Average Mobile Home Lot Rent by State: Costs and Insights Across the U.S.
By Crystal Adkins | Published | 141 Comments
We discuss all kinds of things on the Mobile Home Living Facebook page. Readers can ask questions and get answers in real-time from over 18,000 mobile homeowners across the nation. Recently, a reader wanted to know what other homeowners across the nation were paying for their mobile home park lot rent and what that price included. We asked our readers and received hundreds of answers from all over the nation.
Below you’ll find the average mobile home park lot rent for states with the most mobile and manufactured homes.
A Quick History of Mobile Home Parks
From 1920 to 1930 travel trailers were considered a luxury item due to their cost. When the rare weary traveler decided to park beside the road to rest for the night it wasn’t a big deal. Families and local businesses living on major roadways actually encouraged travelers to stop so they sell hot food, water, and other needed wares.
That quickly changed once mass-production made trailers more affordable and available to the average family. By the mid-1920s those living on the major roadways in the US could expect to see 50-60 trailers every night. Unfortunately, property destruction, trash, noise, and crime became common and trailer owners were soon known for being destructive and wild.
In order to remedy the problems created by so many travelers, townships and entrepreneurs along popular roadway created campgrounds. Wheel Estate claims there were between 3,000 to 6,000 municipal autocamps across the nation between 1920 and 1924. They go on to explain that there was a rivalry between community campgrounds:
“..campgrounds were a source of community pride and an object of rivalry between neighboring towns. To be known as a nice place to stay reflected favorably on the whole community.’
Campgrounds ranged in price from free to fairly expensive. The free campgrounds were often run by the townships and municipals but were eventually closed or turned into a pay by night campground because people would take advantage of the free rent and move in full-time. Time limits were also set so that no one could stay in the campground for more than 2 weeks at a time. Those rules are still enforced today in campgrounds ran by our state and federal governments.
From Campgrounds to Trailer Parks
The evolution of campgrounds to trailer parks was simple enough.
Throughout the 1930’s and 40’s, trailers grew longer and wider and had everything a home had, including a fully functioning bathroom. They were better equipped for full-time living and harder to tow. Since there were way more trailers than tent travelers by the mid-1930’s, many campground owners began prohibiting tent-camping altogether and changed the name to better reflect their intentions. They saw the advantages of full-time tenancy and choosing who lived in their parks. Thus, the full-time trailer park was born.
As with any business or product, there were different kinds of trailer parks. The lack of regulation or codes for trailers allowed for many landowners to just set up a park overnight. They offered little to no amenities but were cheap. There are records of corporations developing luxury parks with professional city planners and architects as early as the mid-1930s.
You can read more about how the trailer park stigma began here.
The more expensive parks had gorgeous views, paved roads and pads, streetlights, laundry facilities, and playgrounds. The lower cost parks were located in the not-so-nice areas of town and had dirt roads that turned to mud when it rained.
From Trailer Parks to Mobile Home Parks
At the end of 1953, there were about 12,000 trailer parks in business around the country. Florida had around 1,500 parks and those park owners were reporting that 40% of their tenants were living in their homes full-time. It’s thought that about 1,000 new parks opened that year.
Trailers cost between $2,800 and $6,500, depending on amenities and size. The average mobile home park lot rent in 1953 was $25 per month and that rate included utilities.
The Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association decided to break into two different entities in 1953. The builders that would focus on larger units made for full-time living started using the term mobile home and called themselves the Mobile Home Manufacturers Association.
The builders that decided to stick with smaller units intended for hunting and vacationing would stick with the term trailer.
That’s how the first name change and industry ‘transition’ occurred. The second name change would take place in 1976 when the HUD code took effect. They decided they wanted to call the homes manufactured instead of mobile. You can read more about that in my article titled No, I Will Not Stop Using the Term Mobile Home.
