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WFXR TV: 13 Massie’s Mobile Home Park tenants head to Montgomery Co. court; Suing owners for water cut-off

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CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (WFXR) — More than a dozen tenants at Massie’s Mobile Home Park and Christiansburg-based Southwest Virginia Legal are headed to Montgomery County General District Court on Friday, Jan. 6, for a scheduled hearing against their trailer park’s current owners.

“I’m looking for respect, and for people to be treated like human beings,” said Jacqueline Snyder, a tenant in the lawsuit.

Southwest Virginia legal aid attorney Kristi Murray says this is all happening after filing 13 unlawful exclusion suits. They say their water was cut off back in November after park owners didn’t pay the bill.

“First not being able to take your...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This article is beyond stupid. Massey’s mobile home park sold because the long-standing mom and pop couldn’t manage the property any longer. The new owner paid a fortune for it and now requires people to pay their rent on time and keep up their property. And those 2% of the residents who take offense to living in civilized society don’t like it one bit. How is this news and why does anyone waste time on these type of stories?

North Platte Bulletin: Council tables small RV park over concerns about stringent requirements

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The North Platte city council wrangled for about an hour Tuesday about a zoning permit for a proposed small RV park on South Willow.

Merlin and Kelle Dikeman would like to create eight camping spots at 3501 S. Willow and erect a 40’ x 80’ building that contains a night watchman living quarters. The site is a couple blocks south of Goforth Trailer and Trucking at the corner of Walker and Willow.

The Dikemans said in their application that the building could be used to renovate and store old vehicles. Four of the campers in the outside stalls would be privately owned. The other four spaces would be available to lease.

The Dikemans said the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The Dikemans just want to build a nice little RV park. They trusted the city bureaucrats and it blew up in their faces. This is a testament to not only the dangers of greenfield development, but also the need for tighter due diligence and not letting people tell you things as opposed to getting them in writing.

PA Homepage: Montour County mobile home park water woes

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COOPER TOWNSHIP MONTOUR COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Residents of a Montour County mobile home park say they have had it with the ongoing water problems and reached out to the I-Team for help after they claim their concerns were not being addressed by property management.

Eyewitness News spoke with residents who are frustrated, disgusted, and some are downright angry. They say they just want to have clear, clean water once and for all.

“It’s been a frustrating mess and it always goes on. We’re at our wit’s end,” said Robert Hayden, a Pepper Hills Mobile Home Park resident.

Robert Hayden lives at the Pepper Hills Mobile Home Park near Danville. He...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Sounds like the park owner needs to replace the water lines. Needs to give the residents and the city and state the plan and timing, go to the lender and find a hardscrabble way to get it started. In the interim the tenants and authorities need to back off and give them time to get it done. Hiding from all of this doesn’t sound like it’s helping. But, to be honest, the reporter is so anti-business that you don’t really know if any of these assertions by the tenants are even true.

YES! Magazine: How Mobile Home Communities Are Adapting for Climate Change

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Charlotte Bishop was standing at her kitchen window in January 2019 when she saw water streaming into her yard. A block of ice had clogged the brook that snakes around the mobile home park where she and her husband Rollin live in Brattleboro, Vermont. Ice jams are not uncommon in Vermont, but the heavier rains and earlier winter thaws—both related to climate change—will likely cause more flooding in communities near rivers and streams. Bishop grabbed her keys and rushed outside to move their cars to higher ground. Within minutes, she was wading through knee-high water. 

Bishop lives in Tri-Park Cooperative, Vermont’s largest and...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This article is so boring that I was about to fall asleep and then I suddenly saw that the town was going to spend $7.9 million to relocate 26 mobile homes out of the floodplain. I hope that’s a typo from the magazine, because that works out to $303,000 per home. Here’s a better idea. Buy each of those mobile home park residents a custom home on the golf course, give it to them debt-free, and demolish those $20,000 mobile homes they were living in. It’s a win/win for the earth and at least does not insult the intelligence of anyone reading this article who had basic algebra.

Roswell Daily Record: City rejects zoning for mobile home park

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LORDSBURG — The City Council shot down a zoning variance from Ed Kerr, who was asking the city to allow a 1977 mobile home to be placed in Pyramid Heights after residents who were at the Dec. 28 meeting voiced their opposition to the variance.

“The ordinance itself should prohibit this trailer from coming in,” resident Eddie Parra said. He added that there are already two abandoned trailers that need to be addressed by the city, and questioned a park area that is supposed to be maintained by the City.

