On July 25, the Associated Press published an article titled “Rents spike as big pocketed investors buy mobile home parks”, focusing on rent increases in manufactured home communities, with emphasis on a community in upstate NY. MHI engaged with the reporter to try and balance the story. The reporter quoted MHI CEO Lesli Gooch who stated, “You have some people coming into the space that give us all a bad name but those are isolated examples and those practices are not common.” Additionally, the article acknowledged several comments about the affordability of manufactured home communities stating, "The mobile home industry argues the communities are the most affordable housing option, noting that average rent increases across parks nationwide were just over 4% in 2021. Spending on improvements was around 11%. Significant investments are needed, they said, to make improvements at older parks and avoid them being sold off."

In addition, recent attention by Congress and the Administration has focused on consumer protections for residents of manufactured communities. Currently, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have Tenant Lease Protections (TLPs) required for loans to communities, and some consumer advocates are pushing to expand those protections. MHI continues to push back on this expansion, arguing that it would add little consumer value, substantially increase compliance complexities, and greatly diminish the availability of affordable, high performing communities. MHI believes FHFA policies should encourage capital investment into land-lease communities to increase the supply of quality affordable homeownership options. To read MHI’s statement to FHFA, click here.

The great majority of communities are very well run – providing the most affordable form of homeownership available in America, combined with a strong commitment to their residents. MHI continues to advocate to Congress, the Administration and the media about the benefits of professionally managed land-lease communities.