Wall Street Investors Target Mobile Home Parks, at Huge Cost to Tenants

American Greatness ^ | 26 Jul, 2022 | Eric Lendrum

[MtnClimber]

Major financial investors on Wall Street have set their sights on a new target for acquisition, buying up mobile home parks across the country only to raise the cost of rent and other fees that mobile home owners must pay.

The Daily Caller reports that such investors include private equity firms and real estate investment trusts. These buyers have turned to purchasing mobile home parks and raising rent for tenants who are either stuck at a low income or are actually disabled.

One state that has been affected is Minnesota, where out-of-state purchases of mobile home parks nearly doubled between 2015 and 2021. In 2015, just 46 percent of the state’s mobile home parks were purchased by out-of-state buyers; in 2021, that percentage skyrocketed to 81 percent. Over the course of that six-year period, rent at such parks rose by as much as 30 percent.

In Iowa, Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Bellus claims that the number of complaints from mobile home owners has increased “100-fold” in recent years.

“These industries, including the mobile home park manufacturing industry, keep touting these parks, these mobile homes, as affordable housing. But it’s not affordable,” Bellus said to the press. “You’re putting people in a snare and a trap where they have no ability to defend themselves.”

Another state that has been devastated by this trend is Montana; one such park is Havenpark Communities in Great Falls, which has seen the cost of rent rise dramatically since 2020. One resident, Cindy Newman, said that her monthly rent had previously cost just $117 in 2020; since then, it has gone up to $400.

George McCarthy, CEO and president of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, revealed that corporate investors have been spending the last eight years buying out mobile home parks

[MtnClimber]

They're ugly and square, they don't belong here.

They look a lot better as beer cans. - Jimmy Buffett

[RoosterRedux]

Well-run mobile home parks can be very profitable. Several in my area have been purchased by national businesses at prices that appear, on the surface, to be much higher than one would expect (i.e., out of alignment with other RE prices).

[Vision]

The residential home market is meant to house people; should be protected from this sort of thing.

[pangaea6]

You will own nothing and be happy. Land is going like crazy

[DEPcom]

“The residential home market is meant to house people; should be protected from this sort of thing.”

Rent control?

[RoosterRedux]

Wall Street Investors Target Mobile Home Parks, at Huge Cost to Tenants

Mobile home park owners raise rents to market levels. So what?

If rents are more attractive for investors, other parks and lots will open ASAP...and rents will see downward pressure as supply expands.

That's the nature of mobile homes...and economics.

[Fido969]

Individuals would buy the trailers, and then pay rent to the park for using the land. Rent has been creeping up, and was recently in the $400 range. Now they've jumped, typically in the $700-800 range.

If the park owner arbitrarily raises the rent, the tenant is stuck, they have an investment in the trailer, and it's difficult to move it away, especially if its am older trailer that might be fragile.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

Tapeworms gotta tape. Nothing else is paying out, for them.

[Vision]

No. The residential housing marketing isn’t a vehicle financial markets should be able to acquire and squeeze for money.

[Dr.Deth]

Makes sense. Tyrants are against homes, mobility for the common folk.

[Tupelo]

We looked at a manufactured home in one of the “Retirement Parks” near out daughter’s home in the Phoenix area. My first objection was the small ..tiny.. very tiny.. microscopically tiny lot. But since we are nearing 80 and I have CHF, we thought, well maybe. Then the on site agent quoted us the ‘new’ lot rental fee(s) of damn near a grand a month, we politely said, “adios”.
While thinking, “Are you Freeking Crazy?”

[RoosterRedux]

Without the profit incentive, the housing market as we know it wouldn’t exist. Banks, real estate developers, and investors may be looked upon as vampires, but without them, we would be living in log cabins built by hand.

[Oystir]

I live in Florida. I can think of 4 trailer parks within 5 miles from me. All are on fantastically expensive property. Oh, and some of the trailers cost over $300k.

[Vision]

You’re misrepresenting what I’m saying.

[Pollard]

Blackrock doing the same with single family homes and Bill Gates is doing it with farmland. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4081278/posts

[Boomer]

I see nothing wrong at all in living in more affordable mobile home type housing. What I always thought was an unwise investment is a mobile home in a park where you have to pay rent knowing it will never go down; always up so even if the home is paid for the tenant is stuck paying rent forever.

Plus they are a kind of HOA which I also avoid like it’s the plague.

[HighSierra5]

So Jimmy Buffet said that? Isn’t he a liberal?

[Vigilanteman]

The Black Rocks of Wall Street, having priced the middle and lower middle classes out of the traditional housing market, are simply working on the next level.

[Noumenon]

There are counties that have limits on the age of trailers that they will allow on properties. Already existing ones are grandfathered in, but don’t even think about moving it.