Vintage Mobile Home Park Lot Rent Advertisements (1955)
The images above show pages from a 1955 issue of Trailer Travel Magazine. We thought they were interesting and wanted to share them with you. There are no rates on many of the ads but the amenities and offerings are neat to read. Here are a few of the more interesting ads:
Alabama: COURT STREET TRAILER PARK
1263 S. Court Street Montgomery, Ala. A clean, modern and homelike park. Restaurant with real home cooking. Quiet location near two trading centers. Well behaved children and pets welcome.
Arizona: LAZY-AS-CAN-B COURT
Box 294 Sedona, AZ on beautiful Oak Creek. New, Modern, Quiet 110/220 Hookups, no meters, trailer size no object, children and pets welcome. Swim, Fish, Hike, Relax.
California: PENROSE TRAILER PARK
Largest trailers accommodated. Paved streets, patios, lawns, trees. Modern laundry, recreation hall. Hot and cold water at each space, natural gas. Near Lockheed.
Connecticut: PILOTS POINT TRAILER PARK AND BEACH CLUB
Smack on the beach. Westbrook, CT. Southern New England’s only seasonal park on the sea and sound. Brand new spaces for 50 trailers. Introductory rates $100.00 and up for the season. Light, power, and sewage. We reserve the right to refuse admittance of mobile homes that are not in well-kept condition. Exclusive membership. No transients.
Florida: LINGER LONGER RETIREMENT TRAILER PARK
Tarpon Springs, FL. 50 spots, some spaces 36 x 50 ft. Toilet connections, Recreation lodge, music lounge, and a mammoth fireplace. Cement patio lots $15.00 per month. Without patio is $12.00 per month. Special 10-year lease if desired. Year ’round occupancy. Pull in pick your spot and we will make you comfortable. NO PETS.
Indiana: TED’S TRAILER TOWN
Live in our strictly modern park. Close to lake, beaches, fast bus, and train service. 220 spaces. Children and adult sections. 3 minutes to downtown Gary. 45 minutes to Chicago Loop. Trailer Sales….New and Used. Pacemaker – Great Lakes – Westwood – Ironwood. USED $25.00 down. NEW $197.00 down. “Every size, every price, for every need.”
PS Tenant-Owned and 55+ Parks are Special
Before we get into the current mobile home park lot rent numbers, we need to stress two things: 55+ parks and tenant-owned parks are extremely different from regular mobile home parks. They are so unique that we don’t think they should be included in this article at all. We think they both deserve their own articles and hopefully, we can make that happen soon.
Tenant-owned parks are in a class of their own and cannot, or should not, be compared to regular parks. Tenant-owned parks are superior in many ways and hopefully will become more common as financial institutions realize the many benefits that come from tenant-owned parks. You can learn more about them on ROC’s website here.
Mobile Home Park Lot Rent Across the Country
Arizona
Arizona is a popular retirement destination and that means there are a lot of mobile homes. They are a great option for retirees that want to downsize and live in a more manageable home, after all. The dry heat and gorgeous scenery is a just a plus. One of our readers stated she pays $398 per month for a single lot in Tucson. The lot rent includes an indoor pool and clubhouse but all utilities are separate.
There is a place called The Cozy Peach at Schnepf Farms that rents out 10 vintage campers (including Spartans, Westwood, and Airstreams). You can read about Arizona’s glamping scene on their website here and learn more about the camper reservations here.
California
There are a ton of mobile homes and mobile home parks scattered around the gorgeous state of California. Unfortunately, mobile home park lot rent and homes aren’t as affordable as they are in the rest of the country because of the housing shortages in several cities. Still, you get to live in California so even paying extra seems fair.
One of our readers in Sacremento told us they pay between $612 for the lot rent and around $80 for water and sewer, gas, and trash pickup.
Our friend in the Central Coast area pays $707 for lot rent and that includes trash, water, and lawn maintenance.
The Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park and the Blue Skies Mobile Home Community are two of the most iconic and well-known parks in the nation. There’s also a place called Desert Sands Vintage Trailer Park that looks like all kinds of awesome.
Delaware
A reader told us that she pays $800 per month for her lot rent but that she is in a nice park that would be considered ‘high class’ for the area and that it includes sewer, trash, pool, and a clubhouse.
