George Allen, a longtime manufactured housing industry community owner and consultant, founded the Roundtable.
EducateMHC has announced plans for the final Networking Roundtable, an annual event for nearly 30 years that has brought together manufactured housing industry professionals in cities across the nation.
Manufactured housing industry professionals talk during a mixer at a recent Networking Roundtable in Indianapolis.
The Networking Roundtable was founded by George Allen, MHInsider’s contributing editor and the author of the Allen Legacy column. Allen has been a community owner, trainer, and consultant, state and national industry advocate, book author, and educational presenter during his time in the industry.
The day and evening will be a celebration of the event’s decades-long history and a retirement party for Allen. He will provide a state-of-the-industry address, and other keynote presentations are in the works. The final Networking Roundtable also will have an afternoon mixer, industry exhibitors, and a very special presentation to cap the evening. Registration information, as well as sponsorship and exhibit opportunities, are available at the EducateMHC site.
Datacomp has published the June 2021 JLT Reports for mobile home rent comps, occupancy, and other vital data from Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Virginia manufactured home communities.
JLT Market Reports provide detailed research and information on communities in 186 major housing markets throughout the United States. These include the latest rent trends and statistics, marketing programs and a variety of other useful management insights.
Datacomp publishes the JLT Market Reports and is the nation’s #1 provider of market data for the manufactured housing industry. JLT Market Reports are recognized as the industry standard for manufactured home community market analysis.
June 2021 manufactured housing market data published in JLT Market Reports for Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Virginia include information on 180 “All ages” and “55+” manufactured home communities.
Altogether, the reports from Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Virginia manufactured home communities include data representations for 32,990 homesites.
Regional Trends in Manufactured Housing Community Rent and Occupancy
Midwest region manufactured home communities show a year-over-year 1.2% increase in occupancy and a 4.2% increase in adjusted rents.
Northeast region manufactured home communities show a year-over-year 0.3% increase in occupancy and a 3.2% increase in adjusted rent.
South region manufactured home communities show a year-over-year 0.5% increase in occupancy and a 4.1% increase in adjusted rent.
“One of the states represented in the June publications of the JLT Market Reports shows occupancy has dipped slightly in all but one market,” Datacomp Co-President and Chief Business Development Officer Darren Krolewski said. “Manufactured home community lot rents increased across the board, including double-digit jumps in a pair of South Carolina markets.”
More About JLT Market Reports
Each JLT manufactured home community rent and occupancy report from Datacomp has detailed information about investment grade communities in the major markets. The detailed information includes:
Number of homesites
Occupancy rates
Average community rents, and increases
Community amenities
Vacant lots
Repossessed and inventory homes, and much more
JLT Market Reports also include management insights that rank communities by number of homesites, occupancy rates, and highest to lowest rents. Established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of June 2021 rents and occupancy rates to June 2020, as well as a historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to the present date in most markets.
The June 2021 JLT Market Reports for manufactured home communities in Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Virginia are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Report website, or they may be ordered by phone in electronic or printed editions at (800) 588-5426.
Each fully updated report for mobile home communities is a comprehensive look at investment grade properties within a market, enabling owners and managers, lenders, appraisers, brokers, and other organizations to effectively benchmark those communities and make informed business decisions.
Changes to the tax laws are coming. The question now is to what and by how much.
Kevan Enger, a seller-focused broker for manufactured housing communities.
Just a few weeks ago, the federal government provided a clearer picture of where and what the focus of those changes will be with the release of the American Families Plan Fact Sheet on April 28 of this year. For commercial real estate and mobile home park owners, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Anyone even remotely connected to commercial real estate knows that there’s been a great deal of apprehension, discussion, and anxious buzz around the proposed tax changes. Much of that comes from the uncertainty of what’s to come while the rest stems from knowing that the pockets of commercial property investors are getting primed to feel some pain.
Let’s tackle the first part of that… uncertainty.
Many commercial real estate investors, analysts, and talking heads have been speculating about the coming tax changes for over a year. But not until just a few weeks ago did we have a clear picture of the scope of the proposal. The official brief released on April 28 of this year, shed some much-needed light on the topic.
And the scope of potential tax changes is wide and extensive.
The Facts on Potential Tax Changes
In March of this year, the federal government signed into law the American Rescue Plan. The plan sent approximately 161 million payments of up to $1,400 per person and put into play a plan for school re-openings and vaccinations.
