By SHERRY ROBINSON
All She Wrote
© 2025 New Mexico News Services
For many people the most affordable route to home ownership is to buy a manufactured home, and planned communities of these dwellings appeal to retirees. But they often rent the lot.
If the property sells it can throw homeowners into a tailspin.
“For me and many others, living in a 55-plus manufactured home community is a life choice that provides both affordable housing and a supportive, tight-knit environment,” wrote Joanne DeMichele in an op ed.
After the owner sold the property to out-of-state investors, “rents jumped, and services declined.” With repeated rent increases, retirees dipped into savings, “wondering what will run out first – their life savings or their life” while others were forced out.
In Alamogordo, she wrote, more than 100 people living in such a community “suffered for six months without natural gas before the California land investor made the necessary repairs. They are now told to expect another significant rent increase.”
Mobile homes are the second most prevalent housing in New Mexico after single family homes in all but three counties, according to the Mortgage Finance Authority. We have 380 mobile home communities that make up 17% of the state’s housing inventory (the national average is 5.5%), and 36,000 people live in manufactured housing.
Now we’re seeing the same trend in land ownership turnover that has plagued other kinds of rental properties. If the land is sold, residents may have to walk away from their homes because moving them is prohibitive. A manufactured home or mobile home is not a trailer; they can’t just be moved from place to place.
“It’s a huge problem,” Rep. Marian Matthews, D-Albuquerque said. “I have a senior park in my district with 700 residents. It used to be well maintained. Then a private equity group bought the property, maintenance declined, and rents increased. And property owners are scared that after the investors milk the property for a while they’ll sell it and not for use as a mobile home park. Homeowners could lose their entire investment.”
Matthews, who has visited the homes to meet with constituents, notes that they’re nice places to live as well as being affordable. “It’s critical housing,” she says.
She was a co-sponsor with Rep. Cristina Parajón, D-Albuquerque, and others of HB 426, which would have required owners of mobile home parks to notify residents and the Mortgage Finance Authority if they planned to sell the park and give residents a chance to buy the property if they can match price and terms of the third-party offer.
It passed the House 37-26 and died without being heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee, even though Sen. Moe Maestas, the committee’s vice chair, was a sponsor.
Two other housing bills died without being heard by Senate Judiciary: HB 253 would have expunged old eviction records, and HB 339 would have forbidden discrimination based on income source such as vouchers.
Scores of housing bills also fell along the way. It was disheartening to housing advocates because the session opened with great promise for housing.
Two bipartisan bills I liked took aim at housing supply. HB 571 would have incentivized municipalities to reform their zoning codes to encourage construction of affordable housing. It passed both houses unanimously, the Governor’s Office on Housing supported it, but the governor pocket vetoed it.
HB 554, would have made it easier to build multifamily housing in commercial districts and allowed casitas in residential districts. It passed the House but died in a Senate committee.
The only housing bill to become law was SB 267, which requires landlords to disclose all fees up front and limits junk fees.
Matthews plans to return next year with an improved mobile home park bill, but our cumbersome legislative system all but guarantees that a solution will take years, and people are losing their homes now.