PESP Private Equity Manufactured Housing Tracker

PESP and Manufactured Housing Action have released the Private Equity Manufactured Housing Tracker

A current list of private equity-owned manufactured home parks in the U.S. 

Updated June 26, 2024

Key Points

• Over the past 20 years, manufactured home communities increasingly have gone from “mom and pop” enterprises to ownership by private equity firms, hedge funds, and large, multi-state corporations that seek to capitalize on manufactured-home owners’ unique situation.
• In 2020 and 2021, institutional investors accounted for 23% of all manufactured home purchases, up from 13% between 2017-2019. [1]
• Eleven private equity firms own 1,114 manufactured housing parks in the U.S. with almost 243,000 lots.  
• Three of the four largest private equity firms in the U.S. [2] own manufactured housing portfolios: Apollo Global Management (Inspire Communities), Blackstone (Treehouse Communities), and The Carlyle Group.
  

  Private Equity Firm/ Hedge Fund	Manufactured Home Company	# Parks	# Lots
  Stockbridge Capital Partners	YES! Communities	266	74,761
  Brookfield Asset Management	RHP Properties	120	27,061
  Calzada Capital	Hometown America	76	26,217
  Federal Capital Partners	Horizon Land Mgmt	169	24,344
  Apollo Global Management	Inspire Communities	115	23,590
  Havenpark Capital Partners	Havenpark Communities	64	19,121
  The Blackstone Group	Treehouse Communities	70	12,669
  Riverstone Capital Partners	Riverstone Communities	54	10,038
  Alden Global Capital	Homes of America	133	9,347
  The Carlyle Group		22	7,530
  Green Courte Partners	Windward Communities	20	7,004
  TOTAL		1,114	242,868

• The three states with the most private equity-owned manufactured home parks are:
  • Florida – 197 parks (39,709 lots)
  • Michigan – 109 parks (33,196 lots)
  • Texas – 107 parks (23,315 lots)
• Michigan has a disproportionate share of private equity-owned manufactured housing parks: private equity firms own one in every ten parks in MI
• Private equity firms have been aided in their acquisitions of manufactured home parks by the U.S. Government sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [3] Almost half (49%) of the private equity-owned parks identified for this tracker were financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In contrast, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac financed just 9% of all the manufactured home parks in the U.S. [4]

Introduction

Over the past 20 years, manufactured home communities increasingly have gone from “mom and pop” enterprises to ownership by private equity firms, hedge funds, and large, multi-state corporations that seek to capitalize on manufactured-home owners’ unique situation.

•  In 2017, private equity firm Apollo Global Management bought Inspire Communities, [5] a manufactured home park operator that currently has over 100 parks with almost 24,000 home sites. [6]
• The Blackstone Group, the largest private equity firm in the world, spent almost $1 billion between 2018 and 2020 to acquire over 50 parks, with over 10,000 home sites, and operates them through its Treehouse Communities platform. [7]
• In 2020, the Carlyle Group expanded its presence in manufactured home communities with a $230 million purchase of four manufactured home parks, with a total of 1,583 homes, in Arizona. [8]
• In 2021, Horizon Land Management, which is backed by Federal Capital Partners, acquired a portfolio of 93 manufactured home parks with a total of 11,129 lots. [9]
• Since 2020, the hedge fund Alden Global Capital has acquired at least 138 manufactured housing parks with over 10,000 homes. [10]

In 2020 and 2021, institutional investors accounted for 23% of all manufactured home purchases, up from 13% between 2017-2019. [11]

Corporate investors realized that manufactured housing could be a source of large profits. “The number of investors looking for mobile home parks to purchase is unprecedented,” said Paul Bradley, president of ROC USA, a nonprofit that helps residents form cooperatives to buy their parks. From 2010 to 2020, he noted, manufactured housing parks were “the highest returning of all real estate asset classes—offices, commercial, industrial, storage units, parking garages, you name it—with a 22 percent annual compounded return.” [12]

The private equity business model is simple. They buy a park, increase the rent in order to increase cash flow at the property and thus increase the park’s value, and then often sell it within a few years for a profit.

One example of this is in Sunnyvale, California where the Carlyle Group bought the Plaza Del Rey mobile home park, which has 800 homes, in 2015. Carlyle raised rents 8% a year, while the previous park owner had 3% annual increases. [13] Carlyle paid $150 million for it in 2015, increased the rents, and then in 2019, just four years later, sold the park for $237 million – making a profit of almost $90 million in just four years. [14]

Due to manufactured-home owners’ limited mobility, investors can increase site rent prices and fees with little effect on demand. As a result, residents are trapped and can be squeezed for every dollar. In addition, evicting residents who are unable to keep up with rising site rents can be lucrative, as residents who are forced to leave may abandon their homes or sell to the investor at a steep discount. With such devastating consequences for evictions, manufactured-home residents are often reluctant to raise concerns or challenge wealthy investors. [15]