Following that plan, the government proposed two additional initiatives: the $2.65 trillion American Jobs Plan and the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan. The White House describes the goal of these programs as follows:
The American Jobs Plan will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s physical infrastructure and workforce, and spark innovation and manufacturing here at home.
The American Families Plan is an investment in our children and our families–helping families cover the basic expenses that so many struggle with now, lowering health insurance premiums, and continuing the American Rescue Plan’s historic reductions in child poverty.
Reducing uncertainty is about obtaining the facts. I encourage everyone to read through both fact sheets.
The goal of the proposed tax changes is partially to finance these two plans. Of most importance to manufactured home community owners are those potential tax changes to Section 1031 of the IRS Code (IRC) which stipulates the following per the Internal Revenue Service’s own Fact Sheet.
IRC Section 1031 provides an exception and allows you to postpone paying tax on the gain [of a commercial property] if you reinvest the proceeds in similar property as part of a qualifying like-kind exchange. Gain deferred in a like-kind exchange under IRC Section 1031 is tax-deferred, but it is not tax-free.
What this means is that park owners can sell their communities and defer the taxes on the gain. These gains, especially for long-term holders, can be considerable and often in the tens of millions of dollars.
By deferring the taxes on the gain, owners can save millions of dollars in taxes which —per the 1031 exchange rule — they must reinvest in like-kind property. This reinvestment pumps money back into communities in the form of:
New jobs as contractors, carpenters, electricians, and plumbers are hired to fix, update, and remodel properties
The acquisition of properties in assets or areas where growth has stagnated or reached a plateau
New capital infusions that create new opportunities, new jobs, and more investment
How Does The 1031 Process Work?
If an owner bought a community for $5 million 10 years ago and they can now sell it for $15 million, the 1031 rule would allow them to reinvest the complete $15 million in sales proceeds minus some other taxes that may account for about 10%. Instead of buying one property, they could now buy two reinvesting almost three times the original amount.
Without the 1031 rule, the seller would have to pay somewhere in the range of 50% on the gain (federal, plus others). This means that they now only have $10 million to reinvest.
That’s a big difference. That’s why the proposed tax changes matter.
Here’s how they’re laid out in the American Families Plan Fact Sheet:
The President would also end the special real estate tax break–that allows real estate investors to defer taxation when they exchange property–for gains greater than $500,000, and the President would also permanently extend the current limitation in place that restricts large, excess business losses, 80 percent of which benefits those making over $1 million.
From an analytical point of view, the plans aim to help the residents of manufactured home communities. In fact, in the industry, we know that the payments have helped maintain high rent collection levels. However, the plans are also targeting the very investment incentives that could improve living conditions through reinvestment in communities, job creation, and new supplies of capital infusion.
The Impact of the 1031 Rule and Proposed Tax Changes
The majority of the mobile and manufactured home sales transactions in the industry would be impacted by changes to the 1031 exchange since most properties will have achieved greater gains of $500,000.
Here’s how I think the proposed tax changes will play out as word gets out from the industry to investors, property owners, and buyers:
Spike in sales
The first thing that will happen is that there will be a wave of properties being put up for sale in anticipation of this change. Demand has heretofore outstripped supply many times over, so I don’t expect prices to take a hit, at least at first.
Many investors are buying for the cash flow, recession-proof stability, and to balance their portfolios. However, investors are still investors, and the capital gain is always part of the formula.
Moreover, as time passes and stimulus spikes and checks begin to run out, collections may take a hit. This will further impact returns, and thus, value.
Demand will drop
As more owners get word of the potential tax changes, short- and medium-term investors will begin to look at other asset classes outside of real estate for less expensive gains and bigger opportunities. As a result, prices will begin to drop as supply begins to overtake demand.
Less Capital Flow and Decline
Fewer sales would mean that manufactured housing communities would be held much longer, reducing new capital infusion. Many properties would be held beyond the period during which the existing ownership could continue to add value, benefit the mobile home park itself as well as the surrounding community, and as a result, reach a point of decline. This will especially be the case if the surrounding area isn’t benefiting from new capital infusion as previously described.
While the proposed tax changes are just that — a proposal — and will likely be revised before passing. The fact of the matter is that amid all the uncertainty, one thing is certain… changes are coming to the tax code.
What that means for community owners is that if you had plans to sell in the next five years, that timeline has shortened considerably. Don’t wait to see what’s going to happen to start looking at your options. If you wait too long, you could end up with a property that is worth less than what you could sell for now, and a huge tax bill.
