Manufactured Home News: Record Investment in Mobile Home Parks — California County Defends Mobile Home Residents — 9,025 New HUD Code Manufactured Homes Shipped in September
Investors Pouring Billions of Dollars into Manufactured Home Land-Lease Communities – According to a Bloomberg report, investors are pouring record levels of money into manufactured housing communities seeking stability and yield as the need for affordable living options increases across the U.S.
Jones Lang Lasalle Inc. projects an investment volume of $4.5 billion in mobile home communities in the third quarter – an all-time high on a trailing four-quarter basis. Valuations for the communities reached a record in the second quarter of $46,970 per pad. Occupancies also climbed to a new high, at 95.4%. And rents rose, throughout the pandemic, to a record $800 a month on average.
Manufactured housing is becoming an increasingly popular option as costs for more-traditional properties soar. Strong demand is expected to continue over the long term as the share of Americans over age 65 grows, JJL said.
While private capital represented 72% of mobile-home investments this year, institutional investors are getting more involved. They account for 22% of total volume, the highest on record, according
Letter: Praise For County Defense OF Mobile-Home Park Residents — Recently we posted a report of mobile home residents protesting huge monthly rent increases at two senior manufactured home communities, titled: “Residents of mobile home parks in Northern California protest large rent hikes.” In that post, we detailed the long-drawn-out activism of residents to protect their affordable lifestyle. In both instances, perseverance has paid off with the help of local and/or county officials. The following is a Letter To The Editor via the – Santa Cruz Sentinel – praising the County in defense of the residents of one of the two mobile home parks
“Hurray for the County of Santa Cruz defending the low-income residents of Pinto Lakes Mobile Estates. The park owner wanted a 47% rent increase. In 2017, a rent hearing officer said no no rent increase was due. After four years of legal wrangling, the park’s case was dismissed last week. Dismissing the case shows it lacked merit as well as decency. No rent increase awarded.
The park was already making more than $400,000 a year net profit but wanted more. The rent increase would have forced some residents out of their homes. The county’s space rent ordinance only allowed a 1.8% increase that year. The county has strongly defended mobile homes as essential housing for low-income families, veterans, and the elderly.
Plans for new low-income housing are needed. Equally important is preserving existing low-income housing. – Henry Cleveland, Aptos
MHI Monthly Economic Report For Manufactured Home Shipments — In September 2021, 9.025 new manufactured homes were shipped, a decrease of 62 homes or 0.7 percent compared to September 2020. Compared with the same month last year, shipments of single section and multi-section homes were both up 3.1 percent and 17.3 percent, respectively. Total floors (sections) shipped in September 2021 were 14,345, an increase of 13.2 percent compared with the same month last year. Three of the units produced in September 2021 were designated as FEMA units. There were no FEMA units produced in September 2020.
Cumulative shipments for the first nine months of 2021 totaled 79,438 homes compared with 69,729 homes for the same period of 2020, a net increase of 13.9 percent.
The number of manufactured home plants reporting production in September 2021 was 138 and the number of active corporations was 33, the same number of plants and corporations as in August 2021.
