My guess is that Attorney General Tong is trying to get some PR in Connecticut for a future run for Governor or Congress and decided that this was a good way to get some free publicity. SUN is one of the best operators in the mobile home park sector and I am willing to bet that Tong is making a fool of himself for pretending otherwise. The good news is that SUN has a large budget for legal fees and I’m betting Tong is about to find out that there’s a whole other side to this story built on fact and paper trail ad not just the verbal allegations of a bunch of tenants. 

Real smart to publicly shame a park owner who is trying to fix a broken water pipe but can’t get the part due to the “supply chain crisis”. When this owner shuts down and redevelops the park into a different use in the future, I’m sure he’ll tell the same newspaper “I’m shocked you didn’t see this coming as you were responsible for it”. Not sure if the writer did any research on this topic, but the City of Jackson in Mississippi has not had water in five months now https://www.foxnews.com/us/jackson-mississippi-preparing-go-without-water-periodically-for-up-10-years-crisis-continues.

Interesting idea but I’m a bit confused on the mechanics. Doordash charges a big fee for delivery and these people who need assistance have no money – so who is paying for this? The writer needed to give better specifics, but I’m all for new ideas if they actually help someone.

One more reason not to buy a mobile home park in Washington (as if you needed one). Of course, it’s a good idea to buy a demolition company because all of those parks are going to make great pad sites for Home Depot if this rent control law passes.

As the State of Washington is debating rent control, some woke journalist put this story in the paper to attempt to sway politicians that rent control on mobile home parks is a good thing (see the above story). I’m sorry, but it you look at the articles by economists on the impact of rent control, they unanimously conclude that it’s a complete catastrophe in which nobody reinvests capital since you can’t get it back.

This article wins the dumbest media insertion of the week.

When pushed as to why the park owners shut the park down after the city and residents united to sue to block the rent from being increased, the owner gave the quote of the week: “the park has been operating at a loss for several years and has been fighting to keep this park open so no resident will have to move. The reality is the land is worth much more than operating an RV Park for affordable housing.”

When will people learn that low rents = park redevelopment? Apparently never.

Yet another State of Washington article designed to sway politicians that rent control for mobile home parks is a great idea (a clearly unified woke journalist effort). I hope the politicians actually read this one though, as the park is being torn down for a mixed use development since the rents are too low ($250 per month lot rent in Washington State – seriously?). You can’t have it both ways. Either you get higher rents or parks get torn down. Your choice, politicians of the State of Washington.

Since there are no mobile home parks in most of these countries, can somebody please explain …

Mobile Homes Market Regional Analysis:

The research study covers North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa on the basis of productivity, thus focusing on the leading countries from the global regions. Our report also provides a deep dive into the consumer behavior and preferences, which can help businesses understand their target audience better.

Did AI write this? Better proof it in the future.

Not sure if Attorney General Tong knows who he is dealing with, but SUN is one of the largest and best REITs out there, with strong management and great properties. When the facts come to light, I’m betting Tong regrets this publicity stunt.

You gotta love the audacity of California bureaucrats. This is a terribly rundown park that is being sold for $2.7 million to a developer. But the city doesn’t want it to go. So they’re dreaming up alternatives. One they like a lot, apparently, is to force the seller to instead sell the park to the city. So here’s their logic:

Given that figure, the pro rata value per mobile home pad is $60,750. Compared to the high six-figure cost of building a single unit of affordable housing, the city’s purchase of this property makes economic sense. 

Here’s a better, more Midwestern approach. Give every household in the park $60,750. Tell them to locate to a less expensive area and buy a stick built home for cash for $60,750 and live their lives free of rent or mortgage payments. Where can you find homes for $60,000? Small towns all over the U.S. Based on the photos, these residents are currently living in dilapidated travel trailers and 1950’s units. My proposal would be a blessing for all involved.

I understand that the industry wants to change its negative stigma, but let’s just give up on the old argument on what you call a mobile home. This article is all about a couple prominent financial podcast hosts daring to use the words that all Americans do when describing the industry: “trailer” and “mobile home”. The article states “In all languages, definitions and the meanings of words matter. A “manufactured home” is not a motor home or trailer, and although it is often called a “mobile home,” it is not that either.”