Save the dates JAN. 19 – 21, 2022 for the Louisville Manufactured Housing Show, the Midwest’s premier event for manufactured housing professionals, in Louisville, Ky., at the Kentucky Exposition Center South Wing.
For more than 60 years, The Louisville Show has brought together the latest manufactured home designs, tech specialists and a top network of suppliers in the manufactured housing industry. The 2020 Louisville Show attracted a near-record 3,536 attendees from 1,130 companies.
“Manufactured housing professionals are eager to get out to see the latest trends and opportunities in the industry after missing more than a year of this kind of interaction,” Louisville Show Chairman Byron Stroud said. “While the trade show circuit has been quiet since early 2020, industry development has continued in an impressive fashion, from home design to materials, not to mention progress in community lifestyle, and then there’s the multiple cycles of new products and services to catch up on.”
Additionally, The Louisville Show offers an array of educational and networking opportunities, all at a convenient location near the airport and across the street from the host hotel.
“Louisville exhibitors display products and services at the KEC, where qualified industry buyers come for ideas and inspiration,” Show Coordinator Trisha Le said. “And January is an optimal time to understand customer wants and needs as they prepare for the spring selling season.”
Exhibitor Opportunities Open Soon
Exhibit space will sell fast, so join The Louisville Show mailing list to keep up on the latest event news including reminders on deadlines for exhibit entry, sponsorship, registration, and activities.
For 2022, The Louisville Show will operate with a new floor plan that places supplier exhibitors in a more central location among the manufacturer exhibitors.
“We believe the layout with service and supply professionals set up within greater proximity to all of the homes will increase attendee access and traffic flow more evenly through the show,” Le said.
General registration details for Louisville 2022 will be announced in the coming months.
Each year, The Louisville Show is organized and presented by The Midwest Manufactured Housing Federation, which represents the states of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. As an industry trade event, the 2022 Louisville Show is not open to the public. For more information, visit The Louisville Show website at www.thelouisvilleshow.com.
Dr. Lesli Gooch, the CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute, provides input on behalf of the manufactured housing industry regarding the need for support in chattel lending during a virtual meeting on March 25, 2021.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has published the proposed Underserved Markets Plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 2022-2024.
The Duty to Serve underserved markets identified are manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural housing.
FHFA asks for and will take public input on the 22-24 proposed plans within a 60-day period that ends July 19.
MHI believes FHFA should not allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to abandon efforts to meet the needs of manufactured home buyers.
“Chattel loans represent the vast majority of manufactured home loans but the GSEs have been going backwards when it comes to their statutory Duty to Serve manufactured housing,” Gooch said. “Now, Freddie Mac has abandoned the effort completely and Fannie Mae only promises to ‘consider’ the viability of a chattel loan pilot program. This was not the intent of Congress for meeting the affordable homeownership needs for the manufactured housing market.”
Gooch said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to re-affirm their previous commitment to buying – and ultimately creating a flow and securitization program – for chattel loans. And FHFA needs to hold them accountable to that.
“MHI has been pleased to see the efforts that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have taken and plan to continue to take on increasing the volume of manufactured home real estate loans, including the creation of programs for the industry’s new class of manufactured homes – CrossMod Homes,” she said.
Dr. Lesli Gooch, MHI’s CEO, met with FHFA Director Dr. Mark Calabria on December 12, 2018, to talk through his nomination and DTS activity.
Enterprises’ Focus on Manufactured Home Loans Essential
The focus of DTS credit should remain on secondary market support for the financing of homes within land-lease communities (chattel financing) as opposed to the commercial financing of the communities themselves, Gooch said.
“Further, DTS should not favor one form of community ownership over another. Professionally managed communities provide high satisfaction levels of land-lease homeowners,” she said. “Residents of these communities say they are less likely to pay additional maintenance fees and value professionally managed amenities over those found in other forms of community ownership. In fact, research shows these communities provide a preferable lifestyle for many.”
Gooch said incentivizing one form of ownership over another will be a disservice to those in need of safe, decent, quality attainable homeownership opportunities.
“FHFA must hold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accountable for meeting their statutory Duty to Serve manufactured housing,” Gooch said.
SECO21 will be a virtual event again, capitalizing on the success of the SECO20 format with an improved digital platform to replicate the attendee, presenter, exhibitor experience, manufactured housing professionals have come to appreciate from the annual gathering.
