Out-of-area investors quietly rolled into the South Bay in May, scooping up three mobile-home parks in San Jose and Milpitas for a combined $23.2 million. The deals for Old Orchard Mobile Park, Mobilodge of Milpitas and Mayfair Trailer Park were logged in Santa Clara County real-estate filings and highlight just how hungry investors have become for land-lease communities that still offer some of the region’s more affordable paths to homeownership.
Deals at a glance
The three sales, all completed in May, totaled roughly $23.2 million. Mobilodge of Milpitas at 1515 North Milpitas Boulevard sold for about $9.1 million, Old Orchard Mobile Park at 2135 Little Orchard Street closed for roughly $8.2 million, and Mayfair Trailer Park at 1840 South Seventh Street traded for about $5.9 million, according to The Mercury News.
Where the parks are and how big
The three communities range from modest to mid-size. Mobilodge of Milpitas is listed with about 145 spaces, Old Orchard with about 102 spaces, and Mayfair with roughly 54 sites. Those counts come from a county-level inventory maintained by Silicon Valley at Home, which tracks mobile-home parks across Santa Clara County. The differing sizes help explain why the deals pencil out very differently on a per-space basis.
Who bought them
Public filings indicate the Mobilodge purchase was made by a group headed by investor Peter Wang, and an affiliated Wang entity acquired Old Orchard. Mayfair was purchased by a Sacramento-based affiliate led by John McDougall, chief executive of Monte Christo Communities. Those ownership details were summarized by The Mercury News. Monte Christo bills itself as an owner-operator of manufactured-housing communities, and state business records list John McDougall as a manager of Monte Christo Communities LLC, per BizProfile.
Price per space
Broken down by lot, the purchases work out to roughly $62,800 per space at Mobilodge, about $80,400 per space at Old Orchard and roughly $109,300 per space at Mayfair. Those figures come from the recorded sale prices paired with the parks’ space counts, and are grounded in sale amounts filed in county records, according to the Santa Clara County Recorder's Office. The spread in prices shows how smaller, well-located parks can command significantly higher per-lot numbers in dense parts of the South Bay.
Why it matters
Investor interest in mobile-home parks is part of a broader Bay Area trend that housing advocates warn can push up space rents and increase pressure to convert parks when land values spike. A recent sale of a Pacifica park to an institutional buyer for tens of millions underscored how quickly values can climb, as a tiny Pacifica trailer park fetched $39.5 million for a slice of oceanfront. Regional inventories also document earlier conversions, such as the Winchester Ranch redevelopment, that erased long-standing mobile-home sites while adding new apartments and houses. City officials, resident groups and housing advocates say they will be watching closely to see whether the new owners raise lot rents or pursue redevelopment plans that could reshape long-term affordability.
