Jean Lightfoot had her final years all mapped out: She would sell her house in Hopkinton when she turned 80 and use the proceeds to settle comfortably into a retirement home.
But watching her neighbor, Tom Ryerson, struggle to unload his home at the Meadows of Hopkinton, the same manufactured housing community Lightfoot calls home, has given her serious doubts.
Ryerson listed his two-bedroom, two-bathroom manufactured home for $229,000 in January. Since then, he’s been forced to slash his asking price to $179,000, a 20% drop and $35,000 less than what he paid. He’s had little interest in the property, not because of anything wrong with the house itself, but because of a figure that stopped potential buyers cold the moment they heard it: the house comes with a lease for the land of $1,285 a month.
That’s the fee any new owner would have to pay to keep the home on in the park, which is nearly double what he pays, a consequence of the park’s takeover by an investment firm.
“I was devastated because all I could think was how this is my nest egg,” Lightfoot said, realizing she might not get what she expected from selling her house.“I don’t have any other savings, really. This is it.”
The 70-lot park, which includes a six-unit apartment building, was sold in December to Sado Parks, a Michigan-based investment firm, and with the new ownership came new terms, including steep rents for new owners and small increases for existing residents.
Originally owned by the Price family, both Meadows of Hopkinton and Deer Meadow, another nearby park, were sold to Sado Parks for $12.8 million, leaving many residents uneasy from the start of negotiations through the sale.
Two years ago, Ryerson thought he had found his forever home.
His house at Meadows of Hopkinton wasn’t flashy, but after his divorce, it was exactly what Ryerson needed – a community where neighbors look out for each other.
Earlier this year, Ryerson decided to list his house to move north to be with his girlfriend.
He bought his 1,200-square-foot home for $215,000 in 2024 and wanted to list it for $249,000. But with prospective buyers balking at the steep rent, he dropped the price twice on his real estate agent’s advice.
Even at the lower amount, a new buyer would pay roughly $2,677 a month to live there, even with a 20% down payment.
Lowering the price feels like his only option to sell the house. Most people in the park live on fixed incomes, he said.
“I had not had any hits since we put it on the market,” Ryerson said. “We’ve had a few calls, but then they find out that the rates they rent are going to go up to almost $1,300 a month plus taxes. Then it’s a no.”
In manufactured housing communities, residents own their homes but lease the land beneath them. They also pay property taxes to the local municipality, an arrangement that makes monthly lot rent a critical factor in affordability.
Joel Mazur, CEO of Sado Parks, said the higher rents help the company earn a return on its investment after restructuring park management and maintenance, while also funding future improvements and upkeep.
“If no one ever vacates and the units don’t actually sell, we wouldn’t be making a modest profit,” he said. “For us to kind of bridge that, we recapture it when homes turn over. We’re cognizant that legacy renters have been there a long time, and we don’t want to disrupt people’s lives overnight; super sensitive to that.”
‘Taking our equity’
Last year, when the two parks were put up for sale, residents tried under state law to form their own resident-owned cooperative and buy the parks, but they were unsuccessful.
Resident-owned cooperatives operate as nonprofits, aiming to cover the costs of maintaining the park without turning a profit. This structure helps keep fees more manageable for residents, even if expenses rise.
New ownership brings new rules, and those changes can hit residents hard — especially anyone hoping to sell a home.
Years ago, Lightfoot and her friends made a pact: when each of them turned 80, they would move into a retirement home in Concord. That milestone is approaching for Lightfoot this November.
She had counted on selling her home to fund the next chapter of her life. But now she isn’t so certain.
“I spent many nights waking up thinking about this,” Lightfoot said. “I kind of just have to concentrate on what I have, where it is and what’s going on and just keep planning like I’m going to move. As you get older, it gets harder. I don’t have anyone to help.”
Lightfoot hasn’t listed her home yet, but she’s preparing.
Folding tables lean neatly against the wall, ready to be packed. The rooms echo, stripped of furniture she had sold or given away, with faint outlines lingering in the carpet where pieces once stood. Fresh paint brightens the walls as she plans to list the house in the spring.
Lightfoot hopes to sell her three-bedroom home for $238,000, but she said that if she or any other homeowners in the community have to lower their asking prices, it would not be fair to the residents.
“He’s taking our equity from our homes and the new buyer’s equity from their homes,” Lightfoot said of the park’s owner.
Removing a home from the park and locating it elsewhere is an option, but it’s costly, and the new owners need a place to put it.
Tax revenue at risk
New Hampshire leads the nation with at least 152 resident-owned cooperatives, but when parks are purchased by out-of-state investors, rising rents have forced many residents to leave. Keeping them locally-owned doesn’t always keep costs down either.
In Hopkinton, residents of two parks will see their lot rent increase by $35 this March, bringing it to $680. If the residents’ cooperative had purchased the park, the projected rent, including maintenance costs, would have risen to $1,010, an increase of about two-thirds.
State Sen. Tara Reardon, a supporter of resident-owned parks, said steep initial rent increases tend to stabilize under the cooperative model. She said investor-owned parks often promise only modest increases but end up pricing residents out before they realize it, making it difficult for them to sell their homes.
“Those residents are actually trapped,” said Reardon. “The real travesty here is that they own their homes. They’ve paid for their homes over the years and built up value in those homes.”
While the rent changes directly affect only the two manufactured housing parks in Hopkinton, they could have ripple effects across the entire town.
Homes that might have sold for higher prices in previous years are now likely to sell for much less, which in turn lowers their assessed value and the property taxes residents pay.
This gradual reduction in the tax base affects individual homeowners, not just the parks themselves, and could impact the town’s overall revenue.
Reardon said that higher lot rents could also push homeowners into financial trouble, prompting them to seek town assistance.
“The tax bill for a town is a pie,” said Reardon. “When any piece of that pie shrinks, in this case, the value of manufactured housing in these communities, it’s got to be picked up by everybody else. The town still has the same bills it always had.”
The financial impact of lower home sale prices is only part of the burden. For residents like Ryerson, the toll is deeply personal.
He wants to sell his house as quickly as possible. He said there might have been an opportunity to hold onto it longer if the Price family had remained the owners.
“This whole thing just hasn’t been healthy for me at all. It’s ruined my life,” Ryerson said. “It’s not fair to me. It’s not fair to everybody else in this park.”