Private equity firms have been aided in their acquisitions of manufactured home parks by the U.S. Government sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Almost half (49%) of the private equity-owned parks identified for this tracker were financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.[16]In contrast, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac financed just 9% of all the manufactured home parks in the U.S. [17]

Manufactured Housing Tracker

Manufactured housing is a vital source of unsubsidized affordable housing [18]

U.S. manufactured homes are sometimes casually referred to as “mobile homes” or “trailers,” but, in fact, they are a specific type of factory-built housing and must be constructed in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards Code. [19]  Modern manufactured homes resemble single-family residences, often with multiple bedrooms, backyard patios or decks, and most are secured to a concrete foundation. They may be placed on the homeowners’ private land, or the homes may be placed on rented or leased land, often inside a manufactured home community. [20]

While most manufactured homes are owned, with 5 million homes owned by the household (71%), there are also 2 million units (29%) occupied by renter households. [21]

Manufactured homes comprise 6% of the country’s total housing stock. [22] In rural areas, manufactured homes account for 14% of housing stock. [23]

At an average price of $127,250 as of 2022, manufactured homes are a vital source of affordable housing for rural and low-income families.[24] More than one fifth of manufactured-home owners earned less than $20,000 a year as of 2021, and over half earned less than $50,000 a year. For manufactured-home renters, more than a quarter earned less than $20,000 a year, and almost 70% earned less than $50,000 a year. [25]

Manufactured homes are a particularly important housing option for families who live on fixed incomes, like retirees and individuals unable to work due to disability. As of 2022, almost one-third (31%) of adult manufactured home residents were over 60. [26]

These data show that manufactured housing is a foundation in the structure of American housing. It supports some of the most precarious members of our society. Therefore, it is critical that our housing policy is structured to look after these residents wherever possible. And it’s for these reasons that the emergence of private equity firms and corporate real estate investors at a massive scale in the industry is cause for concern.

Mobile homes’ lack of mobility means big profits for park owners

While manufactured homes are sometimes thought of as mobile, manufactured homes are almost never moved once placed. Homes are often attached to a foundation and cannot stand a move. Furthermore, moving costs average $5,000 to $10,000, roughly five to seven years’ worth of the homes’ equity. [27] Finding a new lot to place the home is also difficult, as park owners may prefer to place newly constructed homes. [28]

It can also be difficult for homeowners to sell their homes because of home sale restrictions imposed by the park owner, such as exclusive agent arrangements. [29] In addition, site rent increases hurt homeowners looking to sell – as of 2017, realtors estimated that for every $100 increase in space rent, a manufactured home lost $10,000 in value. [30]

The financial consequences of eviction can also be more devastating for manufactured-home owners than residents in traditional rentals. When manufactured home owners facing eviction cannot move or sell their home, the homeowners’ only option is to abandon their home or try to sell it to the community owner – usually for a fraction of what it’s worth – eroding any equity the home might have accrued. In some cases, homeowners must sell their homes for less than their mortgage, meaning they walk away from evictions saddled with even more debt. After evicting residents, park owners often rent out or re-sell these homes. [31]

With limited mobility and few alternative housing options, manufactured-home residents are vulnerable to exploitation by landlords looking to maximize profits. When site rent and fees are increased or communal maintenance issues ignored, homeowners often have no choice but to endure it.

This economic trap is not a side effect but a building block of the business model. Because of residents’ inability to move and a high demand for affordable housing, cash flows from the investments tend to be highly stable, even during economic downturns.

In 2017, analyst Green Street Advisors reported that the manufactured home sector was the only major real estate asset class that had not experienced a year-over-year decline in net operating income in any year since 2000. Green Street viewed manufactured home communities as offering the most favorable return profile among all property sectors (including apartments, office buildings, retail, hotels, industrial, and self-storage). [32]

Mobile Home University (MHU) runs a boot camp where it teaches prospective manufactured home community investors about how to best extract profits. MHU co-owner Frank Rolfe said that “One of the big drivers to making money is the ability to increase the rent. If we didn’t have them hostage, if they weren’t stuck in those homes in the mobile home lots, it would be a whole different picture.” [33]

For instance, after the Carlyle Group bought the Sierra Royal Mobile Park in Nevada, one resident reported that the private equity firm raised her lot rent from $685/mo to $1,010/mo. [34]

Rolfe likened a manufactured home park to “a Waffle House where everyone is chained to the booths,” [35] emphasizing how residents have few options but to pay rent increases. Rolfe noted that tenants are more likely to put in a few more hours at their low-paying jobs than find the $3,000-$5,000 it takes to move a mobile home. [36]

Findings

We tracked 1,114 manufactured home parks in the U.S. with almost 243,000 lots, owned by eleven private equity firms and hedge funds.