“Don’t put us in the position where we have to challenge the fact that we pay taxes. For what? What are we getting in return?” Parra...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This title is wrong, This is not about a mobile home park but simply a single 1977 mobile home. The city says it can’t be brought in because it violates their ordinances. The minimum mobile home age they allow is 1982. You can buy a 1982 mobile home for about the same price as the 1977. Sell the older home and buy a newer older home and bring it on in. Case closed.

ABC 10: Stockton mobile home without power since Saturday night

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The members of the 55 and older community said they can't use water, flush toilets or turn on lights because everything is powered by electricity.

STOCKTON, Calif. — One Stockton community is still struggling with power outages into Monday evening.

The Tehama Mobile Home Village Park a 55 and older community off Highway 99 and East Eight Mile Road. Residents say they have had no power since 10 p.m. Saturday night.

Overnight heavy winds toppled trees and knocked out power to some in the area. The extreme weather conditions even caused students with the Stockton Unified School District to miss two days of school.

The members of the 55...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Only in California would you see this quote “the members of the 55 and older community said they can’t use water, flush toilets or turn on lights because everything is powered by electricity”. I know that California is all about a green agenda, but since when can you not turn on a faucet or flush a toilet without power? I’m lost.

Fox 5 Atlanta: How manufactured housing can save America

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You finally graduated from college at 28, moved out of your parent's basement at 30, married your best friend at 32, and now she is pregnant. You’re 33, and now you want to buy a house and quit paying rent. But you’re squeezed between sky-high housing costs and rising interest rates.

Millennial couples are the largest single block of prospective homebuyers.  But during the pandemic, home prices in Georgia skyrocketed, and in 2022 borrowing costs more than doubled.

FOX 5 real estate expert John Adams says today’s millennial home buyers can get out of paying rent every month by buying a "manufactured house" from one of several manufacturers...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Some good stats and information in this article, but nobody is going to believe the statement the statement that “in 2022 the average single-wide in Georgia is $82,000 and the average double-wide is $158,700”. The reporter needed to do some more research on mobile home prices and should have included the used home prices which are around $15,000 and $40,000 respectively.

CBS Sacramento: West Sacramento mobile home community with at-risk residents spent days without power

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WEST SACRAMENTO — During severe storms, utility companies prioritize power for schools hospitals and customers' medical needs, but one local mobile home park's power was out for too long and the equipment necessary to keep some residents alive failed.

Valhalla Mobile Home Park has hundreds of residents, some of whom can't live for more than a few hours without power.

"I had heat in one room of the house so I survived," said Tom Madsen, a resident of the mobile home park.

The community of senior citizens lost power for days.

"There's a lot of people on oxygen CPAP machines and that's what we're worried about. What are they going to do...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This just goes to show the bias of the media against mobile home parks. The park lost power because the electric company had their lines go down. The park owner did nothing wrong. And the media is claiming that the park “has residents who cannot live for more than a few hours without electricity” and that somehow the park owner is responsible for that. If you truly can’t live for more than three hours without electricity you need to have a generator on your home in case the power goes out. If the tenant doesn’t buy a generator then that’s at their own risk. Don’t pretend that the park owner has any involvement in this story at all.

Coloradoan : Water main break leaves Fort Collins mobile home park residents without water

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A water main break at a Fort Collins mobile home community left several of its residents without water this week, according to the city, the community's manager and a resident.

Residents of the eastern section of North College LLC Manufactured Housing Community — a 55-plus senior community with roughly 320 lots — learned of the main break early Tuesday morning when they were greeted with dry kitchen faucets and shower heads around 7 a.m., according to community resident Patti Rosenfelder.

While Rosenfelder, 69, lives on the unaffected western side of the mobile home community — the largest within Fort Collins city limits — she said she...

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Our thoughts on this story:

So a part of a mobile home park had no water for two days because the water main broke. And the delay was caused by the city which mistakenly thought it was their main and told the park to stop work. And that intro leads the writer into a public shaming festival on the owner because he raised rents and enacted basic rules, like no beach towels in windows. What a world we live in.

Forbes: Building 3D-Printed + Mass Manufactured Homes Is 50% Faster, Produces 99% Less Waste, And Can Be 80% Automated

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The world needs two billion new homes in the next 80 years, the World Economic Forum said in 2018. The United States needs 3.8 million additional new homes just to meet existing consumer demand, Realtor.com estimated in 2020. And yet, with perhaps 600,000 people homeless in the U.S. and 40 million people living in poverty in the richest country on Earth, it isn’t just about quantity.

It’s also about price.

And, price to the planet. Construction is already the source of 40% of our carbon footprint globally. How do we house people effectively, efficiently, cost-effectively, and in a planet-friendly way?

