Rents spike as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks

AP ^ | 07/25/2022 | MICHAEL CASEY and CAROLYN THOMPSON

[DFG]

For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York.

That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast food joint and grocery store about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo.

Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads.

When that didn’t happen and a new lease with a 6% increase was imposed this year, they formed an association. About half the residents launched a rent strike in May, prompting Cook Properties to send out about 30 eviction notices.

“All they care about is raising the rent because they only care about the money,” said Jeremy Ward, 49, who gets by on just over $1,000 a month in disability payments after his legs suffered nerve damage in a car accident.

[subterfuge]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[millenial4freedom]

luckily, Ron Desantis is trying to put a stop to that in FL...

[DoodleDawg]

It’s called inflation and it infects everything.

It's called 'free market' and 'supply and demand'.

Thanks Joe Biden.

Thanks Adam Smith.

[qaz123]

Pretty much nailed it.

[plain talk]

Adam Smith had nothing to do with the root causes of inflation. Biden and the leftists contributed significantly to a doubling of gasoline which alone is a huge component in this unnecessary inflation.

[Rebelbase]

A few months after he bought an old trailer park in the mountains a guy I worked with told me, “never buy rental property where you have to collect the rent weekly”.

[CodeToad]

Someone, buying trailer courts and jacking rents just seems real mean, spiteful.

[DoodleDawg]

Biden and the leftists contributed significantly to a doubling of gasoline which alone is a huge component in this unnecessary inflation.

We've had periods where the cost of oil was higher than it is now and inflation was a fraction of its current rate. The causes of inflation are more complex then you realize.

[plain talk]

Of course - inflation is a complex multi-variable equation. I have dealt with complex things all my life.

But we know that a doubling of gasoline in a short period of time by itself will cause inflation as it infects the whole supply chain. There are many root causes at play but Biden’s regulations shoulder much of the blame.

[DoodleDawg]

But we know that a doubling of gasoline in a short period of time by itself will cause inflation as it infects the whole supply chain.

It is a factor in the current rate of inflation. But as I have said, we've had periods with higher oil prices but much lower inflation rates so your insistence that it is driving our current inflation rates is not necessarily correct.

There are many root causes at play but Biden’s regulations shoulder much of the blame.

There are many factors at play, that is true. For our current inflation it's likely that the seeds were planted when Trump was in office. Biden's policies certainly haven't helped and likely made things worse. International supply chain issues, COVID shutdowns, Ukraine, all play a part.

[plain talk]

Doubling gasoline in a year or two is not just “a factor”. LOL It is a major inflation trigger.