{"id":31794,"date":"2023-09-11T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/as-housing-prices-rise-mobile-home-park-values-skyrocket\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:46:25","slug":"as-housing-prices-rise-mobile-home-park-values-skyrocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/as-housing-prices-rise-mobile-home-park-values-skyrocket\/","title":{"rendered":"As housing prices rise, mobile home park values skyrocket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Robert
Robert Ziemer, left, Niechelle Jeffery and Wesley Killinen, interim board members of Bayfield Mobile Home Park, discuss the park\u2019s plans on Thursday to form a co-op so residents can buy the park. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In May, La Plata County Assessor Carrie Woodson informed property owners of a staggering rise in the value of their assets. Based on sales that took place between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022, the median increase in property value was 20%.<\/p>\n

But one category of properties stood out: mobile home parks.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s mobile home parks \u2013 once a bastion of affordable housing \u2013 doubled in value, and rents are following close behind.<\/p>\n

And when tenants such as Alethea Morris, a resident of Durango\u2019s Junction Creek Mobile Home Park, are asked if parks are becoming unaffordable, the answer is unequivocal: \u201cFor a single mama bear who\u2019s got two kiddos in college? Yeah, it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, thanks to Colorado\u2019s 2019 Mobile Home Park Act, park residents retain the right of first refusal when a park goes up for sale. And homeowners in the Bayfield Mobile Home Park are hoping to take advantage of the law, following the lead of two parks in Durango, and form a cooperative of residents to buy the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can make it much more affordable than it is today,\u201d said Interim Co-op President Wesley Killinen. \u201cIt\u2019s a long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anthony
Anthony Kunkel, left, and Aaron McQuade, are residents at Junction Creek Mobile Home Park. Kunkel said the lot rent on his trailer has doubled in the last seven years, noting: \u201cIt\u2019s not like a teaching salary has inflated over the same time period.\u201d (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Rising prices, rising rents<\/div>\n

The MPHA included a handful of critical provisions, chief among them being that park landlords may not raise rent more than once per year.<\/p>\n

The statute is critical to protecting the vulnerable residents of mobile home parks, of which there are approximately 100,000 in Colorado. The homes, which can cost over $100,000 in the Durango area, are often owned by the residents themselves and can constitute their largest asset.<\/p>\n

But with the exception of co-ops, the homeowners have little control over the costs of renting the land underneath their homes. Given that prohibitive cost of moving a mobile home \u2013 often upward of $7,000 \u2013 homeowners find themselves stuck, forced to pay lot rent or abandon their home and asset.<\/p>\n

At the Bayfield Mobile Home Park, rent increased $30 last year, and $50 in the two years before that, Killinen said.<\/p>\n

\"Junction
Junction Creek Mobile Home Park on Wednesday northwest of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty steady increase for being year after year, especially for a lot of the retired people in the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the park was assessed at $1.9 million. By 2022, its value had risen to $3.1 million. This year, its value jumped to $3.69 million, almost a 100% increase from 2020.<\/p>\n

The park was just listed for sale with an asking price of $5.75 million.<\/p>\n

Of the 35 registered mobile home parks in La Plata County, rent increased in 27 of them in the last two years, according to data maintained by the Mobile Home Park Oversight Program. Data was not available for another five parks.<\/p>\n

In Durango\u2019s Junction Creek Mobile Home Park, residents say rent has also gone up steadily as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pay almost double in lot rent than when I moved in here,\u201d said Anthony Kunkel, who has owned a trailer in Junction Creek for seven years. \u201c \u2026 It\u2019s not like a teaching salary has inflated over the same time period.\u201d<\/p>\n

A neighbor of his said she has never paid as much in lot rent as she does in the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it gets worse, I\u2019ll be selling it,\u201d Sheila Rubner, another neighbor, said of her trailer home.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIf
\u201cIf it gets worse, I\u2019ll be selling it,\u201d said Sheila Rubner, a resident at Junction Creek Mobile Home Park, of her rising lot rent. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Operation cooperation<\/div>\n

Skyrocketing rent is by no means a sudden occurrence \u2013 the rising value of parks, driven by real estate investors who see the potential for large returns, has been driving residents out for some years. <\/a><\/p>\n

Animas View was one such park.<\/p>\n

In a 2019 story in The Colorado Sun,<\/em> residents of the park said they were preparing to leave as they faced lot rent that had surpassed $1,000 per month.<\/p>\n

But in 2021, the park went up for sale and its residents formed a co-op. The corporate owners had purchased the park for $9.8 million in 2018, but sold it to the co-op for $14 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That year, it was assessed at $7.6 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re such a cash cow for corporations that they pay a lot of money \u2026 to buy a park, so when a co-op or nonprofit wants to buy a park, they have to pay its market rate, but it\u2019s really inflated,\u201d said the Animas View MHP Co-op board Treasurer Lindie Hunt.<\/p>\n

The Animas View MHP was assessed at $13.3 million in 2023, up from $7.6 million the period before. The increase in value will also mean that property taxes will rise.<\/p>\n

As a result of rising taxes and an increased interest rate, Hunt said the board will increase lot rent by $45 effective in the new year. Rent will likely rise another $15 the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going from about $25,000 a year in taxes to about $41,000,\u201d Hunt said. \u201c \u2026 It\u2019s why we really need that $45 increase, we can\u2019t just absorb it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the increase is still much smaller than it would have been had another real estate investor purchased the park, Hunt said.<\/p>\n

After Animas View MHP became a co-op, Durango\u2019s Westside MHP followed suit. Now, Bayfield could become the third park in La Plata County to come under resident ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s for the future,\u201d Killinen said. \u201cThirty years down the line, once the loan is paid off, we could probably drastically reduced rents \u2026 It\u2019s a long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bayfield MHP residents trying to secure funding, participation to buy park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,453,1413,614],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-housing-and-urban-planning","tag-mobile-home","tag-real-estate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81567,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31794\/revisions\/81567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31794"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}