Mobile Home Park News Briefing

The Urban Grove manufactured home park in St. Anthony traded hands late last month, according to a certificate of real estate value published last week.

The 32-unit park sits at 2501 Lowry Ave. NE in St. Anthony, about a mile north of the intersection of Interstate 35W and Northeast Stinson Boulevard. It’s at the location of once embattled Lowry Grove, a now-defunct mobile home park that was the source of a contentious debate and lawsuit centered on efforts to block redevelopment of the park.

The Village LLC, a company tied to Brad Hoyt’s Wayzata-based Continental Property Group, sold Urban Grove for nearly $8.8 million on March 31. The...

Negotiations have failed between the land owner and the homeowners in the Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach.

A resident, who requested anonymity, informed The Islander of the development April 20.

Throughout the negotiations over the sale of the bayfront mobile home park at 103 Church Ave., residents have been instructed by attorneys not to publicly discuss matters.

The partnership, with Richard and William Jackson as officers, listed the park for sale Jan. 25 for $16 million.

As required by state law, they first offered the park to the HOA members for purchase.

The Florida Mobile Home Act requires a park owner to give 45 days’ notice...

FORT WORTH, Texas — Catherine DeLeon is rallying around her neighbors as they try to figure out how to make ends meet. Their new challenge comes because rent at their mobile home park in Fort Worth is jumping by hundreds of dollars. 

DeLeon lives at the K-Mar Mobile Home Park on the city's southeast side. It's something she never expected to deal with even after winning her battle against stage 4 cancer.

"We're all older. I'm 65 this year, and so there are other people that are older than that," DeLeon said. "You don't expect to have this kind of stress in your life." 

DeLeon is surrounded by neighbors who are all struggling with...

Residents of an oceanfront mobile-home park in South Florida rejected a $503 million buyout offer from The Kolter Group. 

Nestled between some of the country’s most expensive ZIP codes, the Briny Breezes community spans 43 acres, housing 488 mobile trailers on a barrier island in Palm Beach County. Structured somewhat like a co-op, each homeowner owns between 20 and 80 shares in the Briny Breezes township.

The proposal — which totaled $502,496,000 — averaged out to just over $1 million per owner, but residents deemed it too low and rejected the bid last Thursday, the Coastal Star first reported.

Kolter executives “thought they were going...

It’s no surprise that the listing for 247 Paradise Cove Road, a three-bedroom property currently on the market for $5.85 million, opens with a description of the views. “This open-concept home is located on one of Paradise Coves’ most desirable streets, offering stunning ocean views and ultraclose proximity to direct beach access,” the Zillow page reads. Of course, this makes sense given the home itself isn’t a mansion, a villa, or even an architectural gem—it’s a trailer. 

Located within Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park, the Malibu house’s neighborhood is widely considered the priciest trailer park in the country. The home at 247 Paradise...

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Residents at a northeast Fresno mobile home park have been given notice that they have one year to sell or move their trailers out of the La Hacienda Mobile Estates, formerly known as Trails End Mobile Home Park.

Now, tenants are worried they'll have nowhere to go and will end up homeless.

"I don't think there's a place in this town I can afford to rent on my income - on my social security," Leslie Wright said.

Wright is worried about where she's going to live this time next year.

About a week ago, she received a letter from the La Hacienda Mobile Estates saying the company was terminating the tenancy to...

The Catawba County Board of Commissioners unanimously rejected a rezoning request for a manufactured home park during their meeting Monday.

Skadoosh Properties asked the commissioners to rezone 31 acres at the end of Bush Drive near Conover from R-40 Residential to Manufactured Home Park for the purpose of building up to 74 manufactured homes at the site.

The Catawba County Planning Board was unanimously against the proposal for rezoning. They cited concerns about the septic system, runoff from the project and the ability of emergency services to respond effectively given the number of homes and the fact there is only one road...

Several residents of a Benton mobile home park are facing homelessness after the city purchased the land on which their trailers sit.

Residents of the Sunset Lake Mobile Home Park received a notice on March 7 notifying them the “landlord is terminating this lease and your tenancy in 30 days.” 

Sunset Lake Park resident Daniel Howard is one of about 100 residents who were told they had to leave the mobile home park.

Howard had lived in the mobile home park for 11 years. 

“I went from being a homeowner, to being homeless, that quick,” he said.

Howard said his only income he receives is from disability and social security. In...

