Housing

On "Florida Matters," hear reporting from WUSF’s "Not So Forever Homes" series. This is a collection of stories documenting the spiraling lot rents at manufactured home communities.

Homeowners in Florida are being quietly priced out of their communities. People often own their manufactured homes but rent the lot underneath them.

Floridians who live in manufactured home parks are often older, retired people on fixed incomes who bought property with hopes it would be their “forever home.” Now, lot rents are pricing them out.

Todd and Mary Cruikshank moved to Riverview from Wisconsin. The new homeowners soon discovered hidden fees tacked on like water used a decade ago.

Retiree Judy Schofield moved from Connecticut to a home in Haines City. She took on a part-time job to help keep up with her bills due to rising lot rent.

Dara Brown was priced out of the home she owns in Riverview after her lot rent jumped from around $400 to about $1,000 a month. She was evicted in April.

Melissa Preen moved to Florida with her parents in 2015. After her parents moved back to Ohio, she stayed to take care of the house. But the cost kept increasing to the point where she started donating plasma twice a week to get money to survive.

Alta Roosevelt will feature 655 parking spaces, including the current 519-space garage. Wood Partners plans to build 267 one-bedroom units and 104 two-bedroom units, and 10 apartments will feature three bedrooms.

On May 30, the Trump administration sent a finalized budget request to Congress proposing a 43% cut to rental assistance programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

It's one of more than 120 affected nationwide after the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the program, which provides housing, training and assistance, is not effective and costs too much.

The university's Shimberg Center for Housing Studies found housing prices to be stabilizing after many years of growth. However, it says buying a house will still create financial stress.

The housing market in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan statistical area (MSA) dropped 19 spots in the hottest-market forecast for 2025, according to an analysis by Zillow.