CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – An area owner of a manufactured home park spoke out saying mobile homes were still an affordable option for many families.
This week, mortgage rates hit heights we haven’t seen in two decades. It was pricing some people out of the housing market and has others looking elsewhere for affordable homes.
Lending Tree said Iowa has the third lowest mobile home costs in the nation behind Kansas and Ohio. The median price in Iowa was just over $174,000. The median price for a mobile home was $29,000, but in the past five years, Lending Tree said mobile homes grew in value by more than 22% while homes have appreciated by 15%.
Barbra Hames-Bryant is the president of the family-run Hames Homes in Cedar Rapids. She said the rent was going up in many homes but said it wasn’t going up because the owners were trying to take advantage of the people who lived there.
“People need to understand that manufactured housing communities, like apartments, is a business,” she said. “People buy them, invest in them, and maintain them and get a fair market return for them in the form of rent receipts.”
Homes-Bryant said the increase was only to keep up with the housing trends; however, Candi Evans, who lives in Gulfview in North Liberty, said it was more than just about the rent hikes. She said residents on a fixed income could lose their homes.
“They had a 20% increase with this new rent,” she said. “You know that her Social Security wasn’t going up 20% come January.”
At the end of the day, Hames-Bryant said people have choices when it comes to what and where they call home.
“The value of manufactured homes has increased as much as site-built homes in the past several years,” said Hames-Bryant. “Someone who doesn’t feel like they’re getting the value in a manufactured home can sell their home and move to a situation that’s more to their liking.”
Copyright 2022 KCRG. All rights reserved.
.