Vermont Mobile Home Park Market Data: Parks, Lots and Lot Rent

Mobile home park market size in Vermont

Vermont has roughly 240 mobile home parks containing about 7,200 lots, which works out to an average of roughly 30 lots per park. That makes Vermont the 42nd-largest state by park count and the 47th-largest by lot count among the 50 states in this dataset.

Put in national terms, Vermont holds about 0.5% of the roughly 45,740 parks and 0.2% of the roughly 4,012,300 lots tracked nationwide. The average park size of about 30 lots is a useful yardstick: a target park well above it is an institutional-scale asset, while one well below it is a small operator-owned community with different financing and management dynamics.

These counts are estimates compiled from U.S. Census manufactured-housing data, MHI reports, and state-level MHP surveys, and they move slowly — new parks are rarely built, and existing parks leave the count mainly through redevelopment. Treat them as a planning baseline for the Northeast market, not a precise census.

Lot rent levels in Vermont

Average lot rent in Vermont runs approximately $480 per month, which is close to the national median and ranks Vermont 25th-highest of the 50 states. Lot rent is the single most important number in an MHP model, because it is the recurring revenue line that occupancy and rent growth both act on.

The statewide average is a starting point, not a price-setting input. Lot rents vary widely by submarket within Vermont: metro-area parks commonly run well above the state average, while rural parks often sit below it. When you benchmark a specific park, weight it against comparable communities in the same submarket rather than the state number.

Because Vermont sits in the Northeast region, its rent level reflects that region's cost of living, land supply, and demand for affordable detached housing. Rising site-built home prices and rents continue to push households toward manufactured housing, which supports lot-rent stability even where headline growth is modest.

The size of Vermont's lot-rent economy

Multiplying Vermont's roughly 7,200 lots by the average lot rent of $480 per month implies an aggregate lot-rent economy on the order of $41 million per year. This is a derived estimate, not a surveyed figure: it assumes full occupancy at the average rent, so real collected revenue is lower and varies with vacancy and the spread between low and high rents across the state.

At the individual-park level, an average Vermont park of about 30 lots at the state-average rent would gross on the order of $14,400 per month in lot rent before expenses, vacancy, and any park-owned-home income. Actual results depend heavily on occupancy, the tenant-owned-versus-park-owned home mix, and utility cost recovery.

The reason this math matters is that MHP is valued on stabilized net operating income. Small, durable moves — filling a few vacant lots, recovering water and sewer costs, trimming turnover — compound across a park of this size, which is why operators focus on occupancy and expense discipline rather than one-time rent spikes.

Regulatory climate and the Vermont investment picture

Vermont has statewide rent regulation reaching mobile-home lots, and that fact sits at the center of any acquisition model. When the pace of lot-rent growth is capped, value creation shifts away from aggressive rent increases toward infill of vacant lots, occupancy gains, expense control, and utility cost recovery. Lenders and buyers price the capped rent trajectory in, which tends to hold pricing slightly more conservative than in unregulated states of similar size.

The upside is predictability: a statewide rule means one compliance playbook across the whole state rather than a patchwork of local ordinances. For a multi-park Vermont operator, that uniformity lowers the cost of running the portfolio and makes performance easier to forecast. Read this page alongside the Vermont rent-control and lease-law guides for the statutory detail behind the numbers.

On valuation, a word of caution about cap rates: brokers have reported stabilized manufactured-housing-community cap rates nationally in a broad band roughly from the high-5% to the mid-7% range through 2024 to 2026, but that is an industry-wide, national band and not a Vermont-specific figure. Where a particular Vermont park prices within it depends on its size, occupancy, home-ownership mix, financeability, and the rent-regulation factors above. Anyone quoting a precise Vermont cap rate should be able to show you the comparable sales behind it.

Market data at a glance in Vermont

• Park count
  About 240 mobile home parks — 42nd-most of the 50 states, roughly 0.5% of the national total.
• Lot count
  About 7,200 lots — 47th-most nationally, roughly 0.2% of tracked lots.
• Average park size
  Roughly 30 lots per park, a benchmark for spotting institutional-scale versus small operator-owned communities.
• Average lot rent
  About $480 per month — 25th-highest of the 50 states and close to the national median.
• Aggregate lot-rent economy
  On the order of $41 million per year at full occupancy (a derived estimate: lots times rent times 12).
• Region
  Vermont sits in the Northeast region, which shapes its cost structure and housing demand.
• Rent regulation
  Statewide rent regulation reaches mobile-home lots; value-add leans on infill and occupancy, not rent ratchets.
• Data caveat
  Counts are slow-moving estimates from Census, MHI, and state MHP sources; benchmark specific parks against same-submarket comps.

How operators and investors use this data in Vermont

• Benchmark, then localize
  Use the Vermont averages as a first screen, then re-underwrite each park against comparable communities in its own submarket rather than the state number.
• Underwrite to occupancy, not rent spikes
  With an average park near 30 lots, filling vacant pads and recovering utility costs usually beats chasing headline rent growth — especially where rent is regulated.
• Model the regulatory brake honestly
  Reflect Vermont's rent-control posture in your rent-growth assumptions, and read the Vermont rent-control and lease-law guides before finalizing a business plan.
• Distrust precise cap-rate quotes
  Treat any exact Vermont cap rate as a claim to verify against real comparable sales, since national bands do not translate cleanly to a single state.
• Watch the slow supply story
  Because new Vermont parks are rarely built and lots leave mainly through redevelopment, existing communities hold scarcity value; track redevelopment pressure in your submarkets.
• Track lot-level data in Lotly
  Lotly tracks Vermont lot-level occupancy, rent, and infill stage so your real numbers replace these statewide estimates in day-to-day decisions.