mobile homes

The measure was intended to help more than 300 residents of Friendly Village Mobile Home Park in Gorham, who are trying to buy their community.

Housing advocates have said that the bills will support Maine resident cooperatives in purchasing their parks and prevent large, out-of-state real estate investors from coming into the state.

Residents of the Cedar Falls Mobile Home Park voted over the weekend to purchase their community for $8 million.

The referendum was written by residents who tried unsuccessfully to purchase their parks for more than $40 million this past spring.

The residents of the Linnhaven Mobile Home Center, now the Blueberry Fields Cooperative, appear to be the first to successfully use a new Maine law requiring that mobile home residents be given advance notice of a park sale.

Gov. Janet Mills and other state and local leaders are planning to celebrate with residents this week.

Out-of-state investors are in the process of purchasing several large parks in southern Maine for tens of millions of dollars each, leaving nearly 700 households wondering whether the new owners will increase the rent or evict them from their homes.

The Old Orchard Beach residents formed the Seacoast Village Cooperative and matched the $40.4 million offer but learned Thursday that it had been rejected.

A few months ago, residents at two mobile home communities in Old Orchard Beach learned that their parks were being sold to an unknown buyer for $40 million. Now, the residents are trying to purchase the communities themselves. And a growing number of mobile home communities in Maine are facing similar challenges.

The new law requires that the landowners of manufactured home parks give residents advance notice if they plan to sell the property. It also gives residents an opportunity to collectively make an offer on the land within two months, and secure financing to complete the purchase within three.