ConcordMonitor says Foxy Terrace Cooperative in Derry, New Hampshire became the 100th resident-owned manufactured housing community in the state Feb. 19, 2012. Many of the cooperatives were years in the making, due to most lending institutions’ reluctance to finance a collective of primarily low-income residents, which comprise the majority of the 5,600 co-op households in the state. Banks also questioned the residents’ management experience and maintenance abilities. In 1984 Meredith Center Cooperative was the first, when the elderly owners of a 13 home community in Meredith, NH sold to the residents, who were guided by a community development graduate student working with the newly-organized Community Loan Fund and the Sisters of Mercy. Not one of the 100 communities has failed or been sold, which MHProNews.com has learned rank in size from eight to 300 home sites.