Florida
Florida is the home of one of the first parks in the country, Parsley Trailer Park. It offered some amazing things like ballroom dancing, full community parties, boat docks, indoor pools, and gorgeous views.
We received 3 reports with mobile home park lot rent running around $400 ($390, $400, and $440). This includes trash pickup and lawn care. Another reader said she pays $601 per month and only gets trash pickup.
Tenant-Owned Park in FL
We have a reader on the Gulf Coast of FL that lives in a tenant-owned park and she pays a whopping $128 per month for the lot rent, water, sewer, trash, and lawn maintenance. The park has a pool and a clubhouse. See the difference between for-profit parks and tenant-owned?
Georgia
One of our Georgia readers said she paid $425 per month for her mobile home park lot rent and gets cable and trash pickup. Another reader reported $300 per month with trash only.
Illinois and Indiana
Illinois and Indiana fell in the same range and offered similar amenities. A reader in Indiana reported their mobile home lot rent to be $320 with trash pickup. Our Illinois reader reported $370 with trash pickup.
Iowa
Iowa had the lowest mobile home park lot rent. Our reader stated she paid $140 per month for the lot rent itself and an additional $25 for trash, sewer, and snow removal. That sounds like a great deal!
Kansas
Kansas reports in at $255 per month and that includes trash, cable, and internet. There is also a pool, clubhouse, and a storm shelter in the park. Wow, Kansas sounds like a great deal!
Kentucky
We received 2 reports for Kentucky and both were for $350 a month.
Maine
Worchester, Maine has a park with lot rent at $381 per month. This price includes cable, trash, and snow removal.
Michigan
Michigan reports in at $330 with no utilities or amenities included.
Minnesota
Our reader in Northern Minnesota pays $258 for just lot rent. A reader in the Minneapolis area pays $425 but that includes trash.
Missouri
Missouri seems to be a very affordable state for mobile home park lot rent. One reader reports paying $185 for a 100′ X 200′ foot lot with sewer and water included.
New York
One reader told us that she pays $400 per month in Western New York and only water is included.
Ohio
One reader pays $240 a month for lot rent, trash, and snow removal.
Oklahoma
A mobile home park in Oklahoma City charges $316 per month for lot rent, water, and trash pickup.
Oregon
We were told one reader pays $554 per month in Western Oregon and that includes sewer and water.
South Carolina
The South Carolina coast is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation (or so I heard on the news) and property and rent prices are getting steep.
We received two reports, one for $280 per month that included nothing and another for $550 that included a boat dock, pool, trash, and sewer.
Texas
Texas has 19 manufactured home factories and there are a lot of parks. A park in Belleville, TX charges $225 per month and that includes trash and water. A Greenville park charges $242 for lot rent and a pool.
Utah
Our UT reader seems to have a decent deal going on. She pays $450 for lot rent, trash, pool, and a full-time handyman that can help her with small repairs. How cool is that?
West Virginia
Mobile home parks are affordable in West Virginia. For a small park with older homes you can expect to pay $250 month and that will include trash.
Conclusion
As you can see, living in a mobile home park lot rent varies drastically across the nation but it’s still one of the most cost-effective housing choices.
Be sure to read the comments below, dozens of readers have shared their park’s rent and amenities from across the country.
We’d love to know how much you pay for your mobile home park lot rent. Add it in the comments below!
As always, thank you for reading Mobile Home Living!
141 Responses
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We live in a seniors community in northwest Indiana Our current lot rent is 325 but is raising to 475 the 1st of the year. It includes water and sewer.
In RI the rent in the 55+ park also gets raised every year so it doesn’t mean those parks are any better. We almost bought a home in one last year when the rent was 520 but our home inspection turned up some issues so we bought elsewhere, Anyway the rent in that park this year is 594. The home we bought is in an all ages park. The rent is 574 and only includes trash pick up. We pay our taxes on the home plus we get billed for the owners taxes on the land. We don’t have a pool and the streets are crumbling and full of pot holes.
