Mesa has a higher share of manufactured homes among its housing units than any other large city in the United States, according to a new analysis, even as some of the city's mobile-home residents are being forced out of their communities with moving bills running into the tens of thousands of dollars.
A SmartAsset analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found that manufactured homes make up 12.5% of housing units in Mesa, the highest share among U.S. cities with populations of at least 250,000, according to SmartAsset. The firm said it used the Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey data. Laredo, Texas, came in second in the same comparison, with manufactured homes accounting for 7.6% of its housing stock.
The finding echoes an earlier report from The Arizona Republic, which described Mesa as the mobile-home capital of large American cities based on the same SmartAsset analysis. A separate 2025 study from StorageCafe found Mesa had the largest total manufactured-home inventory of any U.S. city, with more than 29,300 units, though that same analysis found Largo, Florida, had the largest share of its housing stock made up of mobile homes, at 28%.
A Different Number From Local Reporting
Not every local estimate matches SmartAsset's figure. A separate Mesa housing report from the Mesa Tribune put mobile homes at 10% of the city's housing type, a figure that doesn't specify the same measurement year or methodology as the SmartAsset study. The gap between the two numbers underscores how differently manufactured housing can be counted depending on the data source and year.
Zoning Change Could Reshape Some Lots
City officials have also been weighing a zoning amendment that would let property owners in manufactured-home or RV subdivisions build conventional single-story homes, additions with habitable space, or accessory dwelling units on their existing lots, the Mesa Tribune reported. The proposal would not force anyone to replace their current manufactured home, and it would not extend to manufactured-home or RV parks where residents rent rather than own the land beneath their homes.
That distinction matters, because it is exactly the park-rental arrangement that has left some Mesa residents scrambling this year. Owners of dozens of mobile homes at a park off McKellips Road were told they had until the end of the month to pick up and leave, according to a report from ABC15.
Residents Describe Shifting Explanations and Steep Costs
Resident Felicia Donnelly told the station that residents were initially informed the park had been sold for renovation, only to later receive eviction notices after being told condos would be built on the site. “Two months later, we got an eviction saying they're going to build condos here,” Donnelly said, per ABC15's reporting.
Donnelly showed the station moving quotes ranging from $30,000 to $50,000, the outlet reported. State assistance exists but falls well short of covering those costs: the Arizona Department of Housing's relocation fund, increased in 2023, provides up to $12,500 to move a single-wide manufactured home or up to $20,000 for a double-wide, according to ABC15's report.
Broader Pressures on Manufactured Housing
Rising land values have accompanied the disappearance of mobile-home parks in the Phoenix area.
A separate Mesa Tribune report noted that apartment building permits have outpaced single-family home permits in the city since the end of the pandemic, a trend it described as consistent with patterns across the broader Valley.
