Look at these photos and tell me who in the world is idiotic enough to pay $2 million for a mobile home in a setting like that? By any unit of measure these are the worst values in American real estate. No offense to Montauk fans but is that really the best you can do with $2 million on the East Coast?

I know nothing about this case and have never seen the property, but I had a similar experience in Texas in the 1990’s. Turned out that the city had never bothered to subtract the individual tenants’ meter readings (for which they paid the city directly) from the master meter reading. They’d been doing that for decades. The amount they had overcharged the park was probably a million dollars. Cities make mistakes and – with scale – those mistakes can be gigantic. Before they shut this park owner’s water off, the water dept. better investigate what he’s saying because if he’s correct his damages against them will be crushing.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law that offers additional protection to mobile home park residents, who often face eviction or sharp increases in land lease costs when mobile home parks change hands. As Lacey Leonardi explains for Spectrum Local News, “Landowners cannot be prevented from selling. The new law means homeowners in the parks – most of them own their trailers and rent their spaces – now have the first right of refusal to purchase the land.” Manufactured housing provides a significant pool of affordable housing in the United States, but residents often lack protections when park owners decide to sell or hike prices. According to a press release from the governor’s office, the legislation also authorizes mortgages and mortgage pool insurance for manufactured homes. “This legislation will help homeowners in manufactured home parks safeguard their affordable communities, without unduly hindering unopposed investments in manufactured home parks,” the press release states.

When virtue signaling bureaucrats get together at the National B.S. Convention one of the top ten concepts is giving a “right of first refusal” to people who cannot even remotely afford to buy the property. Resident-owned communities account for something like .009% of all mobile home parks in the U.S. And probably only .001% of those were accomplished within the first refusal time frame, but instead were enabled to get the deals closed via multiple extensions from an accommodating seller.

Kathy Hochul forgot to mention that the reason that so many mobile parks are being torn down and redeveloped right now in New York is because it passed rent control so there’s no reason not to knock them down and build new real estate uses that are not encumbered by those rent controls. If you really want to help mobile home park residents (not just pretend to be doing that) you should repeal the very rent control that is causing the wrecking ball to swing wildly, leaving those residents homeless.

This was not a hard one to call – just read my predictions in past issues. When you pay $25 million for 12 acres (which works out to $2 million per acre or $46 per square foot) the buyer is going to tear the park down, not introduce a new mobile home park prototype with a lot rent of $5,000 per month. There should never have been any question as to the future of the property.

In some cases, development can be delayed or eliminated with higher lot rents, but in this case that was not an option because of the park’s location. Some parks were born to be a temporary use, and this tract is one of those situations.

If the roles were reversed – and an all-age park wanted to convert to senior – the city would agree in a heartbeat.

What’s at stake here is nothing more than protecting city dollars. The city does not want to pay the cost of tuition of the tens of students that would move into the park at $10,000 per year per kid in school costs. Seniors don’t have any such expense and that one item could saddle the city budget with literally a $1 million a year loss in tuition alone (assuming just 100 kids) from this one park.

So, could we please cut out all the virtue signaling and just tell the truth?

The headline says it all:

When 80-year-old Gordon Hastings moved into Glenbrier Park 15 years ago, he paid $320 monthly rent. Now he pays more than $700.

But here’s the problem. That’s only around a 5% per year increase – and that’s not much more than inflation.

The cost of virtually everything is America has gone up more than 5% per year since 2008.

Does nobody have basic math skills anymore? Do these journalists at least have access to calculators???

Here’s the basic article boiled into two sentences:

The sales prices of new mobile homes rose much higher than those of traditional, stick-built houses, according to a recent report from LendingTree. The online financial services marketplace found that the average sales price of mobile homes shot up 77.1% between 2017 and 2022, compared with 46.7% for single-family homes (excluding the land).

The problem is that the reason that mobile home prices in this study are up is probably not re-sale but new home prices that nearly doubled from manufacturers between 2017 and 2022. Virtually nobody bought a mobile home in 2017 and then sold it in 2022 for a 77.1% gain, right? The numbers for mobile home sales in this report are probably based on new home sales only, which is probably the only data that the government could attain.

Replacing an equestrian center with a mobile home park is kind of like tearing down a Rolls Royce dealership to make way for Kia. That being said, all real estate has a higher and better use. And horse stalls do not rent for as much as mobile home park lots (which rent for less than apartments so that’s where this property probably ends up in 20 years).

You guessed it – another article about “evil” park owners destroying lives with $50 rent increases. Except this one is different: the “evil” park owner is the country itself.

And when they were questioned about the increase at a county meeting, they didn’t mince words:

Commissioner Kent Becker said “commissioners look only at what the dollars are”.

That pretty much sums it up without a lot of B.S. 

If a park owner had said that they would have been tarred and feathered by the media.

The bottom line is that mobile home parks are income properties, and they only survive when they are the most profitable use for the land. Even the bureaucrats have figured that out in Hillsboro, Kansas.

Another park being torn down for a new and better use of the land. And, in this case, the residents are suing claiming that they want more relocation money and freebies. Maybe they should have been as aggressive about pushing the owner to charge higher rents so they would not be cut loose?