PORTLAND, Ore. — When Gadiel Galvez learned that the owner of his mobile home park south of Seattle was looking to sell, he and other residents worried their largely Latino community would be bulldozed to make way for another Amazon warehouse.

So, they decided to form a cooperative and buy their park in Lakewood, Washington. With help from a nonprofit that advises communities like theirs and helps them secure loans, they bought it for $5.25 million in September.

"Everybody thought, 'You know what? … I'm going to make this place the best that I can,'" said Galvez, 22, who is a co-op board member. "Some people painted their homes, some...

When they finally got to the vote on the newest proposal for the seven-acre central area of Falcon Pointe – a housing development on the city’s north side that didn’t turn out as originally planned – East Lansing’s Planning Commission voted 4-0 to recommend the proposal to City Council. The latest proposal, to construct four three-unit rental dwellings fits East Lansing’s zoning law, and the commission is supposed to adhere closely to that question in their deliberations.

But the vote to recommend the proposal didn’t come without planning commissioners hearing from and responding sympathetically to present residents of the community about...

During the pandemic, many people took on home improvement projects while stuck inside. Now, some of those DIY skills might be coming in handy.

In general, renovations are taking 259 percent longer than they did in 2019, up from 22 days then to 79 days now, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Along with that, the costs of labor and materials have risen, and high demand has led to long wait times for construction to even start. As such, some go-getters have decided to take on the work themselves—to varying degrees of success.

“I think that going into this, we had the perception that we were very good DIYers,” Evan Moody told the WSJ. He...

On Wednesday night, city council defeated a proposed rezoning bylaw to facilitate the development of a modular home park on Twinberry Drive in the Hart.

Westcan Property Ltd. was seeking to rezone 11 hectares (27 acres) of the 52.4 ha. property at 9153 Twinberry Dr. to facilitate a new modular home park. Under the proposed zoning, a maximum of 220 mobile homes would be allowed on the 11 ha. area.

City council approved the first two readings of the rezoning on March 27, but rejected third reading of the bylaw on Wednesday. City council received 18 letters and emails from area residents opposed to the proposed development, one raising...

RV sales have slowed and fewer people are buying RVs than has been the recent trend. Has that changed campground crowding? Is it easier to find a campsite now, particularly in state and national parks? Campgrounds are changing and evolving, some for the better and some for the worse. RV Travel readers discuss their experiences and offer a few tips to help other campers find that perfect spot.

Here are a few observations from our readers.

Mariane B. sees full-time RVers at fault for crowding. She explains, “Camping used to be something you did on vacation or a long weekend, not year around with all the amenities...

A north Fresno mobile home park is set to close within 12 months, with several residents receiving new eviction notices last week.

Harmony Communities sent the notice to several renters demanding they leave the park within the next year. Some residents did not receive the new notice because they are already fighting the landlord on existing eviction notices.

The notice reads: “La Hacienda Mobile Estates, LLC … is exercising its right to terminate your tenancy for the purpose of permanently closing the Park.”

“We all knew it was coming. It was just a matter of time,” said a resident on Monday who did not want her name published.

Rumors...

EDWARDS – When Elizabeth Velasco first moved to Colorado from San Francisco del Rincón, Mexico, she was a teenager living in a series of aging mobile home parks in Eagle County – near the tony ski resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek, but also very far removed.

As a 15-year-old, Velasco says she was definitely aware of water-quality issues that have plagued mobile home parks in the mountains for decades. But as a 34-year-old political newcomer working to unseat an incumbent Republican last year, Velasco became acutely focused on “secondary” water-quality issues such as odor, taste and high mineral content.

“Here in New Castle, in Garfield...

Anyone interested in moving to this millionaire- mobile home-filled beach retreat are in luck.

Indeed, an exclusive Malibu, California neighborhood — which is actually a trailer park — currently has two live listings within its high-priced, celebrity-filled grounds. 

Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park may not sound like an elite, star-studded locale — but recent years have been boom time for the once-blue collar community, and today it’s considered to be America’s priciest trailer park. 

“You’ve got to have a lot of cash to be buying in there these days,” Coldwell Banker Realty agent Brian Merrick told the Wall Street Journal. “The ones that...

SANTA FE, N.M. — Affordable housing is nearly impossible to find these days. Mobile home communities make up a huge stock of that in New Mexico, and investors are taking notice.

It turns out, a law that’s supposed to protect residents, just creates more barriers. Now one Santa Fe couple will lose everything.

