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Mobile Home Park News Briefing

WTXL: Cherokee Estates mobile home park closing after decades, leaving Tallahassee families scrambling for housing

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NORTHWEST TALLAHASSEE, FL — Cherokee Estates on White Drive is closing after more than 50 years, displacing residents who received 30-day notices to vacate. The owner cites an untraceable water leak that more than doubled the property's monthly water bill.

WATCH FULL REPORT BELOW:

Owner Rick Hartsfield says his father built Cherokee Estates in 1967, but the more-than-5-acre property has been in the family since the 1920s. Hartsfield says an untraceable water leak caused the property's monthly water bill to jump from about $6,000 to more than $13,000.

"It's just a legacy that, you know, for unforeseen circumstances that we're having to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Spectrum News: Arundel votes to stabilize mobile home park rents

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ARUNDEL – Residents in Arundel have passed a new ordinance that will limit how much property owners can raise monthly rent rates on mobile homes in town.

Residents passed the measure at the annual town meeting on June 10. Town Clerk Rachel Bull said an actual tally of the vote was not available, but 175 voters were present, and it passed by a show of hands.

“There were so many ‘yesses’ you could hear the arms go up,” said Jennifer Moreau, who lives on Shady Lane in Shady Oaks Mobile Home Park.

Bull said the ordinance went into effect on passage. The new ordinance, according to town documents, limits the number of times property owners can...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

“That’s unsustainable for people in trailer parks,” she said. “It’s usually low-income people, retirees, disabled veterans, and this is why we came here was because it was sustainable.”

No, that’s absolutely not what the bulk of mobile home park residents are. Not even close. But that’s exactly who the woke media wants to convince you live in “trailer parks” to justify their insatiable thirst for rent control.

WIFR: Mayor McNamara shares thoughts on delayed Riverview Mobile Home Park vote

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ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Rockford City Council delayed a vote to convert Riverview Mobile Home Park into a RV and 5th wheel community.

Mayor Tom McNamara says he never wants to see things delayed, but adds it may be worse if city council members vote without having all their questions answered.

Midwest Yard Holdings proposed converting Riverview Mobile Home Park into a residential-style RV park known as Rock River Commons. Midwest Yard Holdings submitted 2 options, both of which include building 85 concrete pads across the 15 acres.

“I would say we want our aldermen to be informed about any decision they’re making, especially one of this...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

The Sentinel: Manufactured homeowners, property owners in limbo as legislation stalls

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(The Center Square) – Legislation designed to protect residents in Pennsylvania’s manufactured home communities has been stalled in committee for a year, leaving homeowners, residents, and the industry itself in limbo.

 

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Nobody is in “limbo” who has a brain and uses it. Everyone already knows that Pennsylvania has a Republican Senate that will never approve any woke landlord regulations.

WCVB: SJC ruling deals setback to Cape Cod mobile home park residents, but could help others statewide

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The state’s highest court has ruled against residents of a Cape Cod mobile home park who wanted to buy their community — but the decision could make it easier for other manufactured housing residents in Massachusetts to do the same.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday that residents of Pocasset Park in Bourne did not meet all the legal requirements needed to purchase the park under the state’s right of first refusal law.

That law gives manufactured housing residents the opportunity to buy their community before it is sold to another buyer, as long as they meet certain requirements and match the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

But the court also found the residents did not secure the necessary financing by the legal deadline, meaning they did not meet the law's requirements to buy the park.

Park owners have never had a problem with selling to the residents but the problem is that the residents fail in their mission about 99.9%  of the time – such as in this example.

M Live: An investor promised to overhaul a mobile home park with a $2M grant. Today, it sits vacant.

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DEWITT TOWNSHIP, MI - Rebecca Jackson moved out of her home of seven years at the end of March.

 

Jackson, 52, now lives five minutes down the road, but she still misses the animals that wandered through her yard at Kristana Mobile Home Park in DeWitt Township, about three miles north of Lansing.

“It’s been really hard on me. We don’t see the deer. We don’t see everything we had out there,” she said. “On a bad day, we’d go out, sit and watch them. It seems like they took it away.”

 

The aging mobile home park, once slated for redevelopment with a $2 million grant from the state, now sits vacant: condemned homes, overgrown grass...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

WIFR: Rockford committee OKs permit to convert mobile home park to RV community

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ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Rockford’s Code and Regulation Committee advances a proposal that would see a change of ownership for a mobile home neighborhood along South Main Street.

