8 municipalities vote to cap rent increases on mobile home lots

Voters in eight Maine municipalities approved referendums on Tuesday to help stabilize the cost of rent for mobile home lots. 

Affordability is a concern for people in various types of housing across Maine, as a massive shortage in supply confronts stagnant wages, high building costs, and an influx of residents in part due to an increase in remote workers.

While mobile home residents often own their physical homes, they have to rent the underlying land, leaving them vulnerable to skyrocketing monthly lot rents, especially when corporate or out-of-state investors buy parks. 

“Mobile home owners across Maine have been squeezed by corporate park owners who buy up parks, jack up the rents, and let maintenance fall by the wayside,” Joe Hupperich, organizing director for the Maine Labor Climate Council, said in a statement. 

“Residents of the parks are mostly seniors or people who are otherwise on fixed incomes, who are left struggling to make up the money. Tuesday’s results send a clear message that Mainers believe the people who own their homes deserve stable, predictable housing costs.”

Augusta, Eliot, Standish, Oakland, Wells, Farmington, Jay and Wiscasset each passed lot rent stabilization measures on Tuesday. Many of these limits were based on a framework created by a state working group as a result of a law passed in 2025.

Augusta, Eliot and Standish capped annual lot rent increases at either 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Oakland capped the annual increase at 5%, while Farmington capped increases at 3% for occupied lots and 5% for vacant lots. Wells passed an annual increase limit at the rate of inflation plus 1%, and Jay limited most increases to the Northeast Consumer Price Index. Wiscasset passed a temporary 180-day ban on lot rent increases exceeding 3%.

“This win belongs to every neighbor in the community who showed up,” Lynzy Kosmes, a resident organizer from a Wells mobile home park, said in a statement. “Nobody just handed us this.”