Rep. Gabe Vasquez Calls on House Leadership to Combat Mobile Home Price Gouging in Bipartisan Housing Affordability Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) continued his work to bring down the cost of housing and protect New Mexico’s mobile home residents from price gouging and utilities neglect. On May 7, 2026, Vasquez sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. French Hill (Chairman, House Committee on Financial Services Committee), and Rep. Maxine Water (Ranking Member, House Committee on Financial Services) requesting that his Keep Mobile Homes Affordable Act be included in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to combat corporate landlords’ predatory behavior in the manufactured housing market. One in six homes in New Mexico is a mobile home. 

Similar versions of this affordable housing package have received strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, but Vasquez noted in his letter that both versions “fail to address an important piece of the housing landscape: predatory behavior in the manufactured housing market.” Rep. Vasquez is pushing to ensure that the 20 million Americans who live in mobile homes are afforded the same protections as other Americans by urging House and Senate negotiators to include his Keep Mobile Homes Affordable Act in any final, negotiated version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. 

Vasquez’s letter comes as House leaders work to negotiate a final version of the housing package to be sent to the President and signed into law. New polling released on May 8 shows that 89% of voters believe the House and Senate need to come together to pass legislation and make housing more affordable.

The Keep Mobile Homes Affordable Act directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to automatically review investors who purchase over 2,500 mobile homes or pads to ensure they are not engaging in price gouging or failing to provide basic utilities to residents.

“There is bipartisan agreement from the White House and Congress that American families should own homes, not Wall Street investors. While the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act addresses this issue by limiting the role institutional investors can play in purchasing single family homes, the bill failed to extend similar protections to Manufactured Housing Communities who have also been impacted by out-of-state, institutional investors that have exploited residents, artificially raised rent prices, and failed to provide basic services like utilities in manufactured housing communities such as mobile home parks,” said Vasquez in the letter. “In Alamogordo and Albuquerque, I have heard directly from my constituents about how pad rent jumped up, fees were added onto residents' costs without explanation, and basic utilities were neglected or not provided for months,” he added.

In addition to pushing for the passage of his Keep Mobile Homes Affordable Act, Vasquez’s long-standing record of fighting for affordable housing in New Mexico includes:

• Hosting a Town Hall in Carlsbad focused on addressing the housing affordability crisis
• Co-sponsoring the Bipartisan Families First Housing Act and Stop Wall Street Landlords Act to crack down on greedy, corporate landlords and ensure hardworking New Mexicans have a fair shot at homeownership
• Supporting the Affordable HOMES Act to cut red tape and lower manufactured home costs for New Mexicans, helping those who rely on mobile and manufactured housing keep their homes affordable
• Supporting the HOME Act to make it illegal for institutional investors to rent or sell a housing at an unreasonable rate during an affordable housing crisis, ensuring that rents and housing costs stay within reach for working families

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