Yes! Communities  

Private Equity Backing:  Stockbridge Capital Partners, a private-equity real estate investment company, founded Yes! Communities in 2008. [37]

In 2016, Stockbridge sold 71% of the company to a joint venture led by GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, that also includes the Pennsylvania Public Schools Employees Retirement System (PSERS).  [38] Stockbridge continued to own 29% of Yes! Communities. [39]

Park Ownership: Yes! Communities owns 266 parks in 24 states with over 74,000 lots.

• More than one quarter (28%) of the lots are in Michigan. 
• 16% of the lots are in Texas.

Brookfield Asset Management 

Private Equity Backing:  In 2017, Brookfield Asset Management acquired 135 manufactured home parks from RHP Properties. RHP maintained a 5% ownership interest as of 2021, and an RHP affiliate continued to manage the day-to-day operations of the parks. [40]

Park Ownership: Brookfield currently owns 120 parks in 13 states with 27,061 lots. 

• 21% of the lots are in Florida. 
• 18% of the lots are in Colorado
• 14% are in Kansas 

Other: In 2021, Brookfield collected a $760 million debt-funded dividend secured by the parks. [41] In 2024, Brookfield sold 19 manufactured home parks, totaling 3,166 home sites in 15 states. The sale resulted in an internal rate of return (IRR) of 24%. [42]

Hometown America

Private Equity Backing:  The private equity real estate firm Calzada Capital Partners has a 98% ownership interest in Hometown America Holdings, which owns Hometown America. [43]

Park Ownership: Hometown America owns 76 parks in 12 states with over 26,000 lots. 

• More than one-third (35%) of the lots are in Florida 
• More than one-quarter (26%) of the lots are in California.  

Other:  As of 2020, the Washington State Investment Board had a 98% interest in Calzada [44] and had made $5.6 billion in commitments to Calzada as of 2022. [45]

Horizon Land Company 

Private Equity Backing:  In 2012, Federal Capital Partners formed a joint venture with Horizon Land Company. [46]

Park Ownership: Together, the joint venture has acquired 169 parks in 21 states with over 24,000 sites. 

• 12% of the sites are in Texas
• 11% are in New York 

Inspire Communities

Private Equity Backing:  In 2017, Apollo Global Management bought manufactured home company Inspire Communities. [47]

Park Ownership: At the time of Apollo’s acquisition, Inspire Communities owned 36 parks with over 13,000 sites.[48] Inspire Communities currently has at least 115 parks in 27 states with almost 24,000 sites. 

• 18% of the lots are in Texas
• 15% of the lots are in Florida 

Havenpark

Private Equity Backing:  The private investment firm Havenpark Capital Partners changed its name to Havenpark Communities. [49]

Park Ownership: Havenpark owns 64 parks in 17 states with a total of 19,121 lots. 

• 28% of the lots are in Michigan
• 15% ot the total are in Iowa

Treehouse Communities  

Private Equity Backing:  Blackstone spent almost $1 billion to acquire manufactured home parks between 2018 and 2020 and operates them through its Treehouse Communities platform. [50]

Park Ownership: Blackstone currently owns at least 70 mobile home and RV parks with almost 13,000 lots. 

• More than 80% of the lots are in Arizona and Florida.

Other: Blackstone has already sold some of the parks. In 2018, Blackstone purchased the Sundowner Mobile Home and RV Park in Apache Junction, AZ for $6.8 million.[51] Blackstone sold the park in 2023 for $10.3 million. [52] 

Riverstone Communities 

Private Equity Backing:  Riverstone Communities is owned by James Bellinson who is the Managing Member of the private equity firm Riverstone Growth Partners. [53] 

Park Ownership: Riverstone owns and operates 53 communities in 11 states with over 10,000 lots. 

• 40% of the lots are in Florida
• 14% of the lots are in Arizona 

Homes of America 

Private Equity Backing:  Homes of America is an affiliate of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital. [54]

Park Ownership: Since 2021, Homes of America has purchased 138 manufactured home parks with over 10,000 lots. 

• 30% of the lots are in Florida 
• 13% of the lots are in Michigan 

Carlyle

Private Equity Backing:  The private equity firm the Carlyle Group first acquired mobile home parks in 2013 when it bought two parks in Florida. [55]

Park Ownership: Carlyle currently owns at least 22 mobile home parks in 3 states with 7,530 lots. 

• 55% of the lots are in Florida 
• 44% of the lots are in Arizona 

 Other:  Carlyle has already sold some of its properties for a hefty profit. 

• Carlyle bought the Plaza Del Rey mobile home park in Sunnyvale, California for $150 million in 2015. Carlyle raised rents for new owners 16% the first year, 22% the next year, and 20% the following year – doubling in five years. In 2019, Carlyle sold the park for $237 million- making a profit of almost $90 million in just four years. [56]
• Carlyle bought the Sun Valley Estates in Florida in 2013 for $18.2 million [57] and sold it in 2017 for $27.2 million. [58] 

Windward Communities

Private Equity Backing:  HomeFirst was acquired by the private equity real estate firm Green Courte Partners in 2019. [59] HomeFirst changed its name to Windward Communities. [60]

Park Ownership: Windward owns 20 parks in 7 states with over 7,000 lots. 