According to innovative housing...

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Our thoughts on this story:

3D printed homes is a very interesting technology and I have no doubt it will one day be a big part of the U.S. housing market. But to get there you have to change a lot of ordinances and the Uniform Building Code. You also have to get the cost lower than $300,000 for a 1,500 sq. ft. house with 3D printing. I have seen articles on 3D printing in Europe that is really, really inexpensive. Don’t look at it as a cool way to build a beach house but instead find ways to create affordable housing with it and you’d have a winner.

Yakima Herald-Republic: At the mercy of the market: Yakima trailer park residents feeling the pain of higher rent

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Dora Flores pulls into a parking spot in front of her trailer house after picking up her grandchildren from school. The two boys run inside, splashing through a couple of small potholes. Flores takes a look at her home of almost 10 years and feels only concern. By the end of next month, she says, she may not have a home at all. 

Over the last year, Flores and her neighbors at Valley Community, a small trailer park in Yakima on the corner of Fruitvale Boulevard and North 16th Avenue, have faced steep rent increases, a new monthly water usage cap and now have to pay the city for garbage collection themselves. Residents have struggled to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The rent was $350 per month and now it’s $600 under the new owner. The park is in Yakima, WA and the average single family home is $290,300 and the average apartment is $1,435 per month. Any sane person would say “looks like the rent at $600 per month is too low”.

WGCU: Residents of Bonita Springs RV and mobile home park chased away as new owner takes over

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Finding a site to place an RV or camper at this time of year in Southwest Florida has always been a struggle. Add to that the number of RV and mobile home parks that were decimated by Hurricane Ian and the result is those that remain are packed.

Not so in Bonita Springs.

Gulf Coast Camping Resort right now looks like it’s in the throes of the summer doldrums and not the height of tourist season in Southwest Florida.

Noticeably absent are people tooling around on golf carts, walking dogs, or sitting outside enjoying the pleasant winter weather.

These days there’s only a handful of renters left at the once-bustling RV and mobile home...

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Our thoughts on this story:

A guy bought an old RV park for $5 million. His intention would appear to be to develop it into a different use. The residents don’t want to leave even though he has terminated all leases and told them to be out by 1/1/2023. Looks like he followed all of the laws and the tenants are trespassing and are violating his property rights – not the other way around.

Texas Public Radio: Mobile home residents buy their park, protecting themselves from eviction

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JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Private investors have been buying up mobile home parks across the country, threatening to raise fees or close the parks altogether. From member station WBUR in Boston, reporter Simon Rios takes us to a community near Cape Cod where residents decided to fight back.

BOB COSTA: How's everything going?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Good.

COSTA: Good - good to see you. How's it been?

SIMON RIOS, BYLINE: Bob Costa is like an unofficial mayor of Royal Crest Mobile Home Park in Wareham. On a recent afternoon, he walked through the park, saluting everyone he saw with a big smile.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: It's all right.

COSTA: You...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Another rehash of the residents in MA spending $80,000 per lot of a non-profit’s money to keep a professional owner from bringing their old park back to life to show them who’s boss

News 5 Cleveland: Retirement communities' fears over rising rent prompts letter from senator

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STARK COUNTY, Ohio — Neighbors in several Northeast Ohio retirement communities are grappling with drastic rent hikes after a company took over properties in Navarre and Elyria. The seniors, many of whom are living on fixed incomes, worry how they’ll afford to stay in their homes.

News 5 stories highlighting the concerns are now being cited by Congress in a demand for answers.

Monday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown issued a letter to Legacy Communities, LLC about the steep rent hikes at Navarre Village and Twin Lakes. He also sent one to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac, requesting a review of its...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Let me get this straight. The residents are mad because the new owner doubled lot rents for NEW residents moving in only but NOT for the existing residents. They claim this makes their existing homes harder to sell with the higher lot rent a new owner would have to pay. Perhaps the Senator would like to cover the rent differential if he feels that strongly about this ridiculous complaint. The residents could just pay the old rent and the Senator should pay the increase, right? If not, then he needs to shut up because he’s making a fool of himself.

Seeking Alpha: Manufactured Housing: Recession-Resistant REITs

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Summary
  • Manufactured Housing REITs snapped an incredible streak of nine straight years of outperformance over the REIT Index in 2022, impacted by headwinds from higher interest rates and hurricane-related disruptions.
  • Despite their REIT-leading growth rates, Manufactured Housing ("MH") REITs have historically been among the most interest rate-sensitive sectors due to their counter-cyclical demand profile and remarkable operational consistency.
  • While rent growth has moderated from record-high levels across other residential property types, MH revenue growth is poised to accelerate in 2023, driven by their under-appreciated...
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Our thoughts on this story:

Mobile home parks are the best sector in U.S. real estate. Couldn’t agree more. Great stats in this article. One of the few good ones in a sea of woke idiocy.