Please join us on Sept. 27 for the 11th anniversary at the SECO21 National Conference of Community Owners, organized for community owners, educating, and representing all parts of the manufactured housing industry.
Last year, SECO20 exceeded expectations for the first-of-its-kind virtual event, attracting 487 attendees. Based on the overwhelming success of SECO20, coupled with increased familiarity with virtual engagements, organizers anticipate a significant increase of attendees at SECO21.
All SECO21 attendees and exhibitors in the manufactured housing industry will benefit from the unique virtual platform that allows all attendees, vendors, sponsors, and state executives to interact directly one-on-one, in small or large groups. The committed planning group of manufactured housing professionals that supports SECO is assembled and is dedicated to the continued effort of sharing best practices and forming new ideas.
The Dates for SECO are Sept. 27 – Oct. 1.
“We are pleased to once again partner with MHVillage to program and produce the virtual event,” SECO Co-Founder David Roden said. “Our attendees can anticipate live interaction with industry exhibitors, as if you were walking the actual trade show floor. We also are coordinating a robust set of educational presentations, workshops, and panel discussions.”
SECO21 Goes Virtual Again for COVID-19 Limitations
For more than a year, COVID-19 and associated protocols have kept people at home, or in as limited circulation as possible. However, the manufactured housing industry is essential and work must continue in the safest way possible to provide much needed homes and communities for retirees, individuals, and families.
SECO21 will be held on video screens nationwide, with 2- to 3-hour segments that allow manufactured housing professionals to continue their daily work and get the industry interaction and experience they need to be successful.
Conference Tracks: Topics In Development
General Session: Industry Overview & Outlook
General Session: One-Minute Money-Makers
Newcomers: Underwriting and Due-Diligence — What a Community is Worth
Newcomers: Community Acquisitions and Turnarounds
MHP/LLC Management: How Communication and Technology Can Improve Your Community for Little to No Cost
MHP/LLC Management: The Pros, Cons and “Gotchas” of using Virtual Assistants
MH Sales: MH Industry Podcasters Share Their Insights
MH Sales: MH Sales Roundtable
Fireside Chat: User/Customer Meetings with Service Providers, Vendors
Fireside Chat: Preparing Your Park for Sale – What and What Not to Do
For additional information on registration, exhibiting, sponsorship, and/or if you are interested in participating as a presenter, speaker, moderator of panelist at the 2021 SECO National Conference of Community Owners Sept. 27-Oct. 1, please go to www.secoconference.com.
Increase Home Sales with Intake System, Outreach Strategy
Numerous studies have been done, all pointing to the necessity of responding to a new lead within minutes of receiving it and attempting a minimum of six more times over the next 48 hours if you want to maximize the results you get from your marketing efforts.
We are currently in a seller’s market reminiscent of the post-crash era just about 15 years ago. Everyone is busy, lots of orders are being written, factories have long backlogs, and there is a fully justified feeling of overall optimism.
Photos courtesy of ELS Properties.
Volume hides a multitude of sins and these times are no different.
In the best of times, we prepare for the worst of times. In times as these, we solidify our internal systems and processes, minimize slippage, and maximize the bottom line.
For retailers experiencing an increase in home sales and abundant opportunity, as is the case in the southeastern U.S., Florida, Texas, and other states, their systems may deteriorate, sales efficiency drops, all under the cover of ever-increasing home sales.
One reason is the lack of lead management efforts. Salespeople simply do not understand the impact technology has had on the way people shop, the way people buy and, consequently, the way we have to sell.
How Technology Has Affected Manufactured Home Sales
The internet has given customers access to more information than they can possibly sort. All one has to do is Google any random query and thousands of pages appear within seconds.
Between mobile phones, web browsers, and e-mail, we can instantly connect to anyone anywhere, and at any time.
Here’s the catch. With instant access comes the expectation of immediate response. We want the information we ask for NOW… not later today, not tomorrow, not next week.
Immediacy & Frequency in Manufactured Home Sales
The two terms I mentioned in the title have an impact of biblical proportions on your organization’s ability to increase home sales. Immediacy is the speed at which you respond to a lead, measured in minutes, not hours or days.
Frequency is the number of times you reach out to a lead after having received it. Whether you reach out by telephone, text, or e-mail is determined by the information they provide in your lead intake system.
Here is why most retailers will never maximize internet marketing. Both immediacy and frequency must be measured and managed. Even well-meaning sales professionals slip into apathy with regards to lead follow-up and management, and before you know it, potential buyers rarely hear from your organization. Even if they do, they will hear from them once after a few days, and very likely after talking with one or more of your competitors.
