2 HN users recommended this commentary2 months2019–2025score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN commenters point to it as good, accessible coverage of mobile-home park exploitation by private equity.
A Last Week Tonight segment on mobile homes, showing how large investment companies are making this affordable housing option less affordable. It covers residents who rent land and cannot move their homes.
“(~16-minute Last Week Tonight segment)” (HN, 2024)
How much time do you have? The short version is that while there's not necessarily anything wrong with them in principle, in practice there's a pretty impressive amount of exploitation at nearly every level of the industry. It more closely resembles the dynamics of car sales and financing than it does a downmarket version of conventional real estate. [link] [link] [link] [this video] (~16-minute Last Week Tonight segment)
Segment on exploitation in the mobile home industry.
Wikipedia has an article on manufactured housing, including a picutre and description: [link] It seems to have a specific meaning, and you might expect something different when thinking about "mobile homes" or "prefab houses" in your region. (e.g., I think of something different for prefabs in germany) There also was an episode on mobile homes of last week tonight which i found interesting back in the day: [this video] They often have to rent the land they are on and get stuck there, as they can't transport the houses off.
Residents rent land and get stuck, unable to move homes.
John Oliver, 6 years ago: [this video] I guess PE firms have realized that putting humans into debt that they have to work endlessly to repay is very profitable.
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