Denver’s Yes Communities bought two mobile home parks in suburban Chicago for $43 million.
The firm, which operates manufactured home communities in 21 states, acquired the sites in two separate transactions, Cook County records show. The package includes the Oak Lane Mobile Home Park in Merrionette Park and the Buckhorn Estates in Des Plaines.
The Merrionette Park property, at 11750 South Homan Avenue, contains 223 homes, according to a listing from MHVillage.Yes Communities bought the site for $22 million. The Des Plaines property, meanwhile, changed hands for $21 million. The site contains 143 homes.
Yes is funding the purchase with two loans totaling $29 million. The lender for the mortgages is Kansas firm Keybank Real Estate Capital.
Yes Communities started as a portfolio company managed by Stockbridge Capital Group. In 2016, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC acquired a 71 percent stake in the firm. The deal put Yes’ valuation at more than $2 billion, according to previous reports. The company’s portfolio includes 215 communities with 56,557 home sites, according to a 2019 news release. The firm didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The deal comes as manufactured homes gain ground due to the housing industry’s affordability and supply issues. According to data from the US Census Bureau, home manufacturers are expected to deliver more than 100,000 new homes this year. If the pace of production holds up for the rest of the year, it would breach that mark for the first time since 2006.
A Wall Street Journal report attributed the rise in demand to the low cost of such homes. In 2020, a new manufactured home was estimated to cost about $87,000, excluding the cost of land. That’s far much lower than the $392,000 average price for a traditional single-family home. Excluding the cost of land, the number was $309,000.