Many retailers live under the assumption that their salespeople follow-up quite well, and therein lies the beginning of the illusion.
Test your hypothesis. Have a friend contact your company via your intake system and see what happens.
If you think it’s an anomaly, do it a second, third, fourth and fifth time. Soon you will have some meaningful statistics.
Here is what most business owners and salespeople fail to realize. Even the most technologically challenged individuals will browse their desktop, tablet, or smartphone looking for information on what they want to buy. They see the places they can go, which as I stated earlier are way too many, and so begin the process of reducing this list to a more manageable number.
They eliminate retailers by distance, floorplans, lack of information on the website, and many other reasons. The websites that do pique their curiosity, they will either call, chat, or e-mail with a representative for further information. You can only guess what happens to those retailers whom they never hear from, or if they do, only once.
Put Yourself in the Place of the Home Buyer
Here’s the bottom line. We’re living in a radically different world compared to when many of us came to the industry. People today think differently, shop differently, and they buy differently.
If you’re successful today, but you’re not 100% sure as to why, then you can’t replicate that success, and you’re not preparing for the downturn.
Take this opportunity you have right now, as you have plenty of sales and decent profits, to prepare for the downturn we hope doesn’t come . Regardless, you will benefit.
Learn to maximize your internet leads and start by implementing procedures for following up with those leads. You have to keep your manufactured home sales leads fresh. Measure immediacy and frequency and hold your team accountable to meet predetermined standards.
Always remember… The hardest business to measure is the business you lose.
Would-be customers don’t call to let us know how your team dropped the ball. They just disappear, never to be heard from again. Don’t let that happen.
Nick Bourke, Director of Consumer Finance at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Recent research and observations published by the Pew Charitable Trusts support expanded incentives for manufactured home loans within the Community Reinvestment Act.
The article published May 12, 2021, by Pew Charitable Trusts Consumer Finance Director Nick Bourke and Rachel Siegel, a research officer for Pew’s consumer finance and home financing projects, asserts that lack of access to manufactured homes disproportionately affects populations and communities already most at risk.
The authors cite Consumer Financial Protection Bureau research that found that “people living in such residences are more likely to have low incomes, assets, and net wealth than those in traditional site-built homes. Interestingly, they also have lower debt-to-asset ratios, which may be due to more conservative borrowing behavior or less access to credit for these households.”
Access to Manufactured Homes, Manufactured Home Loans
There continues to be a relatively small pool of lenders for manufactured home loans, especially chattel or personal property loans, the Pew research shows. The difficulty for consumers is “a general shortage of small mortgages nationwide—even for qualified buyers” and the fact that personal property loans from those who do offer them come at “higher interest rates, which undermines affordability.”
Pew research suggests that the affordability and availability of manufactured home loans could be improved through a re-envisioning and revised Community Reinvestment Act, which initially was approved in 1977 and has been reconsidered in recent years without mention of bolstered manufactured housing language.
The research and observations from Pew suggest three primary ways the CRA can effectively expand manufactured home lending:
1. Include safe and affordable manufactured housing personal property loans on the list of CRA-eligible activities so that banks have certainty about credit for these loans. 2. Allow banks to get CRA credit for the purchase of qualified personal property loans from originators, which would allow more loans to be made. 3. Encourage qualified personal property loans by giving CRA credit based on the number, rather than dollar amount, of loans in this space. Doing so could incentivize lenders to provide more loans rather than merely larger ones and is especially important because these homes are often low-cost.
“Pew is researching the issues around lending for manufactured housing to identify hurdles or harms associated with various financing arrangements,” the authors stated. “The ultimate goal is to find opportunities to expand the availability of safe and affordable loans.”
Added Research Shows Disparity in Cost of Personal Property Loans
Pew Charitable Trusts on May 27 also published results of research on manufactured home loans, specifically personal property or chattel loans. The research demonstrates that creditworthiness of chattel borrowers is on par with consumers of conventional mortgages.
Pew’s report published on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s website also demonstrates that Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous borrowers are more likely to use personal property loans than others. The impact is that these families pay more and are at higher risk of losing their home in the event of default.