The whole system of renting the land that your home is permanently attached to (which most mobile and manufactured homes are) is the biggest scam since the days of owing the company store more than your company paycheck each week. It is designed to take advantage of people who have little to no bargaining power and lack the resources to relocate to a better situation. The mobile and manufactured homeowners literally get none of the benefits of home ownership but do get all the expenses of maintenance, repairs and property taxes on a depreciating, immovable dwelling. The park owners get all the advantages of ownership but without any of the normal expenses associated with a rental property such as maintenance and repairs and implied warranty of habitability. Simply put, it’s a legal loophole that allows the landowner to get something for nothing by taking advantage of the weakest members of society such as the elderly, disabled, working poor and families with dependant children. It’s the very definition of predatory practice and contributes greatly to the creation and maintenance of a permanent class of disenfranchised Americans. It also violates the principles of property rights and basic fairness that all property owners (whether real or personal, tangible or intangible) are supposed to enjoy. The laws should protect the homeowners interests instead of just the landowners interests. Anything less than co ownership status( tenants in common) is government sanctioned property theft or alternatively known as redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich.
In SW Ohio in rural area farming community lot rent is $300 no utilities but water, sewer, trash min is $15mo avg. is abt $30 actual for 2 person living in the home.
North Carolina in most parks charge is 325 per month.
Southern New Jersey: I pay a monthly lot rent of $610 which includes water, sewer, trash and snow removal
Friendly Village of ORANGEWOOD , Phoenix, AZ . a Kingsley property. $775 – $825 . Grounds unkempt, amenities down too often, gate open too much, water off regularly and without notice, difficulty getting title from landlord (Kingsley properties)
Currently I am a manager of a mobile home/RV park in the southern part of New Mexico. I currently rent mobile home lots for 550.00 a month and 450.00 a month for RV lots. Park pays for water, sewer, trash and electricity. Will be raising rents to 650/and possibly 500 on RVs.
I don’t believe there is such a place as Worchester, Maine. However, you can add our lot rents to your list. Our parks are in Lisbon, Maine and the rent in one is $300 per month–the other, $330 per month. (Includes water, trash and pickup of recyclables and unwanted household items.)
Having been in the mobile home business for 47 years, the rules we have in place are based on practicality and years of experience, plus adherence to Federal and State laws. If some park rules seem frivolous or unfair, there is usually a valid reason for their existence.
Live in Clearwater Florida in a 55+ community. My lot rent is 695.00/mo. and includes water, sewer, trash and lawn care. This park has a swimming pool, club house, pool room and game area
We live in the Mesa Dunes Mobile Home Estates in Arroyo Grande, California. Our lot lease increases by an additional 4% every year. Since we moved in here 5 years ago, our lot lease has increased by $300 PER MONTH. We are now at the point that we HAVE to move because we cannot comfortably retire and stay living here. People are moving out like crazy but, people are still buying in this park because they don’t know how it catches up to you. We’ve been told that when the single wides are up for sale, they will be torn out and replaced with a double wide and the lot lease will start at $1500/month. Now, this does include water, sewer and trash.
Hi I live in Poughkeepsie NY and I pay $515 for lot rent, water, trash pickup, and snow removal.
You forgot about the cost of lot rent for the of Pennsylvania, and where I live we are totally responsible for paying for all our taxes County, Utility, local school taxes, and our personal tax. I agree that living in a mobile home park or community is affordable some park owners let their parks run down resulting in badly needed road repairs and badly needed water line replacement!!!!
and the cost of our lot rent is $260.00 s month which includes garbage and sewer, here and there it goes up. I’ve lived in our park for 15 years and it was $150 a month when I first moved in and wish our park owners would fix our roads in here
What area is your park, just curious seems like everyone’s else rent doubles in that amount of time.
TX
Bill
What part of Pa. do you live?. I live in Bensalem in a park. I pay $560 a month now but we got a notice it’s going up $10 in July. I also pay all those same taxes. I’ve lived here for almost 8 years and started out paying $490. Our lot rent includes sewer and garbage.
You must live in MY MHP! It certainly sounds like a *** property!
Hello! Just started to get your emails. Enjoy reading it. However, I’m surprised i have not seen anything on Connecticut.
