Mobile Home Park News Briefing

Gov. Josh Shapiro visited a Berks County manufactured housing community Wednesday to advocate for legislation that would cap annual lot rent increases for Pennsylvania’s manufactured home households.

That’s welcome news for residents in communities such as the Village at Fox Crossing in Forks Township. They own their manufactured homes but not the land they rest on.

A years-long legal dispute finally ended when developer Jim Seitz lost the land to his bank, which then sold it in December to Macungie resident Jason Danweber.

The tenants worried for years whether a new owner would raise their rents. Danweber told lehighvalleylive.com he...

About three years after applying for it, Whispering Pines mobile home community in Lee Township was granted a renewal of its operating license by the State of Michigan on Friday.

Whispering Pines general counsel Steve Cherin provided the Daily News a copy of the license, which will expire on Oct. 1, 2027. The license, issued specifically by the state's Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) department, indicates that Whispering Pines, at 227 West Olson Road, has 106 property sites and is operated by Akshita Banerjee.

After eight months of fighting to keep their mobile home park and even finding a potential new buyer, residents of Forest View Mobile Home Park in Blue Island will move out by the summer, said their attorney, Krisann Kuecher.

Residents said in October they found a buyer for their property who could revitalize the park, but by the end of February the owners of Forest View Mobile Home Park Inc., decided to not move forward with that sale, said Kuecher and the owner's attorney, Charles Zivin.

The park is managed by Mer-Car Corporation.

"Residents are deeply saddened and feel these profits are being made at their expense," Kuecher said.

FREEDOM — Residents in Freedom approved a new ordinance regulating mobile home parks during the town’s March 13 election, establishing a detailed framework that will guide how such developments are proposed, reviewed and built in the rural Waldo County community. The measure passed by a margin of 116 to 57 and takes effect immediately.

The newly adopted ordinance creates a comprehensive regulatory system governing the creation, expansion and operation of mobile home parks within the town. Town officials said the intent of the measure is to protect public health and safety while still allowing mobile home parks to serve as an important...

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – Residents from manufactured home communities across the region came together on Sunday for a meeting about climbing costs and deteriorating living conditions.

The meeting follows Local 4 reporter Kyla Russell’s series of reports spotlighting some issues impacting the neighborhoods.

Most recently, Local 4 covered an issue facing the Rudgate Manor neighborhood in Sterling Heights. The park has seen a near 85% increase in lot rent since the current owners took over, according to resident records.

When an estimated 20 million people live in mobile home parks across the nation, residents say the rising prices are...

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Rockford city officials will consider a proposal this week that could transform a long-standing South Main Street mobile home park into a modern, long-term RV and fifth-wheel community.

The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals will hear the plan at the March 17 meeting, before it heads to the Code and Regulations Committee ahead of the full City Council.

The property, located between the Rock River and Klehm Arboretum on S. Main, currently operates as the Riverview Mobile Home & 5th Wheel park, a decades-old, grandfathered mobile home community that was annexed into the city in 2001.

Over the years, deteriorated and...

CONCORD, NH — Merrimack County Savings Bank, known as The Merrimack, provided a $25,000 contribution to the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.

This funding is intended to support affordable housing initiatives across New Hampshire. The donation specifically targets assisting low- and moderate-income families in acquiring new, energy-efficient manufactured homes.

The contribution was made possible through the Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) tax credit program. This program allows New Hampshire businesses to receive a state tax credit for 75 percent of their contributions to qualifying economic or community development...

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — Voters in Lake Worth Beach and Boca Raton have rejected proposals tied to development and control over public land, emphasizing the importance of keeping community spaces under public control.

In Lake Worth Beach, voters were asked whether the city should have more flexibility to partner with developers, which would have allowed leases on some public properties, including areas by A-1-A, to extend up to 99 years without returning to voters.

City leaders argued that this change could help bring investment to aging facilities, but opponents contended it would take power away from residents and that public spaces...

Looking for a new place to live wasn’t something Pat Cook expected to be doing at age 84.