Here's the problem. The people have voted and the winner is “mobile home”. Why do I say that? Because Google analytics show that 90%+ of all searches on-line are using the words “mobile home”. And “trailer” scores just as many searches as “manufactured home”. You can’t argue with those stats. That’s why the people who are the most vocal about using “manufactured home” use the words “mobile home” in all their on-line marketing. Pretty hypocritical, huh?

Those podcast hosts used “trailer” and “mobile home” because that’s how their audiences refer to the product. If I invented a new term for mashed potatoes called "manipulated carb units" and then put that on grocery store shelves, I wouldn’t sell any because nobody would know what I’m talking about. You can’t blame any speaker for using the terms that their audience uses.

Before the internet, the discussion on what we call mobile homes was interesting. Now it’s just stupid.

OK here’s another one:

Less than five months after owners of the trailer park at 1915 Marion Road SE announced plans to develop the site into a senior housing complex, most occupants have either been evicted or removed as trespassers.

So let me get this straight: mobile home parks can be developed into other uses? Gee, maybe that would mean that residents need to applaud higher rent to keep them from being shut down and redeveloped?

Until the residents and media understand that the park owner is not bound by law or duty to be in the “trailer park” business – and that all land has a higher and better use – there will be a constant stream of these articles.

The City of Blaine is working overtime to come up with a politically correct way to tell mobile home park developers to go jump in the lake. Here’s the classic quote from this article “The people I know who came to the meeting aren’t antidevelopment,” Leeland said. “They’re, ‘Let’s make sure the development aligns with things that are good for Blaine.”

Obviously, the city would like to say “no” but in today’s politically correct America they can’t be honest, so instead they are working on a response that talks about the benefits of affordable housing yet still says “no”.

If you own a home in Volusia County, Florida, you better sell it as fast as you can for whatever you can get. Can you imagine the decline in property values when you suddenly make mobile homes legal on thousands of acres in your county? Although this is not a “mobile home park” story – as none of this land is legal for mobile home parks but only individual mobile homes on land – it goes to show how stupid bureaucrats can be. Not sure that city employee started this concept, but I imagine that every single-family home in Volusia will be listed on Realtor.com shortly.

Let’s first address the concept that rents are high at this park. Here’s the stats for Killingworth, CT: SF homes average $411,000 and apartment rents are over $2,000 per month. Although the article refuses to state what the rents are now or what they were in the past, unless they’re $1,000 per month then they’re too cheap (based on the old rule of lot rents needing to be around 50% of apartment rents – which has no scientific basis at all).

As for the complaints about the property’s maintenance, let’s look at those complaints again:

“One disabled resident complained of a large beehive in front of her porch. The management company said they did not have money in their budget to remove it. The tenant paid herself to get it removed. Another tenant complained that her stairs lacked rails and were loose. She reported that maintenance agreed they were dangerous, but management has yet to fix them.”

Are you serious? That got the attention of the Attorney General of Connecticut? He must be really, really bored. The article does not even state if the homes belong to the tenants or the park (I’m betting the tenants) in which case those issues are not even a part of the park’s responsibility.

SUN is one of the best operators of mobile home parks in the U.S. They are a REIT. There are two sides to every story and I would personally bet that SUN’s story is the correct one – which this journalist chose not to share it at all.

“The main reason Mobile Home Parks are hot investments is that Mobile Homes are not mobile. It can cost as much to relocate a manufactured home as it would to move a stick-built home. The terms “Mobile Homes” and “Mobile Home Parks” falsely portray these homes and homeowners as portable.” DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE? The writer obviously has zero investing skills. What they are alluding to is that mobile homes can’t move and therefore the residents are extremely stable and tolerant of rent increases. People live in mobile home parks because they are cheaper than all other forms of housing, and they stay put because of that simple theorem. It’s not solely because the homes are difficult and costly to move.

No affordable housing concept works unless it is 100% subsidy-free. This one was not. Mobile home parks are. They operate without subsidies of any type. Yet they get no public acclaim for doing what bureaucrats have failed to do for the past century.

Kind of funny to see the shoe on the other foot. The State of Texas leased this guy’s land for 50 years and when the lease ended he decided to sell it for $110 million to a developer. Maybe Texas should have paid a higher lease amount? Sounds kind of like the typical mobile home park article these days, right?