So, just to let you know, in Naugatuck, CT , we pay $467.00/month. This includes snow removal (of little they do do) plus trash and water.
Hi! I live in Long Island New York. Lot rent here, by law isn’t allowed to increase more than 3% each year. Currently Lot Rent is $766. per month. I pay my own taxes. Rent includes trash, water and streets snow plowed.
In my 55+ community I pay $550/ month but that includes sewer, trash, water & expanded cable. Northern IL
675 in Madison, Wi
I’m about 12 miles west of Atlanta, GA. I pay around $536 a month which includes water/sewer/trash. Without that, it’s $447.00 a month. They are diligent and exact with who they let in. Keeps the riff raff out. I’ve lived here, Golden Estates MHP, for 5 years and really like it. Lots of trees and good communication between people who live here and management.
I noticed you did not have Washington state in your list for space rent prices. I see why, like everything else in Washington state the prices are outrageous! In King county the average price for space rent is over $1,000.00 a month and you are lucky if they throw in an extra or two. If my kids were not here I would move out of this state. The counties surrounding King are very close in price also.
Why wasn’t New Mexico included?
We shared the ones we could find. Would love to hear about New Mexico!
If you are renting ANYTHING then you are getting screwed. Imagine what your life would be like if you didn’t have to pay rent or a mortgage. You should be able to just own something and pay some property taxes, say less than $1000/year. If we had a free and fair housing market then you could live the dream and not just imagine it.
I worked for a good company for 20.5 years and then our subsidiary was sold to one of those ‘at will’ companies. A year later at an all-staff meeting of the new company we were criticized for not giving enough to the poor. They asked if anyone had any suggestions. Near the end of the meeting I went to the front of the room where I’d be more easily seen and heard. I did about 5 minutes explaining my situation in the mobile home park. I suggested that we campaign for an end to exclusionary zoning so I could place my singlewide on a residential lot and just pay some property taxes instead of paying lot rent. The lot rent back at the mobile home park near Detroit is probably $5000/year by now. My property taxes were $705/year once I relocated my singlewide to a residential lot about 55 miles NE of Cincinnati.
Two days later they called me into the office and asked if I’d like to resign my position. They said that I said that people didn’t have to give to the poor. What I said was that here is something that didn’t require donations of time or money such as Habitat for Humanity. Just empower people to get their own affordable housing. I told them that I would never tell anyone how to spend their time or their money and that NO, I did not wish to resign my position. So they put me on six months of probation and fired me just under six months later.
The next morning was the happiest day of my life. They called me and said they’d be willing to pay a third party to help me find a new job. I told them I would not file for unemployment and would just retire. I had a plan B. Six months later I relocated my singlewide to a residential lot about 55 miles NE of Cincinnati. My working life income, all from wages, is $699,000. I estimate that I could’ve saved $100K more than I did if we just had a free and fair housing market. I paid apartment rent for 17.5 years and lot rent to a mobile home park owner for 18 years.
The property taxes the first year were $705. When I hit 65 I qualified for a homestead property tax credit. Last January my property taxes were $93. As I said, the lot rent back at the mobile home park is probably $5000/year by now. When I hit 65 I started getting a small pension from the good company where I worked for 20.5 years. I waited until I was 70 to start getting social security.
When I was 55 I bought a single premium immediate life annuity. When I was 58 I bought a second one. Then I bought a third one using all of my 401K money when I was 59.5. All three annuities pay me in total $1,065/month for life. If I had gotten sucked into a 30 year mortgage I wouldn’t have saved anything for retirement and I wouldn’t have bought any annuities. I’d have lost that home because I wasn’t able to save for retirement until my last job and that job only lasted 22 years.
If I had borrowed $100K at 5% and paid it back over 30 years then I would’ve had to pay back $193,255.40. That is MORE than what I paid for all 3 of my life annuities. Plus I would’ve had to pay higher property taxes on a more expensive home and I would’ve had to carry property insurance. So when Joe Biden or Mike Bloomberg say acquiring an expensive home is a way to accumulate wealth and financial security then NO. That is disinformation. Housing is an EXPENSE and you will ALWAYS need some place to live. An expensive home consumes your wealth and creates financial insecurity.
