According to Financial Advisor Magazine, 40 percent of the manufactured homes in the 100 cooperatively owned manufactured housing communities in New Hampshire are appreciating in value. Since 1984 the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (NHCLF) has helped organize these 100 communities and began financing MH purchases in 2003, loaning $25 million over the last nine years for residents to purchase 600 homes in New Hampshire. Ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, the default rate on the loans is 1.6 percent. In 2008 NHCLF spun off ROC (resident-owned communities) USA to help organize co-ops nationwide. Studies have shown members of resident-owned communities plant more flowers and are more involved in community activities. NHCLF President Juliana Eades says the homes are appraised and not discriminated against because of age. Commenting on the 8.75 percent interest rate, Eades says, “It’s better than 14% or nothing, and it costs us to do this. We’re a lender and an organizer. Most lenders don’t want to organize, and most organizers don’t know anything about lending. The fact that we’re a lender helps pay for the organizing.” MHProNews learned that three months ago they began offering mortgages on homes sited on land owned by the borrower. Eades gets high praise from the Ford Foundation’s George McCarthy, director of metropolitan opportunity, who says, “Juliana Eades is creative, thoughtful, and willing to take risks and put the institution and the institution’s money on the line to make things happen.”