The Sonoma Index-Tribune: Mobile homes bolster Sonoma’s affordable housing stock

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When Moon Valley Residential Community lowered the age restrictions for mobile home residents from 55+ in 2009, Robert Caldwell became one of the first of a younger generation to benefit from the affordable home model.

When the Index-Tribune met Caldwell, he was putting away Christmas decorations from his double-wide manufactured home that he bought for $35,000 in 2010. He was jolly talking about the appreciation of his home after his neighbor sold their unit for upward of $100,000.

“For one, it’s cheaper than buying a home, because that’s gotten just ridiculous,” Caldwell said. “I think in the past, if you lived in a mobile park you...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The first part of the article was fine but then this typical California journalist promoted the concept that greater bureaucracy is the key to affordable housing. Isn’t California where city and state government tried to build new affordable housing units recently at $600,000 each? Why not let the free market do its thing and you could have affordable housing that does not rely on subsidies.

Maryland Coast Dispatch: Site Plan Approved For Mobile Home Park Expansion

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SNOW HILL– Plans for the expansion of a West Ocean City mobile home park moved ahead last week following approval by county officials.

The Worcester County Planning Commission last Thursday voted unanimously to approve a site plan for Salt Life Park. The project consists of a 34-lot expansion of an existing manufactured home park on Old Bridge Road.

“It’s really a nice continuation of the old park,” attorney Hugh Cropper said.

Cropper told the commission his client, Mark Odachowski, had purchased the existing park and started working to improve it. The 34-lot expansion is part of that improvement effort.

“It was really an eyesore,”...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This is exactly the way to get a park expansion approved – tie the expansion into an overall improvement in the original park. Then the trade off for the neighbors is that they can have a smaller but ugly property, or a slightly larger one that is not embarrassing to live nearby.

South Congaree landlord arrested for renting mobile home without a business license: South Congaree landlord arrested for renting mobile home without a business license

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SOUTH CONGAREE, S.C. (WIS) - A scrutinized South Congaree landlord was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly renting out a mobile home in a park that’s closing in two months.

Landlord Naomi Halter faces the misdemeanor charge of operating without a business license.

Tuesday morning a Lexington County judge granted her a personal recognizance bond, allowing her to await her court dates outside of jail without putting down any money.

The Town of South Congaree pulled her business licenses last August and her appeal failed in November.

In denying the appeal, the South Congaree Town Council triggered an ordinance-mandated eviction process for the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The city takes the park owner’s license away because her properties are a “drain on city resources” (translation: those kids in the park are costing $8,000 per year in tuition each) and then have her arrested when she is kind enough to rent a vacant home to a guy and his mother who need a cheap place to live. She needs a good attorney and then should sue the heck out of these bureaucrats – maybe personally and not just in their city capacity. Sure, the homes could be nicer and there’s no excuse for a leaking sewer connection from a home, but I see nothing in this video that would suggest anything that has occurred is in any way appropriate or proportional.

NBC 2: Lee County mobile home community still without water & electricity after Ian, 1,500 displaced residents awaiting answers

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LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Since Hurricane Ian, the Indian Creek RV Resort and Manufactured Home Community in Lee County still has zero water and zero electricity access in the park. 

“We moved here two weeks before Hurricane Ian and now we can’t move back in,” said resident Mike Jablonski. 

The park, according to residents, houses about 1,500 lots that were mostly full before the hurricane. 

“That’s 1,500 people now displaced,” said resident Clara Maggio.

The people in the park own their homes or RVs for the most part, but lease the lots at the park located on San Carlos Blvd, just over three miles from Fort Myers Beach. 

“That means they (Sun...

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Our thoughts on this story:

And this is why you don’t want to buy a mobile home park in a hurricane zone …..

Cape Cod Times: Judge makes decision in Pocasset mobile home park trial. Here's the latest

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BARNSTABLE — A Superior Court judge found on Wednesday that Crown Communities LLC is the rightful buyer of a Pocasset mobile home park.

The 15-page decision comes after a years-long legal battle between the Wyoming investment firm and the Pocasset Park Association, with both sides seeking ownership of the Bourne park, which is home to about 170 people at its prime location off Barlow's Landing Road.

