During Q2 of this year the company expects to close on three more PA MHCs with 482 developed homesites for $9.1 million, and is negotiations for additional properties. The company expects to spend another $100 million for communities during the next few years, as seekingalpha tells MHProNews.
Overall occupancy rose to 82.3 percent from 81.5 percent at year-end 2013, and 1,500 rental units were added over the past two years for total rental units of 2,600 at the end of 2014. Occupied rental homes now account for 19 percent of total homesites. As the result of tight credit standards and limited wage growth, rental units are in higher demand.
For Q4 2014, core funds from operations (FFO) equaled $3.8 million, an increase of 220 percent over the $1.1 million for Q4 2013. Rental income grew 20 percent from $14.1 million to $16.9 million for Q4 over the same quarter of 2013.
UMH has also opened four MH sales centers which generated a loss of $1.9 million for 2014, an increase from the $640,000 loss of 2013, but in the long term UMH expects as sales increase this figure will turn around.
The company has $10.2 million available on its line of credit and owns $63.6 million in marketable REIT securities. Taking advantage of the low interest rates, UMH will refinance a portfolio of their MHCs, raising $55million to $60 million which will provide $40 million to $45 million in available cash.
Chairman of the Board of UMH Eugene Landy says the company is taking advantage of the growing housing market, especially MH rentals, in the Utica and Marcellus gas and oil exploration markets in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and has invested in MHCs in that region. ##
(Photo credit: UMH Properties)
