Posted on 06/10/2025 9:31:54 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
Another reason why old people are not giving up their paid-off homes, even if they are “too big” for them.
I have a friend who has an apartment in a senior citizen community in S.C. She's in her mid 80's and pays $3500 a month. She complains about the food all the time, doesn't eat it, but is still charged for it. She sold a brand new home she had built in northern South Carolina and moved into the community about 4-5 years ago. Her rent goes up every year.
I never owned a home. I raised two sons by myself in apartments. By the time I could have afforded a home, they were getting ready to leave the nest. I'll be 78 in August, and I'm glad now at my old age that I don't own one with my kids ending up having to get rid of it when I die, because neither of them would want to own a home themselves.
I have a two bedroom apartment with living room, dining/kitchen area, central air, one bathroom, two large walk in closets, a double closet in the second bedroom, a small pantry in the hall, dishwasher, garbage disposal, stove, fridge, water and trash pickup free. Pay my own internet, gas and electric. I've been here 24 years or more. My rent is $570.00 a month. The highest they have ever raised my rent was $25 dollars, which was last year. Prior to that, my rent went up $10 or $15 a month every two years or so. I'll never move from here. They'll have to carry me out.
A friend of mine liked to say “A good lawyer will save you more money than he will cost you.”
The trend of investment firms targeting mobile home communities as an asset/investment, is a newer phenomena. It hasn’t happened like this before, in the numbers of purchases, before. Thats exactly why most people living in them aren’t expecting it or their tactics they employ after acquiring the communities.
Condos are the most expensive form of housing.
Depending on where she lives, the insurance premiums have more than doubled.
I know a townhome community that went from 190K to over $300K in just one year for their master insurance policy.
Condo assessments cover landscaping, utilities, insurance, management, amenities, legal, exterior maintenance, roofs, etc. If someone lives in a high rise, now you have staff, elevators, fire suppression systems, boilers, chillers, and more.
There is no limit for condos, typically. If something breaks, they need the funds to fix it.
In the case of this woman, she was in a senior living facility. That is different from a condo. Condos are controlled by a homeowner board. Senior communities are run by for-profit companies.
She bought the unit. She pays a monthly maintenance fee.
Don’t know what her particular fee covers, but some of the senior communities have pools, clubhouses, staff, even medical staff, do landscaping and exterior repairs, etc.
Some costs, like insurance, utility rates, statutory compliance, are going to be beyond management control. But this much of a hike? Something is seriously wrong.
[[She told NBC News that her monthly maintenance surged from $1,395 to $6,500 —]]
What the? We dont spend that per year on home mantainance! What the heck ars they doing to,chsrge that much? Replacing the shingles on the rooves every month? Painting gold leaf on the homes? Crikey!
Her place was sold. I don’t see how she can ensure limited fees if the place is sold from under her.
And many mobile home parks don’t allow mobile homes older than a certain number of years.
Name names ; when the guy increased the cost of the epi pen by this order of magnitude (365%) several years ago, he was shamed into rolling it back. I believe, for one, he was hauled before congress.
“I just want people to know not to believe a damn word anybody says,” she told NBC News.
“Your money is not safe.”
Sad, but true!!
Unpopular position, but I agree. A house is an asset until you try to sell it. Cheaper to rent, invest the difference.
It’s bad enough where you “own” your own property.
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You mean you snd the taxi authorities
It was a she I think.
Doesn't apply if the properties sell to a new owner. This happens more than I realized when some friends moved to Coeur D'Alene, ID, and built their dream home. Dunno how it works, but it's like a golf course development. They have to pay fees like an HOA and the new owners raised the fees to where my friends are anticipating their next move. This move was supposed to be their last.
It might be a mobile home park where you own the home but rent the land it's on.
HOAs are rip offs period. If you to live in one of those communities then you get what you get.
Ih , no. Monopolistic purchases to inpose monopolistic pricing should be 100% illegal. “Fees” to use your own property are RIDICULOUS. It is no more justified than “property taxes”.
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