So here’s the deal. A park owner is raising the rents in a park in Olympia, Washington – just down the street from the Walmart Supercenter – from around $500 per month to around $750 per month. Olympia has an average single-family home price of $472,500 and an average apartment rent of over $2,000 per month. That new lot rent seems ridiculously low, right? Well, not apparently to the residents of Tumwater Mobile Home Park.

“I never thought it would happen here – with the history,” said John Stockman, a resident of 10 years. “We’re talking 50-60 years of [local] ownership.” Translation: “We like the old owner because he never raised the rent – even though he obviously should have”

With a record of monthly rent increases averaging just $10 to $15 a year, Western Plaza had presented itself as a forever home. Translation: “We thought we were going to get away with robbing the old mom and pop blind forever”.

Thurston County Assessor’s Office records show Legacy Communities paid $9 million for the park — more than double the amount it was priced at in 2008. Translation: “rents are going to have to go up a lot to justify the value of the land and the cost of running a business in a modern world”.

“It feels to me like society is just kicking Grandma to the curb,” Lucas said. “That’s how it feels – kicking Grandma out on the street. And I think that we’ve reached the point now where all of these elders are threatened with homelessness. This is elder abuse, and we as a society need to address it as we need to make some changes.” Translation: “We can’t really justify how this new rent is not still ridiculously low so instead we’re going to try and distract you with veiled threats of litigation and this false narrative that a $250 per month escalation in rents is going to make all seniors homeless so that maybe a politician will try to pass rent control really fast”.

The bottom line is that nobody likes higher rents but, in this case, they are more than justified.

And I urge you to look at where this park is located in Olympia vs. where the Walmart Supercenter is located at. I would imagine that the rent will have to be $1,000 per month shortly to have any hope of staving off the wrecking ball for a new retail center or $2,000 per month apartments. Translation: “you better hope for more increases because the alternative is redevelopment”.

Have you heard this narrative before? 

Owners Joy and Eddie Hanks purchased the park in 2020 for $600,000 along with several adjacent properties, according to property records. They revealed in July this year plans to construct “Digs on the River,” a 23-acre project to include apartment buildings, commercial and restaurant spaces, a boutique hotel and potentially a boardwalk down on the bank – but no trailer park. Those within the park, encompassing over 30 trailers, will be forced to move sometime after July 31, 2024, with 90 days' notice. 

Yes, it’s the fourth such article this week regarding parks being torn down for a higher use of land. If you want to stem this tide the simple solution is to make mobile home parks a higher use of land. And you only get there with much, much higher lot rents. As I’ve said a thousand times, low rents = redevelopment.

But here’s also a narrative you’re seeing a whole lot of this week:

Many claim their requests to meet face-to-face with the Hankses have been met with resistance. Morse, a resident of five years with her fiance and two young children, said discussions with the couple were “making progress” until about a month ago when Joy Hanks requested any further questions be sent in writing and declined to meet in person.“I just want to have a conversation,” Morse said. “I just want to have a real, human conversation, and I’m a businesswoman too. I plan to be perfectly professional, and I don’t want any conflict that she thinks will happen.”

Mobile home park residents and bureaucrats think they can talk owners out of making smart financial decisions. The problem is that only money talks in the investment arena. The owner is not going to meet with the residents because it’s pointless and only opens the door to litigation in a screwed-up America. If the rents had been higher there would not have to be a meeting and the park would continue on as part of that mixed use development. With apartment rents at $2,000 per month on average – and you can stack them two of three high – mobile home park lot rents would have to be triple the U.S. average in many cases to even dent the rate of speed you are seeing parks close down.

Yes, the same tired narrative as the above article. And, yes, the goal here is for the media to brainwash you that all rent increases are “evil” and all park owners are “evil” if they regurgitate the same article 100 times in a row.

More government and non-profit stupidity in action. Cotati, California is going to stop a park from changing from senior designation to all-age because they are afraid that having freedom of competition will force rents higher:

Concerned that an all-ages conversion could drive up rents if dual-income families were to move into the retirement-aged community, Countryside residents called on the city council to act before a state mandated six month grace period on the all-ages conversion expired in February, 2024.

Smart move. So now it’s pretty much guaranteed that the park will be torn down to make way for more profitable uses.

No, wait, not another misguided non-profit in action? This story pins the “stupid meter” in two key ways:

1. The city thought that spending $3.5 million to save 11 mobile homes from being torn down was a great investment. I mean, that’s only around $300,000 per household to save a $3,000 dilapidated mobile home from demolition, right? In non-profit world that must be a great use of taxpayer money (assuming you’re a complete idiot) but do you really think that those 11 families would not prefer receiving $300,000 in cash each so they can go buy a brick home in a subdivision and get out of that old, high-density park?
2. The genius at the city that offered the $3.5 million to mom and pop just found out that the park was only worth $1.5 million and they have been “had” to the tune of $2 million. Boy, I never saw that coming.

So now what do the virtue signalers at the city do? I’m sure the only solution is to go ahead and pay the $3.5 million and spend another $2 million to build a solar array to make it more environmentally sustainable.