• 38% of lots are in Michigan 
• 22% are in NY
• 16% are in Ohio

Mapping manufactured housing ownership

The three states with the most private equity-owned manufactured home parks are: 

• Florida – 197 parks (39,709 homes)
• Michigan – 109 parks (33,196 homes)
• Texas – 107 parks (23,315 homes)

While Florida and Texas are also two of the three states with the largest totals of manufactured home parks, Michigan has the 13th largest total. [61]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play central role in financing private equity acquisitions

Private equity firms have been aided in their acquisitions of manufactured home parks by the U.S. Government sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Almost half (49%) of the private equity-owned parks identified for this tracker were financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. [62]In contrast, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financed just 9% of all the manufactured home parks in the U.S. [63]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not originate loans directly, but purchase loans from lenders that meet certain criteria and pool them as collateral for mortgage backed securities that they sell to investors on the secondary market. [64]

According to Fannie Mae, it invests in manufactured housing loans “to serve its mission of expanding affordable housing.”[65] “Fannie Mae has been a leading source of liquidity for Manufactured Housing Communities since the early 2000s, and we remain committed to preserving and advancing this vital sector of the housing market,” a Fannie Mae official said. [66]

Freddie Mac states that manufactured housing “just might be the critical source of affordable housing the industry needs.” [67]

However, rather than preserving affordable housing, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have fueled mobile home park acquisitions by private equity firms that have raised rents and fees. For instance, in 2016, Fannie Mae financed a $1 billion loan to Yes! Communities that was backed by 120 manufactured home parks with over 29,000 lots in 13 states. [68]

As part of their mandate to preserve affordable housing, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have begun taking steps to protect manufactured home park residents, although the protections are minimal and don’t have any limit for rent increases. In 2019, the two agencies began offering a lower interest rate to park buyers and owners who agreed to certain tenant protections for their residents. Since 2022, they have required all manufactured home park buyers and owners who receive Fannie or Freddie-backed financing to implement those protections. [69] Those protections include: [70]

• One year renewable leases, unless there is good cause for non-renewal;
• Providing 30 days’ notice of rent increases;
• A 5 day grace period for rent payments
• 60 days’ notice before selling the park 
• Some measures that make it easier for residents to sell their home, such as the right to put a for-sale sign on the property.

Problems at private equity-owned manufactured home parks

The ABC affiliate in Central Florida reported about tenants at a Yes! Communities park in Gainesville who were “in an uproar over living conditions.” According to the report, residents “said they informed management about mold, roaches, and security deposits not being returned in a timely manner.” One renter recounted the problems that she faced after she complained to management about a crack in her bathtub. They removed the bathtub and found mold and mildew in the walls. According to the tenant,  Yes! Communities said “they were going to gut the entire bathroom and redo it along with the walls,” but instead they just painted over the mold. Another tenant said that he had been waiting a year for an exterminator. [71]

• A 2021 Capitol News Service article detailed what happened following Havenpark’s acquisition of a number of parks. [72]
  • Havenpark hiked the rent and charged new fees, increasing the cost to residents by 40%, at the Swartz Creek park in Michigan. 
  • Havenpark immediately announced rent increases up to 60% after buying the Golfview Mobile Home Court in Iowa. One resident’s costs increased from $283/month to $500 due to higher rent and utility charges. 
  • After Havenpark bought Midwest Country Estates in Iowa, Havenpark refused to renew the lot rental agreement of a woman on disability without giving her a reason for the eviction. She had no choice but to move out and had to quickly find a buyer for her mobile home and had to sell it for less than half its value. 

Residents of Riverstone Communities’ Oak Grove Mobile Home Parkin Boulder, CO went without water for a week after a main break. State law requires manufactured home park owners to provide adequate water within 12 hours of service interruptions. Riverstone provided residents 8 oz water bottles, about which a representative of the county’s department of health said, “That would not meet my definition of adequate.” Several days later, Riverstone finally provided a water tanker to service the 275 homes in the park. However, city council members criticized Riverstone for failing to provide “a method and means of transporting water to individual homes.” Instead, residents had to use their own containers and struggled to tote heavy buckets across the park. This was the fourth main break at the park since Riverstone had acquired it. [73]

In 2024, Riverstone Communities agreed to a $1 million settlement with residents of its Indian Creek Mobile Home Park in Garner, NC who brought a class action lawsuit about the company’s “rent-to-own” scheme.  The lawsuit alleged that Riverstone treated the residents as owners when it came to Riverstone’s obligation to make repairs but as tenants when it came to evicting tenants “without providing proper notice or other protections afforded by law.” [74]

Hometown America agreed to a $500,000 settlement in 2021 of a class action lawsuit brought by residents of the Oakhill Mobile Park in Attleboro, MA for allegedly failing to provide adequate storm drainage and failing to maintain driveways and walkways. [75] Hometown America admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. 

