Manufactured Home Park Purchased by Residents

Homeowners in Rancourt Estates Mobile Home Park have purchased their 44-unit manufactured-home park, making it New Hampshire’s 133rd resident-owned community (ROC).

Using training and technical assistance from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s ROC-NH™ team, homeowners organized and formed Jewel Estates Cooperative in June. The cooperative then matched the $2.8-million price of the park’s owner, Claude Rancourt, and finalized the deal December 1 with a mortgage from the Community Loan Fund.

Park residents cheered the purchase. “We are in a prime development area, with new apartments and condos being built every year. Going co-op and having the chance to control our own destiny was a no-brainer,” said Jewel Estates Co-op President Thomas Levesque.

Co-op Vice President Lisa Stringer said the residents’ ownership of the park “means having security, control, and freedom over our own land!”

Jewel Estates Cooperative is Hillsborough County’s 15^th ROC. Those communities contain 1,028 long-term affordable homes.

Cooperative ownership means Jewel Estates’ 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-8,200 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.

For 37 years, the Community Loan Fund has worked in towns and cities across N.H. to connect people and families with the loans, training and advice that allow them to have affordable homes, quality jobs and child care, and become economically stable.

A full list of ROCs in New Hampshire is available at www.communityloanfund.org/co-op-list/.

For more information on the Community Loan Fund, go online to www.communityloanfund.org or call Director of Communications and Marketing Steve Varnum at (603) 856-0767.

Pictured rom left, Jewel Estates Cooperative President Thomas Levesque and Treasurer Susan Sylvia, and ROC-NH Housing Cooperative Specialist Zachery Palmer.