DOVER, N.H. – Homeowners in Bayview Village Mobile Home Park in Dover, N.H., have purchased their 18-home manufactured home community, making it New Hampshire’s 136th resident-owned community (ROC) and the 269th ROC nationwide.
Using training and technical assistance from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s ROC-NH™ team, homeowners organized and formed Bayview Village Cooperative, last June. The cooperative then negotiated with the community’s owners, William and Cassandra Miller, reached a $889,475 purchase price, and finalized the deal April 1 with mortgages from Northway Bank and the Community Loan Fund. ROC-NH is a ROC USA® Network Certified Technical Assistance Provider.
The cooperative’s volunteer board members were grateful to the Millers for their decision to sell the community to the residents.
“I am very thankful that the sellers gave us this chance without making us compete for the park with other buyers. It allows me to live without fear that the owners will sell it and force me to move,” said co-op secretary Cecilia Kelliher, who has lived in Bayview Village for three years. “I love the location and the neighborhood!”
Board vice president Karla Kingsbury has lived in the community for nine months. “I love this quiet, safe, community and treasure the fact that, as owners, we now can control our expenses and have say in the park management,” she said. “What a great location to retire to!”
Bayview Village Cooperative is Strafford County’s 19th ROC. Those communities contain 1,110 affordable homes.
Cooperative ownership means Bayview Village’s homeowners are now eligible for products and services, including real mortgages, that haven’t been available to them. Studies show that the availability of home financing, when the land is secure, improves the home’s value, the owner’s ability to make improvements, and overall housing affordability.
The more-than-8,300 homeowners in New Hampshire’s ROCs, spread across every county, also have access to management guidance, technical assistance, and leadership trainings in which they earn college credit.
For 38 years, the Community Loan Fund has worked in towns and cities across N.H. to connect people and families with the loans, training and advice that allow them to have affordable homes, secure jobs and quality child care, and become economically stable.
Building off the N.H. Community Loan Fund’s success, ROC USA Network has expanded resident ownership opportunities to 19 more states since 2008, preserving affordability for an additional 10,000 homeowners.