"The Association lacked sufficient support (and authority) to exercise lawfully its right of first refusal and to purchase the park," wrote Judge Michael Callan, who decided the jury-waived trial.

In a statement to the Times, Walter B....

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Our thoughts on this story:

Another classic tale of park residents wanting to buy their mobile home park and failing miserably. They apparently cheated on the number of votes necessary to even start the process and the real owner and real buyer sued the tenants and the judge agreed that the tenants were wrong. Of course, in cases like these the tenants have no money to pay any of the legal fees involved or damages to the other parties. Had the roles been reversed, you know that the tenants would have sued the owner and buyer for $1 trillion.

Washington Post: In a trailer park, boxes deliver fresh produce and a sense of belonging

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His shoulders hunched against the raw wind and freezing rain, Gerson Lima trudged through puddles earlier this month with his 6-year-old son, Cristian. But they didn’t have far to go: It was just a few minutes’ walk from their trailer to the parking area where the food truck was parked. Every two weeks it brings ingredients for meals for the family of two adults and two children, who arrived seven months ago from Guatemala.

“It’s made a big difference,” said Lima, 28, one hand gripping a black umbrella, the other holding his son’s hand. “It’s helped a lot. It’s everything, especially now, because we just arrived and have no other...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Finally, a story with a purpose.

Voice of San Diego: Another South County City Is Regulating Mobile Home Parks

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On Tuesday, the National City Council moved forward with a new ordinance that will provide a temporary rent cap for all mobile home parks within city limits. The ordinance goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, and is good through the end of 2024. 

The decision to intervene in mobile home parks, which typically fall under state jurisdiction, comes after the Keystone Trailer Park increased its rent by 20 percent on July 1. Elected officials said the ordinance was a good first step but acknowledged that more work needed to be done to keep the cost of housing low. 

“It is long overdue,” said City Councilman Jose Rodriguez. “We need to make sure...

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Our thoughts on this story:

How dare this mobile home park owner raise rents by 20%! Sure, the rents are about 90% less than every other housing option in San Diego even after the increase, but that’s not the point apparently. I wonder how long it will take for the park owner to start calling land brokers to find someone to redevelop this parcel? Answer: not long.

WBUR: Big investors are buying mobile home parks — and upending the lives of residents

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John Piazza remembers when he first moved to Lee’s Trailer Park in Revere in 2000, after his rent skyrocketed in Boston.

Piazza fell in love with a 720-square-foot mobile home, finding it more spacious and affordable than his small apartment in the North End.

He said the park owners charge him just $575 a month for the lot under his home — a fraction of what he would pay in rent for an apartment in Greater Boston. He also paid $20,000 for the mobile home itself, far less than the cost of a traditional single-family home or condo.

The 84-year-old planned to spend the rest of his days at Lee's Trailer Park. But last year, the park was sold...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Another take on Lee’s Trailer Park, discussed above. And once again it makes the critical point that either rents go up or the wrecking ball comes in.

Flathead Beacon: Mobile Manipulation

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On the first day of December in 2018, Sharon Parmelee moved into Greenwood Village RV Park with her mobile home. She signed a month-to-month rental agreement and started paying $312 per month in lot rent fees in the park, which is located just outside of Kalispell city limits along U.S. Highway 2.

The mobile home park, which has roughly 85 manufactured homes and RVs in addition to a hotel and cabin accommodations called Greenwood Village Inn and Suites, is home mostly to individuals over the age of 50, many of whom are veterans, senior citizens or people living with disabilities on a fixed income.

About six months after Parmelee moved...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The average single family home is $448,200. The lot rent was $325 and now it’s $700. Residents don’t like it. They want the rent to stay at $325. The folks that bought all those single-family homes want them to go back to being $100,000 like they were in 1977. Neither is going to happen.

Salem News: Mobile home owners struggle to find insurance in 'dysfunctional' market

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ORMOND BEACH, Florida — The problems at Peggy Childress’ mobile home started in May when a tree from the vacant lot next door crashed through their carport, the first damage she or her husband, Mike, could recall in 15 years of living there.

Having the tree removed cost $600, all the money they had in savings. “It wiped us out,” said Childress, 61.

Then Hurricane Ian tore off their roof.

“It was like it was raining inside,” Childress said. Rooms filled with water, then mold.

Childress said she’s gotten estimates of more than $22,000 for repairs, “more than this place is worth.”

As is the case with many owners of manufactured and mobile...

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Our thoughts on this story:

A mobile home park resident has $22,600 in damage from two back-to-back storms and can’t figure out why nobody will give her another insurance policy. It’s called economics – not that complicated.