“Homeownership plays a large role in family economic stability and manufactured homes are the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing – making them especially important for low- and moderate-income families,” Tara Roche, research manager for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ home financing project. “However, the market’s potential is undermined by challenges to obtaining small mortgages, the lack of strong consumer protections combined with higher interest rates for personal property loans, and omission from laws intended to protect homeowners from foreclosure and eviction during times of crisis.”
Stay Grants Time for HHS Appeal; State Orders Remain
The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has vacated the eviction moratorium by the CDC, ruling the center overstepped its authority, perhaps statutorily and constitutionally.
The case was filed Nov. 20, 2020 against the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services by the Alabama Association of Realtors. The realtors association filed suit against HHS, which oversees the CDC, when the center initiated a broad 120-day eviction moratorium following the expiration of a similar moratorium for properties backed by government loans. Congress extended the former moratorium once, and the CDC eviction moratorium has been extended three times, now set to expire June 30.
“It is also important to note that this ruling only applies to the federal eviction moratorium and not state or local moratoriums which remain unchanged,” the Manufactured Housing Institute stated in a release to its membership following the ruling. “This ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia follows similar actions by other District Courts across the country that have found the CDC federal eviction moratorium unconstitutional.”
McGlinchey Stafford attorney Jeffrey Barringer said it is unsurprising the court found the CDC eviction moratorium unconstitutional.
“There are now at least a half-dozen similar cases, with the majority finding the CDC exceeded its authority,” Barringer said. “While landlords and creditors may revel in another win, several jurisdictions still have state-level moratoriums.
“This opinion might ultimately prove persuasive, especially if the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit weighs in, but from a practical standpoint, it doesn’t change state law. It also doesn’t affect voluntary moratoriums, such as the FHFA’s REO eviction moratorium, which has been extended through the end of June,” he said. “Regardless, it is one less obstacle for landlords and creditors — especially in those states that have allowed their moratoriums to expire or that provide an exception, such as a voluntary surrender agreement.”
This breaking news and will be updated in the moments, hours, and days to come. Bookmark MHInsider for all of your manufactured housing industry news, and update this page for the latest on the CDC eviction moratorium and the U.S. District Court for Columbia’s ruling.
JLT Market Reports provide detailed research and information on communities in nearly 186 major housing markets throughout the United States. These include the latest rent trends and statistics, marketing programs, and a variety of other useful management insights.
Datacomp publishes the JLT Market Reports and is the nation’s #1 provider of market data for the manufactured housing industry. JLT Market Reports are recognized as the industry standard for manufactured home community market analysis.
May 2021 manufactured housing market data published in JLT Market Reports for Florida includes information on 788 “All ages” and “55+” manufactured home communities.
Altogether, the reports on Florida manufactured home communities include data representations for 209,354 homesites.
Florida Statewide Trends in Manufactured Housing Community Rent and Occupancy
Florida all-ages communities experienced a 1.1% increase in occupancy and a 4.1% increase in rent.
Florida 55+ communities experienced a 0.2% increase in occupancy and a 4.2% increase in rent.
“The May 2021 JLT Market Reports for Florida include information from 27 communities that hadn’t previously reported for our publications, which shows encouraging growth toward professionally managed, investment-grade communities in the nation’s largest market for manufactured homes and manufactured home communities,” Datacomp Co-President and Chief Business Development Officer Darren Krolewski said. “Land-lease occupancy increased in all but five of the 29 Florida manufactured housing markets detailed in Datacomp’s May publication. This, along with healthy rent appreciation in each of the state’s 29 markets reflects the growing demand for quality affordable housing.”
More About JLT Market Reports
Each JLT manufactured home community rent and occupancy report from Datacomp has detailed information about investment-grade communities in the major markets. The detailed information includes:
Number of homesites
Occupancy rates
Average community rents, and increases
Community amenities
Vacant lots
Repossessed and inventory homes, and much more
JLT Market Reports also include management insights that rank communities by number of homesites, occupancy rates and highest to lowest rents. Established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of May 2021 rents and occupancy rates to May 2020, as well as a historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to the present date in most markets.
The May 2021 JLT Market Reports for Florida manufactured home communities are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Report website, or they may be ordered by phone in electronic or printed editions at (800) 588-5426.
Each fully updated report for mobile home communities is a comprehensive look at investment grade properties within a market, enabling owners and managers, lenders, appraisers, brokers, and other organizations to effectively benchmark those communities and make informed business decisions.
In August, the RV/MH Hall of Fame will celebrate the 2025 class of inductees, five from each industry.
“Our selection committees held meetings to review...
