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Residents at San Lazaro Mobile Home Park just outside Boulder's city limits are hoping to become Colorado's 20th Resident-Owned Community, or ROC, under a state law that gives mobile home residents the opportunity to purchase their park when an owner decides to sell.
For families like Maria Ramirez's, the effort may be the only way to afford to stay in their home.
"It's our little home... We have nowhere else to go," said Ramirez, who addressed our crew in Spanish.
Ramirez has lived at San Lazaro Mobile Home Park with her family for nine years. The entire community, reported to be 213 homes, is now up for sale with an asking price of...
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Ramirez said she currently pays $950 per month in rent and worries she would struggle to afford more. She fears that if another buyer purchases the property, longtime residents could eventually be forced out.
This park has around 200 lots and the sales price is $42 million. That’s over $200,000 per space. Let’s do some math together. If that loan is at 6% interest, then $42 million at 6% = $2,520,000 per year. That works out to $12,600 per lot per year. That $950 the tenant is paying IS NOT EVEN ENOUGH TO COVER THE INTEREST ON THE LOAN, NOT COUNTING PRINCIPAL PAYMENT AND A 30% EXPENSE RATIO. At a $42 million sales price, the lot rent will have to be at least $2,000 per month. That’s just simple math. And that’s the number the lot rent will have to go to whether the park is bought by the tenants, Bernie Sanders or a private equity group. This nonsense that tenants can magically keep lot rents down is absurd and only a woke idiot would think that works.