Mobile Home Park Drive Through

[William Stanhope]

I have been reading and studying information about mobile home parks.  One of the things that you read is several places is that there is always room for low cost housing (more now than ever).   My wife and I used to live in a mobile home park for about 13 years.  We understand and appreciate the value that type of housing was to us at that time in our lives.  We decided to do a drive through a park near us the other day out of curiosity.    I was surprised to see that probably 25% of the lots were vacant and that another 10-15% had "home for sale"  signs (and it was clear that no one lived there, we found out later these were for sale by the park).

We checked Craigslist and found that lot space rent was $585 (trash/water/sewer) in that park.  Another park (closer to the city and more full)  but in the same area has lots listed at $625/month (trash/water/sewer/basic cable).  In the area you can rent 2 bd apartments for about $800 - $900/month.

What could be going on at the first park?  Have they priced themselves out of the low cost housing market?

Has anyone ran into a situation where the park was charging too much and had to lower rates to fill the park?

When the real estate market crashed a few years back, did any park owners have to lower their lot rates (i.e if house cost are dropping doesn't the bottom have to drop as well)?