Park owners stuggle with vacancies, abandonments, unreasonably high property taxes,rising utilitly costs, the disappearance of retail finance options and more and more unfunded EPA, and health department mandates, while no “bailout” of our clients seems to be in sight. Manufacturerers are cutting back, or in the case of Patriot homes, which was our major supplier, closing down entirely.
As the same time as I see larger parks sitting at 50% vacancy and cutting their rents, and smaller parks closing down completely for various reasons, and few newer parks in construction, I also see older homes are being torn down and taken to the landfill or recycled at an unprecedented rate… and retailers of new homes are disappearing.
While a poor economy usually benefits this business, I’m not seeing that this time around (altho it’s still early) and I’m beginning to wonder after nearly 50 years in this business, what does the future bring for the manufactured home industry?
I think that in the next 10 to 20 years we will be seeing a very different type of manufactured home park.
What are some of you seeing as the future of the industry?