What neighborhood would not want to have the land next door filled with homeless people and a sign that says “A Kzoo Pod Community – A Place of Dignity”? I bet you $1,000 that not a single person on the Kalamazoo committee that is promoting this concept lives anywhere near this proposed disaster.

Better get ready for a ton more articles that start with this mantra:

“Dozens of people living at the North Cheney Mobile Home Park are now fighting to save their homes, as a plan to develop the property could force those living there to find someplace new to live.”

If the media and those who live in mobile home parks don’t get with the program and realize that low rents equate to “development land for sale” signs going up then they are in for a big shock.

And it’s also worth noting – since this journalist has zero real-life experience – that the residents cannot block the park owner’s right to develop the land into any use they want. The city makes that pretty clear when they state “"He talked about standard multi-family housing, he talked about a commercial space for some mixed use, concept, his representatives at the committee meeting, they were non-committal what the final site will actually look like," said Mark Schuller, city administrator for the City of Cheney.

City fathers celebrate when mobile home parks get torn down, so if the residents are looking for some help in that regard they are completely out of luck – which is one more reason that people need to stop trying to block higher mobile home park lot rents.

It seems the utmost of hypocrisy when the same media outlets that publicly shame park owners for raising rents and bringing old properties back to life suddenly make out like mobile home parks are a valuable resource. Here’s the key quote from this article:

“Even so, the uncertainty — the specter of receiving notice at any moment that she may have to leave, like those who lived in the 15 now-unoccupied spaces before her — gnaws at her. The future of Cedarwood, located at 189 Main St. in Layton, has been the focus of public debate since the summer of 2021, when news emerged that Provo-based owner Boulder Ranch wanted to vacate the park, which contains around 70 trailer spaces in all, and redevelop the site.”

If you don’t want more Cedarwood stories, the media and residents need to cut out all the complaints about park rents going up and instead embrace those needed changes and be thankful the park is not redeveloped – because if rents don’t go up, then all parks ultimately close for redevelopment.

AT LAST, AN INTELLIGENT CONCEPT FOR IMPROVING AMERICA’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING STOCK! This is the kind of thinking that helps everyone – have the state help re-build failing infrastructure and re-populate vacant lots. Note that the entire State of Vermont program is 1/10^th what California is paying for just one 100 household community. Will somebody please give Governor Phil Scott an award?

Let’s focus on just this paragraph to begin with:

“In case readers aren’t yet aware, some out-of-state rich people — through private equity organizations — are buying up manufactured housing communities like mine, Elkview Mobile Home Park, and raising the lot rent to unconscionable amounts. I’ve owned my home for fourteen years and my lot rent never exceeded $225 per month. When one of these groups bought our community in 2022, they gave residents a 60-day notice, right before Christmas, that they were raising our rent from $225 to $525. That’s an 130 percent increase in just two months’ time.”

The average apartment in Princeton,, West Virginia – where this park is located – is $924 per month. So if $535 is “unconscionable” then what adjective applies to $924 per month? “Abhorrent”? “Extremely unconscionable”?

Here’s where all these articles fall flat. We live in the U.S. and our system is called “capitalism” which is completely different than “socialism”. In the U.S., the “free market” is what we rely on, and if people don’t want to pay $525 at Elkview then they should move to a place they feel is a better value for them. But it is not the right of the government to try to tell private property owners what they can charge. That’s a hallmark of “socialism”. Let’s compare this to a hamburger at McDonald’s. If the quarter pounder is $3, and you don’t want to pay $3, then you can go to Burger King and pay $2. But you can’t petition the government to force McDonald’s to reduce their burger to $2. Only mobile home parks face this type of insane criticism – probably because they don’t advertise in the media while McDonald’s does.

What is “sewage overflow” – just an event of a sewer back-up from a clog. Does it only impact two families in a giant park? If this was not a mobile home park, would it even make the news? The answer, of course, is “no”.

The city is spending about $70,000 per household to keep the rent lower by a few bucks? Read this quote from the artidle: “this amount will help keep the lot rents reasonable,” Harris-Shears said. “Residents will still experience an increase in their lot rent, but this stabilizes and reduces that impact.” So the rent will be no lower after the residents buy the park in all likelihood – possibly higher. Here’s a better idea: give each household $70,000 in cash and that will cover their lot rent – regardless of amount – for the next 15 years (if you include interest at 4% in a CD). What a bunch of idiots!