Mobile Home Park News Briefing

CASPER — When Lynette Grant woke up in late October to a notice detailing a 56% jump in rent taped to the door of her mobile home, it didn’t take long to start questioning why the increase was so drastic — and how it was even allowed.

Grant worried what the surge from $400 to $625 beginning in January 2026 would mean for her neighbors in Westside Mobile Home Court in Mills on fixed incomes and brought her concerns to a city of Mills work session in November, where she was informed the city had little power to help the community.

In the aftermath of the lot rent increase notice, Grant’s research pointed her to a glaring issue for seeking...

The San Jose Housing and Community Development Commission is recommending not to raise rents for residents living in the city’s 58 mobile home parks.

A majority of commissioners on Thursday didn’t support a proposed 10% increase to space rents once a mobile home is sold. The city Housing Department proposed the increase as a way to provide more revenue for capital improvements as it updates its decades-old mobile home rent policy. Commissioners voted 9-4 to accept only changes to the policy that conform with Assembly Bill 2782, which ended long-term leases from being exempt from excessive rent hikes.

Under the existing policy, property...

This year, after more than seven years of planning and construction, the first Ponderosa Mobile Home Park resident to get a home through a partnership with the City of Boulder and Habitat for Humanity moved into her new net-zero triplex.

Across the street, a similarly sized two-bedroom house is selling for about three-quarters of a million dollars. But the Ponderosa resident, who wished to remain anonymous, paid less than $200,000 for her home. 

“I’m very fortunate, I realize,” she said. “To be living in Boulder in an inexpensive home is pretty amazing.” 

Hundreds of Bell residents protested against the plan to close two mobile home parks during the city council meeting on Wednesday. 

The city of Bell owns both of the mobile home parks, which house about 300 families. The plan aimed to redevelop the land into new affordable housing, seniors homes, retail, restaurants and entertainment spaces. 

Residents expressed their concern that they'll lose their homes and possibly be priced out of their neighborhoods.

"A lot of folks just found out about this decision," protester Clarisa Perez said. "A lot of folks are scared to lose their homes, especially during this holiday season."

In a statement,...

Matthew Clevenger and his family signed a rent-to-own lease on a mobile home at Greenmount Station in April because he said the property manager told them about a “new promotion” that would allow them to pay it off in half the time. The owner, a limited liability company called Homes of America, would apply the $600 lot rent the family pays to lease the land, as well as their $500 monthly payment for the trailer, toward the purchase price, he said.

But Homes of America recently sent notices informing Greenmount Station tenants it is ending all rental leases. Renters can either buy their mobile homes from the company or will be required to...

Residents of Fairfax County’s manufactured home communities pressed county leaders yesterday (Tuesday) to do more to protect the properties from redevelopment and those who live there from displacement.

“We don’t want to be moved out of the county — we’d like to stay in our homes,” said Denia Moya, a resident of the Harmony Place Mobile Home Park (8018 Richmond Highway) in Hybla Valley.

That Route 1 complex of about 70 homes is one of seven manufactured-home properties totaling 1,769 units across the county. Typically, residents own the homes but rent the land, leaving them vulnerable to redevelopment and increasing... Read More

JAY — When the Select Board meets this Monday, it may have enough information to move ahead on a request to limit rent increases on mobile home lots.

At its Nov. 24 meeting, the board asked Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere to consult with the town’s attorney on whether state law allows Jay to regulate such rent hikes.

“I’m hoping to have the information back from our attorney in time for the meeting (Monday),” LaFreniere said Wednesday. “It’s complicated because other municipalities that have acted have different forms of government, so we need to find out just what we can do as a town with a Select Board (and town meeting and manager) form...

For years, factory-built homes have been treated as housing's last resort: the “trailers” you drove past on the edge of town, not the place you aspired to build wealth.

That stigma is now colliding with a new reality. As home prices and construction costs keep climbing, everyone from federal lawmakers to celebrity designers and community-based nonprofits are suddenly looking to off-site construction—homes built in factories and assembled on-site—as a way to add more housing, faster and at a lower price point.

In Washington, DC, that shift is crystallizing in the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act of 2025, a...

The top Senate Democrat on the congressional Joint Economic Committee launched a new probe Monday into investment firms that hold large stakes in mobile home parks.

Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire has asked six firms to produce internal documents and materials showing the impact their business practices have had on mobile home residents and the profits their investments have generated.

About 22 million people in the U.S. live in mobile home communities across the country, and in recent years, investment companies and private equity firms have bought up many of the parks.

The firms that received letters include some of the biggest...

A mobile home park in North Charlotte is being sold to developers, resulting in the displacement of the large immigrant community that have called the park of 60-plus lots home for as long as 20 years.

Forest Park Mobile Homes is located in a rapidly expanding and sought-after area. The nearby I-485 loop allows easy access to the rest of the city, and the Prosperity Church area offers walkability to small businesses, a Publix, and a movie theater.

Wood Partners, the developer who is purchasing the Forest Park land, filed a rezoning petition with the City of Charlotte to demolish the mobile homes and replace them with multi-family units,...

Tenants were forced to leave the park on Nov. 17, months after the city of Toledo first condemned the property in May.

In California, mobile homes make up to 6% of the state’s housing stock. With as many as 300,000 homes in 5,000 mobile home parks in the state, they play a critical role in providing affordable housing. But state laws and efforts by for-profit developers to buy up mobile home communities are putting this kind of housing at risk. We talk to experts about the challenges mobile home owners face.