The Washington Post reported in 2021 that Horizon Land Management allegedly charged residents a higher rate for water and sewage than what they would have been charged directly by the county. Residents also alleged that Horizon did not fix leaky underground pipes, which resulted in higher charges to them. Residents said that when they complained, they were threatened with eviction.  Residents said that before Horizon bought the park, the cost of water and sewage was included in the monthly rent. However, under Horizon’s ownership, one resident reported being charged amounts for water and sewer as high as $790 one month. [76]

After Homes of America purchased the Six-O-Five park in Virginia, it raised the lot rent 40% from $445 to $625 and added fees for water and sewer service. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported about the difficulty that this caused for the low-income residents relying on social security or disability. One resident said that after paying the higher rent and fees, “that leaves me $13 a month to live on.” “We are people (and) we want to be treated as such,” the tenant said. [77]

The Osceola News-Gazette reported on problems at Homes of America’s Lake Runnymeade Mobile Home Park in Florida, noting that “sharp spikes in monthly rents have gone together with unusable amenities, unprotected areas, withheld lot titles, and poor water conditions that still persisted despite the rent increases.” One tenant said he didn’t have running water for days. A state representative who visited the park said, “There were glasses of water that looked like iced tea. You can’t increase lot rents and keep putting people at risk at the same time. This neighborhood breaks my heart.” [78]

Protecting residents of manufactured home communities

Even in the face of multi-billion-dollar, multinational investors, residents are joining together and fighting to protect their communities. Across the country, manufactured home residents are organizing, researching the real estate and private equity investors that have bought their communities, engaging their public officials and allies, and building coalitions.

They are demanding their homes, economic security, and health be protected from the impacts of short-term speculative investment and that private equity firms and institutional investors take steps to minimize the negative impacts of their investments on manufactured home residents.

They also believe that local, state, and federal governments play a critical role in protecting manufactured home residents from exploitative community owners and stemming predatory investments. They call for the following intervention:

Preserve affordability

The critical mechanism for protecting residents from exploitation and preserving affordability is stabilizing rent and fees, including lot fees, rents paid by tenants, and utility costs. Corporate owners determine rent and fee levels and should work directly with residents to ensure that rents are reasonable.

Local and state governments should establish rent regulations to stabilize rents and protect against unconscionable rent hikes. Such regulations allow for reasonable and gradual rent increases. Government regulations should protect against other abusive rent and fee practices, including demanding transparent, itemized billing, limits on passing on communal utility costs, and ensuring moratoriums on rent collections when homes are destroyed in disasters.

Preserving affordability also requires local governments to use local zoning and regulatory powers to allow for the development of manufactured home communities and protect existing communities from closure and conversion.

Prohibit unjust evictions

In addition to rent hikes, a key strategy of corporate community owners is aggressive eviction. If evicted, manufactured-home owners can often only resell their home for a fraction of what they paid for it or cannot resell at all and hand it over to the corporate owner. The residents leave the community with no equity – and, in many cases, no other home.

Renters of manufactured homes face a similar fate, some after investing in their home through a rent to own contract. Further, without protections against unjust eviction, residents may hesitate to register complaints about maintenance problems or to negotiate rent hikes out of fear of losing their homes.

States must enact good cause eviction laws to prohibit such manufactured home eviction mills. Good cause eviction laws enumerate allowable reasons for evicting a resident, such as nonpayment of rent or criminal activity, and mandate a notice period, an opportunity for the resident to cure the cause for eviction, and due process for eviction proceedings. And, critically, when there is no good cause for eviction, the community owner is required to offer the resident a renewal lease when the existing lease expires.

Homeowners should receive fair market value for their home if they are priced out or evicted and the park owner takes title to their home. 

Ensure safe and healthy community maintenance

As the owner of the land and all common spaces, the corporate park owner is responsible for keeping the community habitable, safe, and healthy. Another mechanism for extracting short term profits out of these communities is limited or even decreased maintenance. This leads to health and safety risks for residents, from sewer system failures to unplowed roads. Park owners, especially those with deep pockets, must invest in community infrastructure and safety and on-site managers.

Local, state, and federal government must ensure that community owners are held to a strong code of maintenance, implement transparent systems for residents to have input on maintenance, and have on-site managers. Basic standards include safe walkways and roads, well-maintained water and sewer systems, tree clearing, elimination of standing water, and accommodations for people with disabilities.