The committee approved the special use permit for a planned RV park in a 3-1 vote, with Alderman Tamir Bell being the sole vote against the measure.

If passed by the full council, River View Mobile Home Park would be owned under Midwest Yard Holdings, which has plans to change the mobile home park to an RV and “5th wheel” community, which would force current residents to move.

The proposal now heads to the full council for potential final approval.

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Cities and towns always love it when a mobile home park converts to RV Park as they see that as a total upgrade in the park population demographics coupled with zero public school cost.

Ellsworth American: Hancock Heights residents seek relief from rising costs at mobile home park

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When Brenda Dewitt moved into Hancock Heights Estates, a 100-plus site mobile home park outside Ellsworth, three years ago, she was expecting to retire and live off her Social Security for her golden years.

Now, she said, rent and water rate increases have prompted her to return to work for the first time in four years. Her monthly rent has gone up nearly $30 from last year, with rate increases varying by resident to $60 or more.

“I’ve had to go back to work, and it’s killing me,” Dewitt said. “I have two bad knees that need to be replaced, a bad lower back, but I need to work to pay the bills. My husband is 72 years old, and he...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Now, she said, rent and water rate increases have prompted her to return to work for the first time in four years. Her monthly rent has gone up nearly $30 from last year, with rate increases varying by resident to $60 or more.“I’ve had to go back to work, and it’s killing me,” Dewitt said. “I have two bad knees that need to be replaced, a bad lower back, but I need to work to pay the bills. My husband is 72 years old, and he shouldn’t have to work, either.”

I’m sorry but if a $30 rent increase means you have to go back to work, then you need to sell your mobile home and move back in with your family because the price of a single fill-up of gas has increased more than $30 by itself. Yet again, another article that wants to use a single example of someone who lives on the fringes of normalcy as the posterchild of public policy.

WGME: Biddeford mobile home park residents ask city to pass rent control ordinance

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BIDDEFORD (WGME) -- Mobile home rents are on the rise.

Residents at a Biddeford mobile home park say their monthly rent has soared.

Tuesday night, they say thought relief was in sight, as city leaders debated a new rent control ordinance. But in the end, there was no deal.

Madeline Gallant has lived in a three-bedroom, two-bath home for nine years.

And for a time, she had it all to herself.

  • Also read: Sanford City Council passes mobile home rent control ordinance

“I had to have my daughter and grandson come,” Gallant said.

She says she needed to bring them in just so she could afford her rent, which has gone from $300 a month to $650 in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

There’s so much wrong with Maine anymore, that I won’t waste the effort to make the list. Graham Platner can have the place – it’s a political cesspool with a state population smaller than most medium-sized cities.

Spectrum News: Keeping manufactured homes affordable in Wisconsin

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ALTOONA, Wis. — For some Wisconsinites, manufactured or mobile homes might be one of the last ways they can live affordably.

However, in recent years, private equity firms have begun buying up those types of living communities, with some raising lot rent and neglecting needed maintenance. Others have gone so far as to evict everyone living there

In manufactured home parks, many residents own their homes but rent the land on which they sit. For people with that type of living situation, Wisconsin doesn’t have any protections in place for them.

Steve Parliament serves as treasurer of the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance. Back in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

However, in recent years, private equity firms have begun buying up those types of living communities, with some raising lot rent and neglecting needed maintenance. Others have gone so far as to evict everyone living there.

Oh my gosh is this stupid. Let’s break down the idiocy:

  • It’s not just private equity groups raising rents, it’s everybody. And it’s not just mobile home park rents that are going up – it’s everything. Looks at insurance prices, gas prices, good prices – you name it – and it’s all up by a huge amount.
  • New park buyers are the only ones injecting collectively millions of dollars annually in bringing old mobile home park infrastructure back to life. There is not a single case – not one—of a mobile home park that was bought by a private equity group that is not much nicer now than it has been in decades and if you think to the contrary, show me an example.

  • Private equity groups have absolutely no desire to “evict everyone”. Why would they? They are buying income properties and would be nuts to destroy their income stream. It costs the park owner around $10,000 every time a home goes abandoned.

This writer is just another woke idiot pushing narratives that they don’t even understand.

