We are all connected in one or many ways with our friends and neighbors. Many of us who have chosen to live in a manufactured home community elected to do so for the neighborliness we find in such communities.  To get good neighbors, it is necessary to be a good neighbor. The place where I live is a 55+ community meaning that a good portion of the residents must be at least 55 years of age.  Some like me, are much older. Most of my neighbors are retired and have time for being friendly, good spouses, good grandparents, and in general just want to live their lives comfortably having their golden years be worry free.

Home prices for “stick-built” homes have spiraled ever upward in higher percentages over the years since the pandemic hit but were headed upward before that event. Inflation is happening as we all know and is a result of many factors that are interrelated and cannot legitimately be ascribed to one event, one person, or one group. Manufactured homes have used the assembly ideas that Henry Ford and others used in making affordable cars at the beginning of the 20^th Century. We are now in the 21^st Century and these homes are continuing to be more affordable per square foot that about any other housing. Homes  are assembled on a factory floor and transported in whole or in pieces to their destination.

So why are there complaints about housing costs, you might ask? While the home prices themselves have continued to rise, following overall inflationary trends, the price to place the home on a plot of land has increased-far outpacing inflation and/or lot improvements and park amenities. For example, the CPI (measure of inflation) during the last year was about 3.4% but the lot rent increase was 9% or almost triple inflation!!  Why might you ask? – surely there were huge improvements in amenities. Nope, on the contrary one of the major amenities is the pool and during the most recent six months, it has been unavailable to residents for about 2.5 months due to issues with heating units and other things. Additionally, there has been issues with heating and cooling in the community room. We must maintain our own lot with regards to landscaping and weeding.  The park supplies none of this type of service.

Nine percent may not seem much until you consider where that takes you. The economics Rule of 72 comes into play. (Sometimes this is called the Rule of 70 or Rule of 69.3) but basically it is used as the time to double the cost or investment. Consider, if lot rent started at $700/month (not unusual) and increased at 9% each year, it would double in approximately 8 years. So, in 2032, the rental would be $1,400/month or nearly $17,000 per year!!!  Think of it in your life experience.

Most of us are on a fixed income budget since we mostly are retired. The major source for many of us is Social Security – the estimate for an increase this year is a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of ~3.2% or about one-third of rent increases. Some of my neighbors are lucky and have work pensions and or other investments that help; but even a good bank CD is only paying a little over 5%!!  Can you see the conundrum that is facing Residents of Manufactured Home communities.

This lot rent increase one of the reasons that we have banded together to form the Change for Manufactured Home  group. We are concerned for ourselves and well as our neighbors. We are writing our representatives and would love to have your help. We would like to live an unassuming and comfortable life. Please help us in the letter writing and signing event we sponsor. We want to enjoy the years we have left.