Her home for the last 12 years, Warwick Township’s Plateau Village Mobile Home Park, was where she expected to live out her retired years with her four cats and a close-knit group of neighbors that look out for each other.

“I thought this would be the last place I lived until I went home with the Lord,” she said.

Residents of the Old Hellgate Village mobile home park are hoping to land a federal grant to replace the property's outdated septic system – a move that would save them big on their monthly lot rent.

Missoula County this week approved a $187,000 request from NeighborWorks Montana to serve as matching funds for the grant application. The funding comes from the county's Housing Innovation Fund.

“If they're able to pull together all the funding and get the project completed, it would significantly reduce out-of-pocket costs residents have to pay for their monthly lot rent,” said John Wilke, the county's housing specialist. “It'll keep 34...

For months, former residents of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates have feared the uncommunicative owners of the property would seek to displace them in favor of a more lucrative development deal after the Palisades fire destroyed the rent-controlled, roughly 170-unit mobile home park.

A confidential memorandum listing the Bowl for sale indicates the owners intend to do exactly that.

The memorandum, quietly posted on a website associated with the global commercial real estate company CBRE, says that the Palisades fire created a “blank canvas for redevelopment” at a site “ideally positioned for a transformative residential or...

The Lilly Belle Mobile Home Park, a small, family-owned property near Elmore’s Corner east of Durango, has been put on the market.

The listing follows a statewide trend of manufactured housing consolidation, as smaller, family-run parks are increasingly sold to larger regional or national property owners.

For residents, such sales can threaten the affordability of their housing, often through potential rent increases. In La Plata County, at least four mobile home parks have recently purchased their land collectively and formed resident-owned cooperatives – a model that can help stabilize rents through shared ownership.

That option does...

Searsport voters approved an ordinance on Saturday that limits rent increases at mobile home parks. The measure passed 67-12 at the annual town meeting.

The rent stabilization measure will apply to all three of the town’s mobile home parks. Parks that are owned by a cooperative or have passed a stricter agreement restricting rent increases are exempt.

Under the new ordinance, park owners may raise lot rents only once each year. In general, the ordinance limits rent increases to the most recently posted annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index plus 2%. But owners may be able to charge a higher increase in rents or fees if they...

OTTUMWA, Iowa (KYOU) - A mobile home park built for a large-scale meditation event at Maharishi International University is closing after 43 years.

Utopia Park’s 176 trailers were originally constructed in six weeks and intended to last only six months. Last July, MIU took back management of the park. An inspection of every trailer found many homes beyond repair.

Jeremy Brenin, MIU vice president of operations, said the closure was not a quick decision.

“The decision to close the park wasn’t made lightly at all. It was a lot of coordination, a lot of discussions internally about whether or not we should even, you know, go this route,”...

The Santa Paula City Council approved an urgency ordinance on March 4 to restrict how often a mobile home park can increase rent in a year.

Residents at the 400 Mobile Estates are upset park owners attempted to increase rents twice last year.

“This is in part due to the stress and limbo this whole process of repeated rental increase applications has caused residents, especially because the proposed rent increase was significant enough that it would displace many families,” said Jennifer Hernandez, an associate policy director for Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, before the March 4 meeting.

UPDATE, March 3: Fort Collins City Council gave final approval to creating a mobile home park licensing system and creating new requirements for park owners during their March 3 meeting.

The measure passed unanimously.

ORIGINAL STORY: Fort Collins is planning to increase city oversight of mobile home parks by creating a new licensing system and requiring park owners to be accountable for needed maintenance.

There are nine privately owned mobile home parks in city limits and an estimated 1,400 homes within them, according to city data.

Five other mobile home parks are located just outside city limits in Fort Collins' growth management area...

Residents at a mobile home community in Antioch, Nashville recently staged a public protest, calling out their property owner for ignoring repeated attempts at communication.

Since Jones Estates acquired Suburban Mobile Home Park in 2021, according to Fox Nashville, households report water charges soaring from manageable amounts to bills reaching several hundred — and in some cases several thousand — dollars (1).

