'Gouged Unmercifully': States Consider Rent Control Amid Flood Of Private Equity Into Manufactured Housing Manufactured homes have been a vital source of market-rate affordable housing for years, but a tidal wave of private equity entering the sector has residents and lawmakers worried about the notable increase in lot rents that followed. Politicians in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and several other states have passed or are eyeing legislation that would limit annual lot rent increases. That has real estate professionals and industry advocates on edge that such efforts could create roadblocks for owners looking to make capital improvements and chill a market that has grown hotter by the year. 
“It goes against basic economics,” Mary Gaiski, the executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Manufactured Housing Association, said of rent control legislation under discussion in the Keystone State and neighboring New Jersey. “We need to allow the market to work how the market is supposed to work.” Rent for some of the… Read the full story here. | 
