State of the Market - Guest: Dr. Charles Becker, Duke Professor of Economics

The Mobile Home Park Broker's Tips & Tricks To Investing

MHP Podcast Episode 12: Dr. Becker Interview

In this episode, we interview Dr. Charles Becker, a Duke University professor of economics and leading expert on the national economics of mobile homes and the mobile home park industry.

As always, this episode is hosted by Maxwell Baker, co-founder of The Mobile Home Park Broker, and brought to you by our proprietary Community Price Maximizer. With our system, we at MHP Broker guarantee you a higher price when you later sell your mobile home or RV community.

Here Are The Show Highlights:

• Duke University professor Charles Becker was introduced as a leading national mobile home park industry expert and author of academic articles on park evaluations, zoning and other factors that influence rents. He’s the man! (Max, 0:22)
• Becker’s recent and extensive research has shown the following trends: Mobile home parks thrive in less populated areas where there’s less zoning, and that’s where tenant rents are lower. (Dr. Becker, 1:54)
• While the South follows that pattern of still being able to base mobile home parks in less populated regions, rents are slowly escalating here. (Max, 3:38)
• Another cost factor is the climate. In the South, housing doesn’t have to be as high quality construction because insulation costs are lower and there’s no high volume of snow being dumped on roofs. (Dr. Becker, 4:16)
• The reduced need for higher quality construction has led to more mom and pop mobile home parks in the South because the cost of entry in the industry is lower than it would be in harsher weather conditions. (Max, 5:43)
• There are big qualitative differences in parks even in the same regions. (Dr. Becker, 6:40)
• There’s a trend for some parks being converted into tiny home communities. These seem to have more appeal to a more educated market than mobile home parks. (Max, 7:21)
• Many metro areas are booming post-COVID while nearby rural areas are suffering. That’s been a boon for city-based mobile home parks as a way of providing housing for those urban dwellers who can’t afford higher apartment or stick housing rents. (Dr. Becker, 11:39)
• Becker sees a trend in which the quality of mobile home housing rises and the stigma against the communities is reduced as more people need the rent relief this housing provides. (Dr. Becker, 21:42)

Want to know more about trends in the mobile home park industry? Just drop me a line at [e-mail] or give me a call at 678-932-0200.

Power Quotes From Max and Dr. Becker on Episode 12:

• “...facts, probabilities, and variables. Those are the three things that we are concerned about when it comes to evaluating risk on these mobile home communities. “(Max, 1:18)
• “It's a real tight market, it's very responsive in the areas around especially thriving cities. Then you have, you know, on the other side, you have fairly remote small towns and rural areas, especially up north where population is beginning to drain out.” (Dr. Becker, 1:54)
• “Up in the Midwest and up north a lot rents are higher up there organically, it seems. And I was reading in your paper that it has to do with just the unavailability of land in causing rents to rise because of zoning…” (Max, 3:38)
• “...(lower rents are) because of the availability of land and the lack of zoning down here” (compared to higher rents up north) (Max, 3:38)
• “…all kinds of housing is going to be lower, because structures don't have to be as well insulated and you (don’t) have tons of snow falling on your roof.” (Dr. Becker, 4:16)
• “...here in Georgia, 80% of the mobile home communities are going to be 30 units and below. And it's just the majority of them are mom and pops.” (Max, 5:43)
• “(Metro) areas are experiencing economic growth that we could not have imagined until fairly recently. But it's sucking the life out of some of the rural counties surrounding it.” (Dr. Becker, 11:39)
• “You have small mom and pop manufactured home parks all over and demand for those has to be rising because normal folks can't afford the central city rents that have taken off as these areas have experienced booms.” (Dr. Becker, 11:39)