As long as a home is not a threat to anyone’s health or safety then any restriction against that home is a misapplication of the police power, to protect the health and safety of the community at large. Don’t worry about who your neighbor might be. We are ALL Americans worthy of dignity and respect. The bedrock principle this country was founded on is that we ALL have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Shelter is a necessity of life. A free and fair housing market is pure capitalism. It is also the golden rule. If Joe Biden wants to bring the country together then it starts with housing. Freedom doesn’t mean the freedom to take away someone else’s freedom.
I’m in Oregon in a small college town. Our rent just went up to $620, but that includes water, trash and basic cable.
I’m in Wisconsin, saw that you didn’t have any lot prices for my state. Here lot rent is between $400-500 and usually includes trash and snow plowing. Some places have sewer and water and even pools or clubhouses.
“Affordable” is relative, isn’t it? If you’re a senior, living on SS and not much else, there are few places we can live anymore. I’m in Central Florida. I can’t afford to be here after my lot rent got bumped yet again (and the park manager promises it will go up every year). The states with the lowest lot rents are places I wouldn’t enjoy living (too red, most of ’em). I already live in a red area in a purple state, and I don’t feel comfortable here. Trump signs are STILL up, half a year after he lost.
You should be able to place your mobile home on a residential lot and just pay some property taxes. I made a long post if it passes the moderator.
I really enjoyed the information in your long post. I live near Bozeman , Mt, where average home prices and rent has sky rocketed. It is becoming cost prohibitive to live here. I own some acreage at the end of a non-incorporated semi rural residential area. I am thinking it should be developed into a mobile home park. Is there such a thing as rent first, establish some sort of reliability, then option the renter to buy into ownership?
If you wish to respond, would like to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for the article on mobile home rents. Just wanted to share our rents compared to those in the article… My husband and I live in a park model mobile home (400 ft.² ) in an RV park in Lake Havasu City, AZ. Our huge monthly lot rent is $1,421.00 per month, which includes water and a community pool. We have no park store, and little-to-no landscaping. Our rent was raised 8% a year and a half ago, and we here talk that is going to be raised again another 8%. Living in an RV or mobile home seems like a deal because the housing is initially much less expensive than an actual home, but the lot rents are not stable and are very costly at this rate, it is like paying a mortgage, but you don’t have the benefit of owning the property.
Wow thanks for sharing! That lot rent is crazy. Have the owners gave any reason for the huge jumps in rent?
I read recently that large corporations are buying mobile home parks and raising rents, they see it as an investment income.
Delaware is a small state and doesn’t usually get much attention but I have found that it’s an affordable and wonderful place to live! 10 years ago we had a major financial disaster and were forced to leave our home in Maryland. We had almost no money but expected to get Social Security in a year or two. We had to find a place that we would be able to afford on a very limited income and after searching the entire country we decided Delaware was promising. After searching the net we found a few places under $10,000 and finally settled on a 1980 single-wide for $8000 that was livable but needed repairs soon. It’s in a park that’s very clean and safe and we are only about 2 miles from the beach!
There is plenty of shopping and everything else you could want The lot rent now (2021) is $515 a month (average for the area)and includes trash/recycling/yard waste pickup, outdoor pool membership for us and all of our friends and family, and lawn care. We eventually ended up putting about $25,000 into the repairs/remodel (new subfloor and flooring throughout, 19 new, energy efficient windows, complete bathroom and kitchen replacement, new outside doors, etc.). I would still like to get a new A-frame roof and new siding but I have to wait until I can save the money. I really love it here in Delaware and am so thankful that we found such a great place to live!
Tampa Florida and our old park, under new ownership, has gone from mostly rentals to rent to own. If you already own your place the lot rent went from 550 up to 625. If you buy your trailer and pay for it all at once your lot rent will be 695. These units are 1960’s so maybe 3 grand of value at best. Right now water and garbage is all that is included.
Time to move.