Mobile home parks, condo owners face higher monthly rent, fees
Michael Cousineau, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
5 min read
Jul. 26—As if increased housing costs, higher interest rates and skyrocketing insurance premiums weren't enough, many in New Hampshire also are grappling with higher monthly payments to their manufactured-home park or condo association.
When real estate agent Crystal Bullerwell helped broker the sale of a manufactured home in Belmont last year, the monthly rent for the lot and a share of the housing community's expenses had gone up more than $130 a month between the time the parties signed a contract and when they finalized the deal.
The seller agreed to make up the difference to ensure the buyer "didn't walk away," Bullerwell said last week.
When last year's buyer put the property up for sale this May, Bullerwell discovered the lot rent was going up to $923 a month this summer — nearly another $100 increase.
"A lot of people who called, once they heard the lot rent, they said, 'Thank you for your time' and hung up," she said.
Even so, that home went under contract 20 days after hitting the market.
Higher costs also are translating into higher monthly fees for those living in homeowners associations (HOAs), which are organizations that collect fees to pay for common area upkeep and other expenses, such as snowplowing and a community pool.
"The two biggest components (of HOA fees) are insurance and then utilities for common areas," said Lester Fehr, whose Hampton company manages about 700 housing units in New Hampshire.
Insurance costs alone have soared 26% in a year, said Fehr, owner/operator of PMI Green Rock.
Monthly HOA fees are anywhere from 5% to 25% higher than last year, Fehr said.
Some housing communities also have added special assessments on top of that to cover unexpected expenses, such as flood damage in Seacoast communities, Fehr said.
About 35% of New Hampshire's population lives in homes with a homeowners association, the sixth-highest in the nation, according to RubyHome Luxury Real Estate, which cited work by the Foundation for Community Association Research.
Vermont tops the list at 46%. The national average is around 30%.
Mobile home vs. apartment
Someone buying a $185,000 manufactured home with 20% down would pay around $960 in principal and interest a month on a 30-year mortgage, nearly as much as the Belmont mobile home park charged for its lot rent.
Derry resident Carol Duffy said her 40-year-old daughter was looking for a place to buy.
"She can afford between a $200,000 and $300,000 house, but there's no such thing in New Hampshire, so the mobile home parks are where you can," Duffy said.
The family's research uncovered lot rents between $500 and $1,000 a month.
"When you add the (lot rent) fee on top of the mortgage, what you've ended up with is basically what you'd pay for a $400,000 to $450,000 house, and they can't afford that," Duffy said. "I think the state needs to pay attention to the options for these young people."
By one comparison, manufactured homes are still cheaper than renting an apartment.
The cost for a manufactured home's mortgage, lot rent and insurance averaged about $1,525 a month in New Hampshire, according to figures provided by the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.
That is less than the statewide median cost to rent a two-bedroom apartment, which was $1,764 last year, according to New Hampshire Housing.
"You're owning a wealth-building asset that you can sell," said Sarah Marchant, the loan fund's chief operating officer and vice president of ROC-NH, which helps residents buy their mobile home parks.
Fewer than half of all manufactured home parks — about 150 in New Hampshire — are owned by their residents, who vote on budgets that determine their lot rents, she said. Those 150 communities collectively contain 9,000 homes.
Resident-owned parks are "not looking for a profit," she said.
Reason for the rise
In recent years, more private equity investors have been buying parks in New Hampshire, often charging more in lot rents than those in resident-owned communities, Marchant said.
Marchant said that since 2016, at least 10 New Hampshire manufactured-home parks containing about 2,900 homes have been purchased by out-of-state investors for a combined $245 million.
"This trend speaks to how desirable these parks are in the market," she said. "They are strong assets."
The most recent community purchased by its residents is a Deering manufactured home park. Matching another offer, they paid $5 million with financing from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, according to the loan fund's website.
Just this year, the residents bought their complex and renamed it the Contoocook River Cooperative, edging out a Las Vegas investment group.
Janette Lochmandy, secretary of the Contoocook River Cooperative board of directors, recalled that five years ago she spotted a manufactured home for sale two doors down from her mother's house in that Deering park.
"I wasn't actually looking, but the price was too good to give up. It needed a lot of remodeling," said Lochmandy, 41.
She paid cash in 2019 and moved in right before the pandemic struck.
The park has 84 homes but can expand to 98, Lochmandy said.
The sale, approved by residents, meant her lot rent increased by more than $100, to $585 a month.
Still, "I couldn't afford a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment by myself even though I make decent money," she said. "I'd be broke."