Ensure fair and equal treatment of residents

To feed their business model, corporate community owners also use their power to push vulnerable residents into exploitative arrangements and discriminate and retaliate against residents. Through consumer protection and civil rights laws and meaningful private and public enforcement of those laws, local, state, and federal governments must ensure residents are protected from:

• Retaliation for organizing their neighbors, speaking up, complaining about community conditions, or otherwise attempting to enforce their rights or protect their community;
• Discrimination at the hands of corporate investors on the basis of race, national origin, familial status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion, age, or other protected classes, including exploiting residents based on their language proficiency or immigration status;
• Fraudulent or exploitative lease terms, such as rent to own contracts that deny residents basic tenant protections and force them to lose the investments they made in the home;
• Corporate community owners serving as exclusive real estate agents and controlling homeowners’ right to sell their home, which often leaves residents with no choice but to abandon their homes, while corporate community owners benefit at their expense.
  

Institute transparent, meaningful complaint procedures for residents

Residents need a clear path to report problems with health and safety risks, mismanagement, lease provisions, invoices, and any other problems in their communities. This is especially true when the owner of their community is an out-of-state investor that they do not know and cannot contact. Community owners need to institute transparent, meaningful complaint procedures and states should require them.

Provide a meaningful path for resident or public community ownership

A critical step to protecting the affordability, viability, and safety of manufactured home communities is creating a path for residents or non-profit or public agencies to own them. Around the country, cooperative ownership of manufactured home communities has proven to work. When residents own their community, families and seniors can afford to stay and they invest in their community, its buildings, amenities, and infrastructure.43

State government can provide a meaningful path for resident or public ownership.

• Effective laws: Require the community owner to notify the residents, including but not limited to resident associations, as well as local and state governments, whenever the owner receives an offer to buy the community, is putting the community on the market, or intends to change the use;
• Give residents a sufficient waiting period to decide if they want to purchase the community and make an offer;
• Require seller to negotiate in good faith with the residents and offer them the right to purchase the community if they can match the existing offers;
• Provide public resources to help the residents, public agency, or non-profit finance the purchase; and
• Enforce residents’ rights and penalize non-compliance by community owners. 

Stem predatory investments

We believe that the federal government and the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) play a key role in developing and sustaining affordable housing and healthy communities. We must ensure that the government is using its powers to protect low-income people from predatory investments and is not pressured by investors to support wealth extraction from low-income communities.

Manufactured housing is one of the three underserved markets that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are required to serve as part of their obligations under the Duty to Serve Program. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must increase financing opportunities for residents, government entities, and nonprofit organizations to purchase manufactured home communities. By reducing the housing quality and increasing the expenses for manufactured housing residents, private equity investors are decreasing access to manufactured housing for those who rely on it.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should also take steps to prevent their other investments from undermining their duty to serve the manufactured housing market by requiring all purchasers to commit to the following as a condition for their financing, in addition to the current pad lease protections. 

• Preserve affordability with gradual rent increases and prohibit unfair lease terms like rent to own contracts and excessive fees
• Maintain safety and habitability with regular property maintenance and responsiveness to resident
• Make it easier both for individual households to purchase a manufactured home and for residents to buy their park.

Research Methods

Our list of parks is based on park listings on the websites of the individual companies and property records from Lexis Nexis. We identified parks that are private equity-owned through a combination of news sources and the data provider Pitchbook, which tracks private equity firms and deals. It is likely that there are other private-equity owned parks that were not identified here since private equity firms are generally not required to disclose acquisitions, so many deals are not publicly disclosed. Our list provides an approximation based on the best available data.

See our other work on PE-owned housing

Tools for Tackling Corporate Landlords, Part 3: Combatting Consolidation through Pro-Competitive Policy Reforms, Portfolio Caps, Transfer Taxes, and Right of First Refusal  (December 2023) 

Progress Residential and the Racial Wealth Gap: How One Corporate Landlord Has Extracted Over $60 Million in Wealth from North Minneapolis and Hennepin County   (June 2023)   

Tools for Tackling Corporate Landlords, Part 2: Challenging State Preemption of Local Affordable Housing Initiatives  (June 2023) 

Progress for Who? Progress Residential Preys on Renters as It Buys Up Homes in Tennessee and the U.S. South  (April 2023)  

Tools for Tackling Corporate Landlords, Part 1: Landlord Registries, Licensing, and Proactive Inspections (April 2023) 

Blackstone Comes to Collect: How America’s Largest Landlord and Wall Street’s Highest Paid CEO Are Jacking Up Rents and Ramping Up Evictions   (March 2023)  

Investing in the Housing Crisis: An exploration of the North Carolina public pension system’s relationship with Landmark Partners and the Single Family Rental Industry  (November 2022)  

The National Rental Home Council: How America’s Largest Single-Family Landlords Put Profit Over People   (May 2022)  

Pandemic Evictor: Don Mullen’s Pretium Partners Files to Evict Black Renters, Collects Billions from Investors  (April 2021)  

A “Hostage” Strategy for Housing Investment? TPG Capital Partners with RV Horizons to Purchase 78 Manufactured Home Communities (March 2020)  

Private Equity Giants Converge on Manufactured Homes (February 2019)

Citations

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/us/mobile-home-park-ownership-costs.html#:~:text=Real%20Capital%20Analytics%2C%20a%20market,among%20the%20country%27s%20largest%20landlords.

