FRIDLEY, Minn.—Natividad Seefeld, President of Park Plaza Cooperative, recently appeared on a local news segment about the rising monthly site fees of manufactured home communities in Minnesota.
“It’s a big worry, what’s going to happen to manufactured housing if we continue to see outside buyers come in,” said Seefeld in the segment.
Because Park Plaza is resident-owned, their monthly site fee has held steady at $520 per month since 2018. At a nearby community owned by out-of-state investors, site fees have jumped from $694 to $840 in four years.
“People are getting priced out. There’s no justification for the increase in rent other than just pure greed and profit,” said Dave Anderson of All Parks Alliance for Change, a statewide organization for Minnesota’s 180,000 manufactured home park residents working to improve the quality of life in park neighborhoods through education, grassroots organizing and leadership development.
In 2021, out-of-state investors scooped up more than 80 percent of all manufactured home sites purchased.