Realtor: These Mobile Home Residents Hope To Buy the Whole Park for $42.5M To Avoid Rent Hikes

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Damien Teague has lived in San Lazaro Mobile Home Park in Boulder County, CO, for 18 years.

So when he received a Post-it on his door on March 20 saying that the owners were planning to sell the park for $42.5 million, his heart sank.

"The next morning, I was sitting on my back porch working with ChatGPT to explore my options, just feeling the stress of the unknowns," he tells Realtor.com®. "As I was sitting there, I also felt the stress of the 212 other households that were feeling the same thing, and that was enough for me to take action."

The medically retired Navy veteran had learned of a Colorado law granting mobile home...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

How exactly can you buy a mobile home park for $42.5 million and not have massive rent hikes to cover your new mortgage payment? Obviously, you can’t. WHAT A BUNCH OF IDIOTS.

WFMZ: Shapiro calls for protections for manufactured home residents

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READING, Pa. – During his budget speech Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro highlighted what he says is a growing housing problem across Pennsylvania.

“Christine Ziemer, who lives in Berks County and joins us here today, knows this firsthand,” Shapiro said. “Christine and her husband, Joe, who passed away late last year, they downsized in 2019 to move closer to their grandkids.”

The governor explained that Ziemer and her husband bought into a manufactured home community — a type of housing where residents own their homes, but not the land. According to Shapiro, more than 56,000 households across Pennsylvania live in similar communities.

“That’s...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Much like Josh Shapiro’s political future, rent control in Pennsylvania has already been deflated by the very Republican Pennsylvania Senate. Shapiro’s favorability rating is now down to around 50%. I guess that people in Pennsylvania have decided there’s more to life than being “woke and broke”.

WSOC Tv: ‘Much above fair market’: Neighbors say mobile home lot rent has become unaffordable

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Neighbors in a mobile home park say they are now paying hundreds of dollars more each month just to rent their lots.

A petition drive already has dozens of signatures from folks who live at Idelwild Acres in Burke County. Many of the people there own their homes, but they say they can't afford the steep price increase for the land it sits on.

Julia Hughes showed Channel 9's Dave Faherty the signatures on the petition drive at Idlewild Acres mobile home park. She recently got a notice that her lot rental would be going up to $700 a month on August 1.

"And they want to go up on my lot … just my lot, not my trailer. I own my trailer, they...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

With all these type of articles, you have to wonder who the judge is of “fair market”. Here’s what Bestplaces.net says about Morgantown, North Carolina: Single-family home average $220,000 and 2-bedoom apartment rent $1,300 per month. So how exactly is $700 per month lot rent “above fair market”? Of course, it’s not. Not even close. But asking residents if their rent is above fair market is akin to asking a barber if you need a haircut. Since that’s the dilemma, smart people turn to actual experts on housing stats and, sadly for station WSOC, the experts clearly show this is utter nonsense.

The Conversation: When private equity firms buy mobile home parks, rent increases leave residents with few affordable options in rural areas

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Roughly 20 million Americans live in manufactured houses, which are homes made in factories.

Although they’re often called mobile homes or trailers, that’s really a misnomer because their owners can’t easily relocate them. Typically, the people who own them rent the land underneath the houses from the owners of manufactured home parks. Sometimes, an owner will rent their home to someone else while paying to rent the land as well.

Manufactured homes tend to be far more affordable than other single-family homes because they have lower upfront and monthly expenses. A typical one costs around US$120,000; smaller ones, known as single-wides,...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Leave it to a college student in Wisconsin to write an article this stupid. Let’ just point out the key gaslighting mistakes they make in their “theory”:

  1. You cannot dictate policy for the majority by using specific examples of the fringe. This is the example of why mobile home park lot rents are supposedly “evil”:  “There was a trailer for sale, and it was decent,” he said. “I had a little savings and workers comp, so I bought it for $9,000, thinking I could afford to live there on my disability income.” That plan broke down when a private equity firm bought his park and instantly raised his monthly rent from $350 to $500, now costing him more than half of the $800 a month in Social Security Disability Insurance benefits he received.”
    Exactly where can someone on disability live in the entire U.S. – including every housing option on earth – for $800 per month? The answer is NOWHERE. Using this guy as your example of the plight of housing is as bizarre as using someone missing their limbs as an example for car design ergonomics.