[2] The four largest private equity firms in the U.S. are Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, and Apollo. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/best-private-equity-firms/

[3] Data compiled by University Neighborhood Housing Program and Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Community Power Initiative, on behalf of the Tenant Union Federation

[4] https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105615.pdf, p. 46. There are approximately 51,000 manufactured home parks in the U.S. From 2008 to 2022, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financed 4,813 loans to manufactured home park owners.

[5] https://www.wealthmanagement.com/property-types/mom-and-pop-manufactured-home-communities-might-be-next-frontier-investment-sector

[6] https://www.inspirecommunities.com/our-communities/

[7] Blackstone bought a portfolio of homes from Tricon Capital for $172 million in 2018. In 2020, Blackstone bought a portfolio of parks for $200 from Legacy Communities and a portfolio from Summit Communities for $550 million.

[8] Burks, Steve. 2020. “Carlyle Group acquires 4 Mesa mobile home parks for $230M.” AZ Big Media, June 15, 2020. https://azbigmedia.com/real-estate/carlyle-group-acquires-4-mesa-mobile-home-parks-for-230m/.

[9] https://www.multihousingnews.com/jpmorgan-chase-originates-489m-loan-for-mhc-portfolio-deal/

[10] Data from PESP Hospital Tracker, obtained through LexisNexis.

[11] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/us/mobile-home-park-ownership-costs.html#:~:text=Real%20Capital%20Analytics%2C%20a%20market,among%20the%20country%27s%20largest%20landlords.

[12] https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/articles/2022-12-manufactured-housing-help-solve-housing-crisis

[13] https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/john-oliver-takes-on-pe-over-mobile-home-investments

[14] https://www.svvoice.com/sunnyvale-mobile-home-park-residents-protest-skyrocketing-rents-every-saturday/

[15] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/us/mobile-home-park-ownership-costs.html

[16] https://myhome.freddiemac.com/renting/lookup and https://yourhome.fanniemae.com/calculators-tools/renters-resource-finder

[17] https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105615.pdf, p. 46. There are approximately 51,000 manufactured home parks in the U.S. From 2008 to 2022, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financed 4,813 loans to manufactured home park owners.

[18] Innovations in Manufactured Homes and National Consumer Law Center. 2021. “Promoting Resident Ownership of Communities.” pg. 1. https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/manufactured_housing/cfed-purchase_guide.pdf.

[19] Manufactured-housing consumer finance in the United States,” US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Sept 2014, p. 8

[20] Manufactured-housing consumer finance in the United States,” US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Sept 2014, p. 9

[21] https://furmancenter.org/thestoop/entry/manufactured-housing-is-a-good-source-of-unsubsidized-affordable-housing-except-when-its-not-part-1

[22] Ibid

[23] Ibid

[24] https://www.matthews.com/thought-leadership-manufactured-housing-update/

[25] https://capitalmarkets.fanniemae.com/media/23431/display

[26] https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/data-spotlight-profiles-of-older-adults-living-in-mobile-homes/full-report/#:~:text=As%20of%20February%202022%2C%20approximately,reported%20living%20in%20mobile%20homes.&text=This%20number%20represents%20nearly%20one,older%20living%20in%20mobile%20homes.

[27] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511482.2021.2013284?scroll=top&needAccess=true

[28] Ibid

[29] Ibid

[30] Lien, Tracey. 2017. “In Silicon Valley, even mobile homes are getting too pricey for longtime residents.” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2017. https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-silicon-valley-mobile-homes-20170504-htmlstory.html.

[31] https://www.manufacturedhomelivingnews.com/what-rights-do-mobile-manufactured-homeowners-leasing-land-have-facing-eviction-of-your-mobile-or-manufactured-home-from-a-mobile-home-park-or-manufactured-home-community-legal-resources/;https://filearchive.nclc.org/manufactured_housing/cfed-freedoms_guide.pdf

[32] William P. Stalter, IV to PSERS Investment Committee. 2018. “PSERS Yes Holdings LP.” pg. 4,  https://www.psers.pa.gov/About/Board/Resolutions/Documents/2018/res01.pdf

[33] “Mobile Homes: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” HBO, Apr 7, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCC8fPQOaxU

[34] https://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/28/housing-crisis-rent-prices-costs-mobile-homes-landlords-reno-sparks/70056767007/

[35] https://time.com/5565832/john-oliver-mobile-homes-last-week-tonight/

[36] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/11/trailer-park-king-sued-by-residents-in-texas-for-raising-rents

[37] https://www.linkedin.com/company/yes-communities/, https://www.perenews.com/gic-invests-in-us-manufactured-housing-owner/

[38] https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/16/gic-among-investors-buying-71-percent-of-us-property-firm-likely-valuing-it-above-2-billion.html