A newly enforced two-vehicle limit per household resulted in cars being towed, with families paying about $500 to retrieve them. Management's response to mounting complaints? Effectively nothing.

This pattern of corporate...

Gwen Elliott from Blaine returned to work after 30 years at UPS because she could no longer afford her rent. George Zuccolotto in Northfield was promised no rent increase, then received new fees for water and trash — resulting in $180 in additional costs over three years. Sammi Silver watched her Lake Elmo rent spike 40% over five years. 

These cases reflect a systematic pattern: out-of-state operators buying Minnesota manufactured home parks and implementing aggressive rent increases on residents who own their homes but rent the underlying land. Because relocating a manufactured home costs thousands of dollars, residents face limited...

The Fortuna City Council will meet in a special session today, Monday, March 2 at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 621 11th Street. The posted agenda includes a closed session to discuss potential litigation connected to Royal Crest Mobile Home Park and its owner, Storz Management. This is the latest development in a months-long dispute over space rent increases.

As Lost Coast Outpost has detailed in prior coverage, the conflict is about rising rents at the park. The City is being asked to consider a permanent rent stabilization ordinance but is concerned about legal exposure if stronger laws are enacted inacted. LoCO’s reporting lays out the...

OAKLAND, Maine (WGME) -- Residents of manufactured home parks in Oakland are urging town leaders to adopt a rent stabilization ordinance.

Residents from three different manufactured home parks say they've seen a series of lot rent hikes and deferred maintenance by their park management.

The Maine Labor Climate Council says families have been left with unresolved maintenance problems, safety concerns, and housing instability.

PALATKA, Fla. – A growing housing trend in Northeast Florida is expanding beyond single-family subdivisions and into manufactured housing, as developers look to meet demand from renters priced out of homeownership.

In Palatka, land clearing is expected to begin within 60 days for The Cove at Silver Lake Mobile Home Park, a 56-unit community of newly built manufactured homes — all available for rent.

“We’ve been working on this development for about two and a half years now,” said Apryle Melvin of KOP Realty, the developer behind the project. “Now that we finally have the green light and everything’s been approved, we’re ready to roll on...

A 19-acre mobile home park which offered some of the most stunning views of the Santa Monica Bay before it was incinerated last year in the Palisades Fire was quietly listed this week with the owners hoping the property fetches as much as $90 million, Page Six Hollywood has learned.

The Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estate is located just north of Temescal Canyon on the hillside across from Will Rogers State Beach. In the 1950s the property was converted into a mobile home community, and as Westside property values started to soar starting in the early aughts, the Pacific Palisades Bowl and the neighboring Tahitian Terrace mobile home...

Phillips Mobile Home Park, a mobile home park that Pitkin County purchased in 2018 for affordable housing preservation and possible future development, was re-zoned yesterday following a regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners. 

The subdivision is intended to align actual land uses with land use code. The land was developed prior to current land-use code and is thus designated as “non-conforming.” The updates would change this. 

“The ordinance that approved the purchase of the subject property, the 2018 version, contemplated the division of this land for the purposes of maintaining the existing workforce housing or even open...

Residents of several mobile home parks in the Twin Cities suburbs say federal immigration agents are still lurking around their neighborhoods, and that they often don’t see high numbers of supporters when people are arrested. 

Residents and activists say there are special challenges at mobile home parks — they’re usually secluded from surrounding neighborhoods, they don’t receive as much attention as other residential neighborhoods, and they often have one or few roadways leading into the park, making it easy for immigration agents to choke off residents’ access to exits.

“It’s not as crowded here, there’s not as many people that can...

PALMDALE — The Mobile Home Park Rental Review Board on Wednesday will review its annual compliance report, which focuses on local parks’ compliance with the City of Palmdale’s rental control ordinance. 

Palmdale’s Municipal Code Chapter 5.44 determines that rents for mobile home spaces are regulated to protect mobile home park residents from “excessive” rents while also allowing park owners to receive a fair return for their investment.