s quiet, plenty of shade from trees and enough space on each lot to really make it your own.

It sits on more than 19 acres and is less than 20 minutes from center city— that also makes it prime real estate to developers.

According to the people who live...

Real estate investors are increasingly gravitating toward niche asset classes that offer opportunities for outsize value creation, and manufactured housing communities are a prime example. As the largest source of nonsubsidized affordable housing in the country, MHCs play a vital role in the lives of tens of millions of Americans, yet they remain largely misunderstood and underappreciated.

According to the National Association of Home Builders’ recent report, 76.4 million households, or 57 percent of all U.S. households, are unable to afford a $300,000 home. This reflects a deepening affordability crisis, and one that continues to make it...

CHARLOTTE, N.C – Residents of Forest Park Mobile Homes are organizing against a development that would displace the entire Northeast Charlotte neighborhood of at least 60 families.

Leonel Chavez has lived in the community for decades. He says most residents own their mobile homes and invest tens of thousands of dollars into them while paying $500 a month to rent the land.

They feel anger, they feel saddened, they feel like they’re not being heard, they feel like they’re forgotten about,” Chavez said. “It’s my childhood home. It’s a lot of people’s childhood not only that, these are families that work hard to provide for their families and...

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Residents of the Kristana Mobile Home Park in Dewitt Township held a news conference earlier today, speaking out against what they are calling an “illegal eviction.”

Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center says that residents gathered to publicly oppose the eviction that has left them without running water and at risk of homelessness.

“All of us own our homes. We’ve poured our savings, time, and lives into them. What they’re doing to us is not wrong, it’s illegal,” said Kristana resident Jason Eldridge in a news release sent to 6 News.

“Families are facing an illegal eviction, carried out not through court, not...

CHAMBERSBURG — The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would regulate fees at mobile home parks in the state. 

Many residents have been seeing surprising increases in rent and other fees in the recent months, seemingly out of nowhere. 

A lot of the owners of the parks are out of state and incredibly difficult to contact.

The bill passed the House 144 to 59 yesterday.

Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “We were getting calls and emails from all over the country, people that were picking up on that story. The House has now implemented it. It goes to the Senate. This was a pretty wide margin that it passed by...

Momentum is building for community contributions to residents of two Roaring Fork Valley mobile home parks to purchase the land on which their neighborhoods sit. 

Pitkin County, city of Aspen and town of Basalt elected officials all committed funds for the Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley mobile home parks at their respective meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The county and the city both approved $3 million in commitments and Basalt decided to double its commitment from $250,000 to $500,000. Residents attended each meeting, expressing gratitude for the support. 

With a $1 million pledge from Atlantic Aviation announced last week, the...

Off Prosperity Church Road nestled near newly built townhomes, apartments and shopping centers sits a community fighting for its existence amid the weight of development pressures.

Last May, Leonel Chavez and many of his neighbors living in the Forest Park Mobile Home Park in northeast Charlotte were shocked when they received a letter from the property owner, Nesbit Oil Company, notifying them of their decision to sell after nearly 60 years.

Mobile home residents in Stanton won’t see any form of rent control anytime soon, as residents raise concerns over price hikes.   

Instead, Stanton City Council members say they’ll consider other support options.

Last week, council members voted 3-2 against holding a town hall to discuss rent control policies with residents from mobile home parks, with Councilman Donald Torres and Councilman Gary Taylor voting in favor of a town hall. Mayor David Shawver, who opposed the town hall, said it would give residents false hope.

Council members then voted unanimously to explore what other types of support and resources they can give...

A bill to further limit annual rent increases in many manufactured home parks and for floating homes in marinas has passed in both chambers and now heads to Gov. Tina Kotek.

House Bill 3054 passed Thursday out of the Senate 17-10 on largely party lines, with three excused votes.

If signed, the bill would restrict yearly rent increases in parks and marinas with more than 30 spaces to 6%. Smaller parks and marinas would still be subject to Oregon’s existing rent control law, which limits yearly increases to 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less.

Manufactured home park residents typically own their homes but rent the land on which it...

BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. — Mobile home park closures aren’t just displacing people — they’re erasing entire communities.

According to The Eviction Lab, each park’s closure further decreases the already scarce supply of affordable housing. Now, 83 families at Pines Trailer Park are experiencing that reality. Still reeling from the aftermath of back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton, they’re now battling a new storm — a legal one — as eviction notices appear on their doors.

The park’s owner is proceeding with plans to close the park for good, forcing many tenants, including Jason Woodall, to find new accommodations. Woodall, who just moved...

Friendly Village mobile home park in Gorham in April. Residents are attempting to buy the park but face competition from an out-of-state investment firm. Lawmakers sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would make it easier for more communities to purchase their parks. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)
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Lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to give mobile home residents the “right of first refusal” when their parks go up for sale, but it won’t go into effect quickly enough to benefit Friendly Village, a large park in Gorham awaiting a decision on its multi-million dollar offer.

The bill, LD 1145, was enacted in both the state...

The owner of the Forest Park Mobile Homes has decided to sell the property where 60 trailer homes are located. Developers who submitted the rezoning request hope to build roughly 400 apartments and add 25,000 square feet of commercial space.

It’s not rocket science that 400 apartment units is a higher use of land than 60 mobile home spaces. That’s always been the limitation to the mobile home industry – you can’t stack them.

More than 200 families at the Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater are now facing eviction, despite months of legal disputes and a mounting pushback from residents who say they won’t back down.

The owner of the property has officially filed eviction notices against 218 households that refused to leave by a previously set deadline of May 19. That date marked roughly seven months since residents were first told they would need to vacate the land so it could be redeveloped into affordable housing.

“We knew that this moment was happening,” said Enrique Zelaya, one of the remaining residents still fighting to stay.

Zelaya, who says he...

SCHOFIELD, Wis. (WSAW)— More than three years after residents vacated their trailers at Northern Mobile Home Park in Schofield the owner has failed to pay property taxes, allowing the county to take ownership of the land.

The owner owed more than $145,000 in back taxes and needed to pay at least $98,000 to retain ownership. The property is just more than 7 acres.

In March, the county began the process of clearing the remaining mobile homes at 281 Grand Avenue.

At its peak occupancy, about 60 trailers were on the property. In 2020, concerns about the property and the condition of the structures led to legal action. In November 2021, the...

The crisis impacting housing affordability stands among the most pervasive and complicated challenges facing the nation. In virtually every part of the country, housing costs have outstripped incomes. That’s left huge swaths of the population either rent burdened or entirely removed from homeownership. The crisis is most acute in the nation’s largest cities, but smaller cities, towns and rural areas are not immune.

“This isn’t just a question of economics,” says Jonathan Curtis, founder and CEO of Southern California-based real estate development firm Cedar Street Partners. “When people can’t afford stable housing, everything else becomes...