  2. The concept of moving an old trailer has absolutely nothing to do with the problem. Check out this quote from the article: It’s hard for people like Perez to relocate a manufactured home. That’s because moving them after installation is expensive, costing anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000. These costs leave low-income residents effectively stuck if their rents rise beyond their means.” If the problem is that lot rents are too high, then how would moving the old trailer to another park with too-high lot rents solve anything? This guy has the following options 1) sell the mobile home for the $9,000 he paid and then 2) move in with family or get into the Section 8 program. That’s it. No other scenario works.

  3. You might want to take a course in economics. Check out this quote: Nationally, rents in these parks have increased by 45% over the past decade.” I guess the writer never thought through the fact that a 45% increase over 10 years equates to an average of 4.5% per year – which is just about the rate of inflation in the U.S. over that same period.

This journalist needs to stay in academia because their grasp of the real world is pathetic.

News4: South Reno mobile home park closure deadline passes, some low-income residents remain

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RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — The deadline has passed for residents to leave Evergreen Trailer Park in south Reno, but not everyone has been able to find a new place to live.

At the end of April, residents were told they had 30 days to move out. The deadline for everyone to leave was Sunday, and as of Monday morning, there were still a few people who had not left.

Glory, a resident, said the park has been an affordable place to live during a difficult time. She has not found a new place to live.

“The rent is affordable. After I went through my divorce, I couldn't afford much and starting over is hard. This has been home and everybody...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Duluth Monitor: Remaining two residents ordered to leave beleaguered Hermantown trailer park

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In December of 2024, due to ongoing building code violations at Hermantown’s Maple Field Trailer Par...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

LancasterOnline: Benefit concert set Sunday for residents of closing Warwick Twp. mobile home park

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Residents of Plateau Village mobile home park, which is set to close at the end of the year, are pulling together for a benefit concert this weekend.

The event will take place 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Barn at Stoner Commons, 605 Granite Run Drive in Manheim Township. All proceeds will go to residents of the manufactured home community for adults age 55 and over.

Four local bands are donating their services to the benefit: Winged Victory, Keri Edwards Band, Band of Llamas and Nicks In Time, a Stevie Nicks tribute band. The event will also feature Plateau Village residents telling their personal stories.

Nicks In Time lead vocalist...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

WLRN: Little Havana trailer park residents want more time, more money before being forced to move

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The soon-to-be-removed residents of the Silver Court Trailer Park know they can't stay — they're just asking for more time to pack up and leave the homes they've owned for decades.

This past March, mobile home owners at the park in Little Havana were notified by the park owner, Zan Marquis, of California-based Marquis Property Company, that the land would be redeveloped and the residents had six months to vacate the premises. The owner has not said what the park will be redeveloped into, nor has the property been rezoned for a new use as yet.

"I've lived in Silver Court for 25 years," 68-year-old park resident Victoria Diaz told WLRN in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Prism: Mobile home closures grow in Miami as residents face displacement

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For nearly a decade, Teresa Lezama built a life at Silver Court Trailer Park in Miami.

She paid roughly $55,000 for her trailer home on park property, where she raised her family. The park where she rents land for her trailer was quiet, affordable, and stable, one of the few places left in Miami where working-class residents could realistically afford to live.

As of March 11, she said, all of that is slipping away.

“They left a notice on the door saying we had to move out,” Lezama told Prism, referencing a letter from The Urban Group, a real estate consulting firm acting on behalf of park owner 1989 Sunny Court LLC. “It affected me a lot....

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust. And another. And another. And another.

Aspen Public Radio: Community effort to help residents buy Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park could inform regional strategy, but challenges remain

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Local residents, nonprofits, governments and private donors are once again rallying together to help a for-sale mobile home park become a resident-owned community. If the purchase is successful, Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park — located in unincorporated Garfield County along Highway 82 between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs — would be the fourth park in the Roaring Fork Valley over the past year to transition to resident ownership.

Residents of mobile home parks often own their homes but rent the land underneath from a private landlord, leaving them vulnerable to displacement if owners redevelop or raise...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

To meet the full sale price and fund potential infrastructure updates, residents and their nonprofit partners need loan financing from several lenders, including the Impact Development Fund — a regional Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that provides flexible loans for affordable housing — and Boulder-based nonprofit Thistle Community Housing.