“Come on, stay up there,” said Santa Fe resident Aaron Dennis, while caring for his tomato plants in his greenhouse.

A home that’s become a labor of love – from the year-round picking and planting to the boards and nails that went into building it.

“It’s almost like a custom home to us now,” said Dennis.

The greenhouse in Aaron...

When Gadiel Galvez learned that the owner of his mobile home park south of Seattle was looking to sell, he and other residents worried their largely Latino community would be bulldozed to make way for another Amazon warehouse.

So, they decided to form a cooperative and buy their park in Lakewood, Washington. With help from a nonprofit that advises communities like theirs and helps them secure loans, they bought it for $5.25 million. Since becoming owners in September, everyone’s worked to make improvements.

“Everybody thought, ‘You know what? … I’m going to make this place the best that I can,'” said Galvez, 22, who is a co-op board...

THE RECENT op-ed by state Sen. Kevin Avard relative to gutting the balanced make-up of the New Hampshire Board of Manufactured Housing and expanding its jurisdiction missed the target.

SB 203 guts the membership of the board of manufactured housing and places the burden of resolving resident conflicts in resident-owned communities on the state. It allows the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (the lender) to nominate a resident to the board; removes the member of the N.H. Bar Association and replaces it with a housing advocacy member; and it removes legislative participation on the board. This does not create a balanced board in our view.

• The Navarre Village 55 and older community is lobbying Ohio legislators to establish a rent control policy statewide.
• Village residents are irked that their monthly property rental rate shot up to $425 per month from $355 under new ownership.
• About 150 residents attended a public meeting recently and may form a tenants association to lobby state officials on rent control.

BETHLEHEM TWP. – Betty Holland has been a content Navarre Village resident for 13 years, but her view took a turn last fall when new owners of her manufactured home community upped the rent.

"I've always felt happy and safe here. Then all of the sudden — wham!" said...

Over 2,200 resident survey responses found that the majority of QLD residents disagreed to the question “there is a clear and fair process for varying site rent”. Only 5% of respondents agreed.

The survey added to 52 submissions from home owners, manufactured housing estate owners and other interested parties made to the QLD Govt’s inquiry to improve its manufactured home parks.

The QLD Govt is seeking to address consumer concerns about site rent increases and unsold homes. An Issues Paper was released in June last year.

Manufactured home parks (land lease communities) have experienced steady growth in Queensland over the last 10 years,...

• Manufactured housing quietly provides deeply affordable starter homes at an average construction cost under $90,000, but is easily excluded by some communities.
• Manufactured housing remains a grievously underutilized, deeply affordable housing resource in Rust Belt cities with low land prices, and in rural areas in northeastern states
• Recent HUD code liberalization will open the possibility of introducing manufactured homes to cities with high land prices for the first time–if cities and states also lift their bans.
• Allowing manufactured homes to compete evenly with site-built is good for consumers and homeowners seeking...

The legal battle over more than two dozen trees felled at a Tampa mobile home park just ended in a court decision.

The tree cutting business will be fined $234,000, according to a City of Tampa memo.

The 2019 tree-clearing at the Life O’ Reilly mobile home park on Gandy Boulevard took down 28 trees, including nine large old oaks considered “grand” trees.

The incident — which dismayed tree advocates and was called an “egregious violation” by Tampa Mayor Jane Castor — came on the heels of a new state law barring local governments from regulating tree removal.

The city originally sought $420,000 each in fines from the park’s owner as well as...

The five people who were killed when a tornado barreled through their Missouri village were inside a mobile home or adjacent camper that were obliterated, authorities said Thursday.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol released the names of the victims. Glenn Burcks, 62, lived in the mobile home. Susan Sullivan, 57, also lived there along with her 37-year-old nephew, James Skaggs. Also killed were Sullivan’s 16-year-old granddaughter, Destinee Nicole Koenig of Sikeston, Missouri, and 18-year-old Michael McCoy. Koenig’s obituary said McCoy was her boyfriend.

The tornado strafed a 22-mile (35-kilometer) stretch of southeastern Missouri,...

If you’re considering downsizing your home, or just exploring alternative living situations, a mobile home might be a good option for you.

But a mobile home isn’t exactly like other types of houses. While the cost might be significantly less than a traditional home, you could have some other expenses to consider. Here’s what you need to know about mobile home costs.

In many cases, mobile homes are manufactured homes. These are homes that are constructed in a factory and transported to their location after being built. This is different from traditional home construction—or a site built home—which is...