![]() Over the past three years, her rent has increased over 40% from $300 to $432 per month. She now lives with two roommates as a result of rent increases. Gretchen Whitmer to the Michigan Manufactured Housing Commission, lives in Swartz Creek Estates mobile home park in Swartz Creek.īefore Havenpark Communities, a Utah-based investment firm, purchased the park Hook said her rent was reasonable and that she could afford to live alone. Holly Hook, co-founder of the group Michigan Mobile Home Residents for Affordable Housing and recently appointed by Gov. I think it’s almost unconscionable that these kinds of bottom feeder investors are buying up the parks just to make a quick buck.” “Based on our research, mobile home parks are one of the top three leading returns in real estate investment trusts over the last five years. “They’re deferring maintenance and basically milking the parks for the cash flow that they can get,” he said. McCarthy said investors very often shift the cost of services onto residents, including for trash collection and internet\. We have to take some kind of proactive action to prevent capital markets from stealing away necessary shelter from families.” It’s a crisis that’s been unfolding for at least a decade or more. “We’re willing to allow global capital to outbid residents for shelter. “Investors are taking full advantage of the fact that this is really housing of last resort,” he said. He describes the behavior of investor groups buying up mobile home parks as predatory and egregious because they typically reduce services to cut costs, increase lot rents, and make very few investments in community improvements, such as infrastructure or facilities. According to the institute, around 20%, or around 800,000, are in parks that have been purchased in the past eight years by institutional investors. There are 4 million mobile homes in the United States. George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that researches and recommends creative approaches to land usage, said mobile home parks are traditionally housing of last resort because residents cannot afford to buy a home or live in other types of rental housing. In mid-Michigan, there are 32 homes in Clare, Gratiot, and Isabella counties and over 8,000 homes. Those numbers are among the highest in the state. In Oakland County, there are 68 parks with nearly 16,000 homes, according to the most recent federal data. These increases are hitting Michigan’s mobile home park communities, where many residents live on fixed-incomes, have no other affordable options for housing, and are making decisions about paying bills or rent.Īccording to, a Grand Rapids-based online marketplace for buying and selling manufactured homes, there are over 1,200 mobile home parks with 248,000 homes in Michigan. Housing costs are rising across the country, both in home prices and rent, causing affordable housing stock to drop over 20% in Michigan. The Mobile Home Commission Act of 1987 provides little protection for mobile home park residents for upward rent control and very few limits on investors for licensing and leasing requirements. The current laws have left a vacuum for corporate owners and private equity firms to buy mobile home parks and raise rents. In Michigan, rent increases combined with outdated state oversight is making the once affordable manufactured housing option lose its luster.Īdvocates say the increases are due in part to state laws for mobile home parks not being updated since 1987. ![]() Owners can either accept large rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested. ![]() These purchases of what has been one of the most affordable housing options are putting residents in a bind, according to experts, since most mobile homes - despite the name - cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Nationwide, institutional investors have been swooping in to buy mobile home parks as inventory and profits for traditional rentals – single- and multi-family homes and apartment buildings – have dwindled. (Mark Cavitt/MediaNews Group) Changing housing market Mark Cavitt/MediaNews GroupOakland Glens mobile home park in Novi, Mich. ![]()
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