Guests:

Bruce Stanton, general counsel, Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League

Mary Currie, resident, Marin Valley Mobile Country Club

Randy Keller, advocacy manager, manufactured home parks acquisition, California Center for Cooperative...

San Jose mobile home residents say the city blindsided them by proposing changes that will increase rents.

The Housing Department is considering an update to its mobile home rent policy that would include a one-time rent increase up to 10% whenever a mobile home is sold, among other changes. Under the existing policy, property owners are allowed a 3% to 7% rent increase on each parcel every year. Anything more than that will require city approval, and they can’t increase rent to market rate prices except when the property is abandoned, the resident is evicted or when a sale falls through.

Residents said the city conducted no outreach to...

CHESHIRE — Improvements at the Berkshire Village manufactured home park are mostly done, according to its owners, but residents say the fixes are the bare minimum and more must be done. 

Last week, Crown Communities' Justin Damore, who is the lead engineer on the repair project, explained the renovations to the Cheshire Select Board, which acts as the park's rent control board. The fixes, which are mostly concentrated around the park's septic system and were flagged by the state Department of Environmental Protection, must be complete before Crown can raise rents on the park's tenants, many of whom were in attendance. 

Damore, who...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver says he wants to eliminate a 51-year-old federal law that drives up housing costs.

Representative Cleaver (D-MO) said the Housing Supply Expansion Act of 2025 would remove a requirement that forces manufactured homes to include a permanent chassis - even after installation.

Cleaver says removing the chassis requirement would:

• Lower construction costs
• Increase design flexibility
• Open more locations for affordable housing
• Help young and low-income families buy homes

Housing affordability has become a major issue in the Lehigh Valley, but a new land-leased housing development in Lehigh Township could offer a solution for some homeowners.

The Sam Del Rosario Group at SERHANT is marketing the new development being built by Valley Community Management.

Northwoods Homes will ultimately be a 200-home residential community on more than 60 acres in Lehigh Township, Northampton County.

Jared Surnamer, president of Valley Community Management, said as a second-generation manager of land-leased properties, he believes Northwoods will bring affordable living for many families.

Most of the homes, which are built...

Residents of Shady Oaks Mobile Home Park in Arundel are bracing for a sharp rent increase set to take effect December 1, raising fears that dozens of seniors and low-income homeowners could be forced out after the town declined to intervene.

Roughly 70 households own their mobile homes but rent the lots beneath them, currently paying between $530 and $680 a month. Tenants say they were notified that rents will rise by as much as $130 per month – a jump many say they simply cannot afford.

Longtime resident Jennifer Moreau, who relies on a fixed income, warned that “a whole other group of our population is about to be homeless.”

Residents...

Loudoun’s Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board says the challenge of finding affordable living spaces could potentially be addressed in part by tiny homes, after the Board of Supervisors this year commissioned a study of the issue. 

As housing prices increase, supervisors are hoping there might be a way to use tiny homes to address the concern. According to the county staff, in 2025 the average price for one-bedroom unit in the county is $348,650, while a two-bedroom unit is $464,335. 

The county government already offers various attainable housing programs including the Affordable Dwelling Unit Purchase Program, but that has a...

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors unanimously shot down controversial mobile home park management company Harmony Communities’ attempt to increase rent at two local mobile home parks through a hardship request.

“When revenue fails to keep pace with inflation while expenses grow dramatically faster, the long-term viability of the community is at serious risk,” Harmony spokesperson Nick Ubaldi said. “The proposed rent adjustment is not about generating excess profit; it is the minimum necessary to allow the park to keep up with inflation and remain sustainable.”

To close the gap, rent increases were on the horizon for tenants...

Dozens of residents gathered at the Mobile Hope complex Saturday night to join solidarity vigil for the 85 families who are being displaced by the closure of the of Leesburg Mobile Home Park.

In July, park residents began receiving letters requiring them to vacate the property by the end of the year. The property owner, David Gregory, offered cash incentives of up to $6,000 to encourage early movers and $10,000 in relocation assistance. The residents were in a similar position in 2022, when the previous owner had plans to sell the 7.2-acre parcel to developers. Gregory stepped in to make the purchase, intending to provide the residents...

A California law meant to boost affordable housing has set off panic in Bay Area mobile home parks — some of the last truly affordable housing in a region where single-family homes sell for $2 million (1) and the median rent is $3,179 a month (2).

Last winter, I got an intriguing story tip: Many Wisconsin manufactured home communities were operating with expired licenses. 

I didn’t initially know much about these communities, often called mobile home parks, where residents own their homes but rent the land they sit on. I quickly learned they provide a critical source of affordable housing in Wisconsin and beyond — the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. 

Housing experts and advocates told me private equity’s growing interest in the model threatens to change that. My reporting found that Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for...

AY — When JoAn Gray moved to a mobile home park on Lambert Street 12 years ago, she figured it would be the last time she would have to move.

Now 82, Gray is worried that a recent $50 a month lot rent increase could be just the beginning of higher costs. Her park recently sold, and she’s worried out of state owners won’t keep up with needed improvements.

“I know there are people in that park that are barely skimping by right now,” Gray said. “This to me is really scary.”

Gray is one of several mobile home park residents who hope their local select board will implement a moratorium to slow down lot rent increases. Waterville and Sanford...