Investment companies are buying up mobile home parks across the country, including in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys.
It’s part of a trend away from family-owned parks and toward out-of-state real estate interests, and it often results in higher rents in neighborhoods that have historically been a source of affordable housing.
Longtime local journalist John Stroud has been covering the impact of this on mobile home parks in the valley as well as efforts to protect residents from being priced out.
Aspen Public Radio sat down with Stroud to talk about a story he reported this fall for Aspen Journalism.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Eleanor Bennett: Can you start by telling us a little bit more about the mobile home parks in our community? How many are there and who lives in them?
John Stroud: So give or take, there's probably about 50 mobile home parks stretching from Aspen to Parachute. And those parks range in size from some small ones, you know, five or six spaces, to the larger parks that are more obvious with 300 spaces are typically kind of the top end. You know, this is a big part of the affordable housing in our area. And so it's typically the worker bees that live in these parks, families, a lot of retirees and some of our elderly population. A lot of people have lived in these parks for 20, 30 years and a big percentage of our Hispanic population also lives in these mobile home parks.
Bennett: As part of the story you did for Aspen Journalism back in September, you focused on local mobile home parks getting bought up by investors. Why did you feel it was important to focus on that issue in particular?
Stroud: Yeah, so my curiosity was peaked when some water quality concerns came up at Apple Tree Mobile Home Park, which is just outside of New Castle. And during those conversations, they talked about the fact that the mobile home park had sold. For years, it had been owned by the Talbott family from the New Castle area, and it had sold in 2020 during the height of the pandemic to this company called Investment Property Group out of Park City, Utah. So I got to looking at the property sales records and it turns out that, yeah, it had changed hands for the tune of about $23 million. So that was the first indication that, 'Wow, this might be a trend.' And so I got to looking and there are some of these investment groups that are coming in and buying up some of these parks in our area.
Bennett: And that one, the group you just mentioned, they also bought up a few other mobile home parks in our area, is that right?
Stroud: Yeah, so in my research, I found two other mobile home parks — the Mountain Valley Mobile Home Park in Carbondale and the Aspen Basalt Mobile Home Park in Willits — had also been purchased kind of in that same timeframe by the same company. You know, there's a lot of real estate speculation going on all across the country, and these mobile home parks are pretty hot commodities out there.
Bennett: Another part of your reporting that stood out to me was you looked at, you know, not just the fact that these parks are being bought up, but also what changes happen after that occurs and how some of the issues like rising rents may be exacerbated by that purchase. Can you tell us a little bit more about the challenges that you saw in mobile home parks because of these purchases?
Stroud: Right. So a lot of what's happening is these companies come in and they want to clean up some things that have maybe gotten out of hand over the years with some of the rules and regulations. You know, how high can fences be, how many outbuildings can people have, you know, sheds and things like that. Can they have air conditioning units sticking out of their windows? So, you know, it is probably an honest attempt to kind of clean up some things that have gotten out of control, but it's on the owners of these mobile homes to do these at their expense. And at the same time, rents are going up. They own the mobile home itself, but they rent the space underneath it so they have that monthly rent that they have to pay. And so those have been going up for the residents that are already in these parks, but even more so when some of those spaces turn over and new tenants come in and they can really jack up the rent on those and, you know, that's where a lot of that expense comes in as well.
Bennett: I want to focus now on solutions because you do spend a good part of your reporting in this article on solutions and efforts in our community to protect mobile home parks and the residents that live there. Can you talk a little bit more about those efforts and who's behind them and whether they're working or not?
Stroud: Yeah, so there has been a lot of effort at the state level in the legislature to address some of the concerns of mobile home owners over the past three or four years. And the primary ones relate to creating some more opportunities for mobile homeowners to band together to buy their parks. So there are some new tools on the books that allow some of that to happen. So if an owner of a mobile home park decides that they want to sell, they now have to give notice to the tenants that the park is going to be up for sale, 'Do you wanna put together a buyout or purchase plan?' And so that was one. Another one was aimed at giving municipalities and counties some more tools to put local ordinances on the books that can also protect mobile home owners.
Bennett: And what did you find in your reporting in terms of how well these solutions are working? It sounds like residents at Three Mile Mobile Home Park in Glenwood Springs were able to buy their park with help from local nonprofit Manaus, but this model hasn't worked for some other communities.
Stroud: So yeah, one example that Manaus referred to was the Roaring Fork Mobile Home Park in Basalt, which is kind of an odd one because it straddles the Eagle and Pitkin county line and is right at the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan rivers. And so they worked with the residents there to try to put together a buyout offer, but ran into some issues with some of the mobile home park spaces being located in the floodplain. And so, you know, in proceeding with that, they would have had to eliminate some of those spaces, which really didn't work out for some of the residents there, obviously. And so that was one of those examples where they thought they were going to be able to put something together, but it created some false hope and they weren't able to proceed after all. Another example is the Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park near Glenwood Springs, where they found out that the purchase price was way more than they were going to be able to come up with to put together a buyout plan. And it has since sold and some of the same concerns that have come up at Apple Tree Park are now coming up there with some of the residents.
Bennett: You also spoke with advocacy groups like Voces Unidas who have helped push for some of these solutions. What do they think is needed?
Stroud: Yeah, so Voces Unidas in particular has been on the front end of advocating for some of this legislation to come about and really on the ground in Denver lobbying for some of this. And what they would really like to work on going forward is some rent stabilization for people who live in these mobile home parks to ensure that rents aren't going up exponentially year after year after year. You know, resident ownership is still a good goal and something that they and other advocates want to see happen, but sometimes it's hard to get there and going after ownership can create some false hope when you think something's going to happen and then it doesn't. So it's one tool, but it's not the only tool and rent control is just as important.
Bennett: Well, John, thank you. We've covered a lot. My last question for you is just, is this all something that you plan to continue reporting on?
Stroud: Yeah, you know, there are many stories that I think can come out of this, you know, in particular around some of the legislation because I think you're going to see more bills related to mobile home parks come up in the next session. I know Representative Elizabeth Velasco is very interested in forwarding some of that around rent issues, rent stabilization, and you know, just general quality of life in these mobile home parks.
