Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/119220
have realized that cool looking architecture and expensive lobbies are no fun if there are no customers. Manufactured home communities have become the "Rosie the Riveter" of real estate, replacing the old show girls that looked good on the surface but had no economic substance. And the trends are all heading the right direction The demand for affordable housing is accelerating. Wages are declining. There are 10,000 baby boomers per day retiring into a social security income that averages only $14,000 per year. There is not a single economist in the U.S. that forecasts rising affluence. The future is a continuing reduction in American household income. On top of that – and rarely mentioned – is the decline of the U.S. apartment stock that is the only competition to manufactured home communities. Not the new apartments that have a U.S. average of $1,030 per month in rent, but the old class B and C properties that can be rented for around $500 per month. As the professional multi-family operators have sold these off to poorly funded individual owners, the quality and maintenance of these complexes has plummeted. That's another reason that our phone rings off the hook – our competition is also in a state of constant decline. And there does not appear to be any hope that these apartments will not become tenements. Conclusion In only twenty years, manufactured home communities have gone from wallflower to the beauty queen of real estate investing. And there's absolutely nothing on the horizon to take away the trophy. Out of enormous luck, manufactured home communities have done the impossible and ended up in the right place at the right time. If you told someone that twenty THE JOURNAL The Magazine for Manufactured & Modular Housing Professionals No. 11 on Get It Quick Page years ago, they'd still be laughing today. T J Frank Rolfe has been a manufactured home community owner for almost two decades, and currently ranks as part of the 18th largest community owner in the United States, with almost 7,500 lots in 17 states in the Great Plains and Midwest. His books and courses on community acquisitions and management are the top-selling ones in the industry. To learn more about Frank's views on the manufactured home community industry visit www.MobileHomeUniversity.com. our website visit journalmfdhousing.com Visit our website. You can view our current issue, download our media package and subscription form, see our Editorial Calendar and Circulation statistics, plus more. tel: 706-655-2333 news@journalmfdhousing.com APRIL 2013 21 THE JOURNAL