When you buy a mobile home park, most lending falls into a 10-year note which needs to be renewed at least two more times to full maturity. Look at the complexity of the above loan construction and tell me how that’s going to work 5 or 10 years from now. No way that loan’s going to be renewed. Then the park goes back on the market. Pretty stupid, right?

But even dumber is the concept that 98 households can buy a park for $23 million – that’s right, over $200,000 per space – and not have the rents go up exponentially to service that loan. These folks are going to have the same lot rent hikes whether they buy the park or a real company does.

wunc news: Cary's affordable housing options shrink as mobile home park sale uproots 140 households

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For decades, the mobile home park known as Chatham Estates was an oasis of affordability off of East Chatham Street, one that allowed working-class families to live and work in the heart of Cary.

Today, it's a patchwork of empty lots, leftover debris, and homes torn from the ground. Residents have until June 30 to move out to make room for a housing development slated for the 27-acre lot.

Mexican immigrant Angelina Zúñiga will leave the community after 30 years of living in the trailas, as the mobile homes are referred to informally in Spanish.

"I've had a whole life here," said Zuniga, 62, in Spanish. "Three years ago they told us that...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

ClickOnDetroit: Redford Township mobile home residents given 30-45 days to leave amid safety concerns

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REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Residents of Long’s Mobile Home Court on Plymouth Road are facing a tight deadline to find new housing after Redford Township — now owner of the property — says infrastructure failures and unsafe living conditions have made the site uninhabitable.

Township officials say residents have 30 to 45 days to leave following recent court action and eviction notices served to the park. For many residents who have called Long’s home for years, the news has been devastating.

“Half of us haven’t even been sleeping. We don’t know what to do anymore,” said Lori Gauthier, a resident of the park. “You know I just started to get...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Live 5 News: Ferndale mobile home residents get more time, $70K relocation help after deal with new owner

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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — After weeks of organizing, residents at Ferndale Mobile Home Park in North Charleston have reached an agreement with the property’s new owner, New Tide LLC, that provides more time and added relocation support as families prepare to leave the community.

Residents were initially told they had to vacate the park by May 31 after the land was sold to New Tide LLC, a deadline that many said was impossible to meet given the high cost and logistics of moving a mobile home. Families say they were offered incentives such as $1,000 for those who relocated by the deadline, but said that amount fell far short of what...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Pennsylvania DCED: Governor Shapiro Calls for Reform to Protect Pennsylvanians Living in Manufactured Home Communities from Greedy Out-of-State Management Companies During Visit to Berks County Neighborhood

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Douglassville, PA – Today, Governor Josh Shapiro visited a manufactured housing community in Berks County to call for reform to protect Pennsylvanians living in manufactured home communities from predatory practices often used by out-of-state property management companies. In his 2026 Budget Address, Governor Shapiro called on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass legislation limiting annual lot rent increases for manufactured housing communities. This legislation, coupled with reforms included in the Governor’s 2026-27 proposed budget and Housing Action Plan, would protect manufactured homeowners and help make housing more affordable...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

It’s interesting to note that Shapiro has removed “rent control” from these new bills he wants to pass. That’s simply because the Pennsylvania Senate is staunchly Republican and his initial “rent control” bill died a year ago. Rent control is a dead issue in Pennsylvania and everyone with any intelligence already knows that.

As for the “greedy out-of-state” nonsense, it’s important to point out that Shapiro is from Kansas City and, therefore, is an “out-of-state” Governor, if you want to get technical about it. He’s out stumping to bring more industry to Pennsylvania at the same time he’s criticizing “out-of-state” ownership. Pretty hypocritical, huh? Modern politicians will say anything – even what they don’t believe in – for votes.

Maine Beacon: Sanford moves to protect mobile home residents from predatory rent hikes. Will other Maine cities follow?

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Sanford City Council voted Tuesday to cap rent increases at manufactured housing parks after months of organizing by mobile home residents.

The ordinance passed 6-1 and limits rent increases to once per year. It also caps rent hikes at either 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

The next paragraph begins by explaining what the measure will do, but the indexed copy cuts off there.

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Raising rents in-line with inflation and market forces now means “predatory rent hikes” in Maine. Even if you’re half of apartment rents. And a tenth of single-family homes. You see, Maine can’t decide if it’s part of Cuba or not – they are geography challenged. Just look at the lunatic they have running for U.S. Senate and you have to wonder if the lobster is tainted.