Another story about a mobile home park being torn down to make way for a more profitable use for the land, probably because the rents were ridiculously low. Predictably, the park owner is blamed for the demolition and the resulting “homelessness” – but also would have been equally blamed if they had raised the lot rents high enough to keep the park intact. There’s no winning with the American media today so why worry about it?

I hate to throw cold water on this stuff, but tiny homes are never going to be a permanent solution to housing issues. They are too small and depressing to live in on a full-time basis. At 400 sq. ft. or smaller they are about the size of a hotel room. I know few people who could live their lives in a hotel room happily. On top of that, they are way too expensive for their size. If you hate mobile homes due to the stigma, at least consider a 5th wheel with pop-outs which are still far cheaper than a tiny home to buy but have the same sq. ft. You can get a used 5th wheel for as little as $3,500 (look at RV Trader’s website) and then when you can’t stand “living small” anymore you can sell it for $1,000 and walk away from it. With a tiny home you are stuck with tens of thousands of debt and a tiny market of interested buyers.

Here’s the Cliff Notes version of this article:

“As the housing crisis in New York continues unabated, one demographic is being unexpectedly targeted by developers. Pre-existing infrastructure for water and sewer and cleared acreage at trailer and mobile home parks makes them an attractive acquisition for any developer. Many New York manufactured homeowners have already lost their homes to developers, including a lot in Saratoga County and on Long Island. New York state elected officials say they’re seeing an increase in the development strategy, so they’re working to help give the homeowners some power through new legislation. Landowners cannot be prevented from selling. The new law means homeowners in the parks – most of them own their trailers and rent their spaces – now have the first right of refusal to purchase the land. So if the owner of the land wants to sell, residents can collaborate and match the purchase price."

Great fiction writing. Here’s the reality:

• Only about .0001% of the time are the tenants successful in matching the price and closing on the deal.
• The bureaucrats only added this meaningless law to appear like they have power, because they have none. Even though New York has rent control it has no power to block the sale of land.
• In fact, it’s exactly the new rent control laws of New York that are causing park owners – in bulk – to redevelop into uses that are not rent controlled.

So how could the bureaucrats really help park residents if they wanted to? Simple:

• Abolish rent control.
• Stop harassing park owners who raise rents to meet market levels.
• Offer tax incentives for those who sell and keep the park in operation as opposed to having it torn down.

Think this will ever happen? Are you kidding me – this is New York!

Watch the news story video – look at the condition of this property -- and tell me if anyone with an IQ higher than a lima bean would even remotely believe that this land is worth $25 million as a mobile home park use. Clearly, it’s going to be redeveloped into a better use, right? I am forever blown away that people have zero understanding of basic economics.

It’s a good thing that non-profits don’t rule the world as it would be a pretty sorry place to live. Take note of just two key factors in this article:

1. The mobile homes that this non-profit is providing cost $100,000 to $130,000. Any idiot with a dealer’s license can buy essentially these same mobile homes for $80,000 or so turn-key. Not exactly a good value.
2. Look at the photo of the park and then zoom in on each home and lot. It looks totally junky like the “before” photo of many turn-around parks. Not exactly a sign of good management.

Every week these type of articles beg the question “is this the best way to spend money?” and every week the answer is clearly “no”. Most all private-sector park owners can provide a better product than this at a lower price point. But, of course, that never gets mentioned because all park owners are “evil”, right?

Wow, same story as above and will probably have the same ending unless these city leaders have more common sense.

I love the way that – only on mobile home parks – raising rents becomes a part of a social agenda. Here’s what the quote in the article said from one resident:

"I don’t understand why they think they need so much money to live on when we have so little to live on”.

I had the same question once from a woke reporter at PBS who said “why do you have to raise rents – why can’t you lower them instead?”. My answer was simply that I was a business person and not a non-profit but if she or PBS would like to cover the difference in rent – as a charitable act – then I could work out a deal. I’ve still never heard from the reporter or PBS to take me up on that offer. Charity sounds great as long as you don’t have to pay for it, right?

Ditto. Same story as all the earlier ones. Fighting higher rents = certain closure of the park.

Looks like construction companies will have plenty of work redeveloping former mobile home parks in 2024.

The same tired story of how resident-owned communities saved a 13-space trailer park from demolition and can do the same for all the other 44,000 parks in the U.S. There’s only one problem with this story: resident-owned cooperatives have only done around 300 parks total in decades of existence. That works out to a .0068% success ratio. At the current speed it will take them roughly 3,666 years to tackle the rest of the parks! That seems like a reasonable use of this much attention and discussion, right?

I know nothing about the facts of this case, but let’s face it, if you live in California or Florida and your rent is too low the odds are 99% your property will be redeveloped. If I was a resident in a CA or FL mobile home park my question to the owners would be “how high does the rent need to be so the park won’t be torn down?” Isn’t that just basic common sense?

Looks like the same flight path as the earlier articles. When you fight lot rents going up even with CPI increases you are just asking for closure. Either these bureaucrats are completely incompetent or maybe their plan all along is just to get the parks torn down.