Manufactured-home park in Franconia purchased by residents
by News
on February 4, 2020
Homeowners in Fox Hill Lane Mobile Home Park have purchased their 39-unit manufactured-home park, making it New Hampshire’s 132nd resident-owned community (ROC).
Using training and technical assistance from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s ROC-NH™ team, homeowners organized and formed Fox Hill Cooperative, Inc. last September. The cooperative then negotiated with the park’s owner, Joyce Fisher, reached a $725,000- purchase price, and finalized the deal Jan. 29 with a mortgage from the Community Loan Fund.
"The signing of these papers today has special meaning to me, having been in a similar situation in past years that did not work out in the best interest of the residents,” said the cooperative’s operations manager, Victoria Staunches. Years earlier she lost a home when the park where it was located was closed.
“I have nothing but good things to say about the Community Loan Fund and all they have done and will do for us in the future to make this ROC thrive for us and future residents.”
Fox Hill Cooperative is Grafton County’s 14th ROC. Those communities contain 835 permanently affordable homes.
Cooperative ownership means Fox Hill’s homeowners are now eligible for products and services, including real mortgages, that haven’t been available to them. Studies show that the availability of home financing, when the land is secure, improves the home’s value, the owner’s ability to make improvements, and overall housing affordability.
The more-than-8,100 homeowners in New Hampshire’s ROCs, spread across every county, also have access to management guidance, technical assistance, and leadership trainings in which they earn college credit.
See a sortable list of ROCs in New Hampshire.
Photo: From left, Fox Hill Cooperative Operations Director Victoria Staunches and President Edward Peterson review the closing documents with attorney Brenda Smith-Weiss,
ROC-NH™ is a program of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Inc. and a ROC USA® Certified Technical Assistance Provider.
ROC-NH is a registered service mark of ROC USA, LLC.