[39] https://stockbridge.com/property/yes-communities/

[40] https://www.fitchratings.com/research/structured-finance/mhc-commercial-mortgage-trust-2021-mhc-us-cmbs-05-04-2021

[41] Ibid

[42] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-09/brookfield-fund-sells-325-million-of-manufactured-home-sites

[43] https://announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20180820/pdf/43xgmmn8ctdv90.pdf

[44] https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5f7f54a64653d019629f25da

[45] https://realassets.ipe.com/news/wsib-invests-750m-in-real-estate-operating-firms-through-calzada/10060622.article

[46] https://fcpdc.com/federal-capital-partners-acquires-manufactured-home-portfolio/

[47] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwivy-6wqv6EAxX7lYkEHX44DysQFnoECBIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmergr.com%2Fapollo-global-management-acquires-inspire-communities&usg=AOvVaw0XbqfkLvQKqRHCdlUmX18l&opi=89978449

[48] https://mergr.com/apollo-global-management-acquires-inspire-communities

[49] https://homeless.cnsmaryland.org/2021/01/17/wall-street-investors-pricing-americans-out-of-last-bastion-of-affordable-housing/

[50] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-26/blackstone-is-said-to-make-first-bet-on-manufactured-housing#xj4y7vzkg ;https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/blackstone-said-to-boost-mobile-home-bet-with-550-million-deal

[51] LexisNexis.com, BREIT Sundowner MHC LLC bought the park from Tricon COB Sundowner on 6/29/18 fo $6,768,000

[52] LexisNexis.com, BREIT Sundowner MHC LLC sold the park to Sundance Village LLC on 8/11/23 for $10,280,000

[53] https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bellinson-2460325/

[54] https://www.npr.org/2022/11/26/1139266706/after-gutting-local-newspapers-hedge-fund-alden-global-is-going-after-mobile-hom

[55] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304330904579135654261763692

[56] https://www.svvoice.com/sunnyvale-mobile-home-park-residents-protest-skyrocketing-rents-every-saturday/

[57] Lexis.Nexis.com, CRP/CRE Sun Valley Owner LLC purchased the park from Shamrock Millco Sun Valley LLC on 11/19/23 for $18,250,000.

[58] LexisNexis.com, Sun Valley Venture I LLC purchased the park from CRP/CRE Sun Valley Owner LLC on 9/19/17 for $27,250,000

[59] https://greenwichgp.com/2019/02/20/gcg-advises-on-the-sale-of-homefirst/

[60] https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/257320-99#overview

[61] https://www.mobilehomeuniversity.com/audios/the-mobile-home-park-market-review-49-states-in-49-minutes

[62] Data compiled by University Neighborhood Housing Program and Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Community Power Initiative, on behalf of the Tenant Union Federation

[63] https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105615.pdf, p. 46. There are approximately 51,000 manufactured home parks in the U.S. From 2008 to 2022, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financed 4,813 loans to manufactured home park owners.

[64] https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105615.pdf

[65] https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/originating-underwriting/mortgage-products/manufactured-housing-product-matrix#:~:text=Fannie%20Mae%20invests%20in%20manufactured,high%2Dcost%20and%20rural%20areas.

[66] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/federally-backed-financing-driving-mobile-home-rents-rcna77168

[67] https://sf.freddiemac.com/working-with-us/affordable-lending/duty-to-serve/manufactured-housing

[68] https://www.fanniemae.com/newsroom/fannie-mae-news/fannie-mae-finances-its-largest-manufactured-housing-deal-and-supports-29000-families

[69] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/federally-backed-financing-driving-mobile-home-rents-rcna77168

[70] https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105615.pdf

[71] https://www.wcjb.com/2022/07/16/residents-upset-with-yes-communities-property-management/

[72] https://homeless.cnsmaryland.org/2021/01/17/wall-street-investors-pricing-americans-out-of-last-bastion-of-affordable-housing/

[73] https://boulderbeat.news/2019/02/13/boulder-mobile-home-park-water-crisis/

[74] https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/garner-mobile-home-park-residents-reach-settlement-with-property-owner/

[75] https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/500-000-settlement-reached-between-tenants-owner-of-attleboro-mobile-home-park/article_35cbd0a4-936a-5ee6-a81e-ad84ba95a568.html

[76] https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/07/27/these-tenants-say-their-landlord-overcharges-them-water-so-they-use-rainwater-instead/

[77] https://richmond.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/with-rents-rising-mobile-home-residents-have-nowhere-to-go/article_477178b6-f9a7-11ed-841a-4b456a416c9d.html

[78] https://www.aroundosceola.com/news/starks-bill-may-help-mobile-home-residents-get-answers

The Private Equity Manufactured Housing Tracker was created by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project in partnership with Manufactured Housing Action. MH Action empowers residents to build and win local, state, and national issue campaigns that protect and strengthen the long-term viability and affordability of their communities.