Rising Sun: Sun Communities Shares Resume Upward Trend

Sun Communities Inc SUI stock is up a little over 10% since the first of the year, nearly back to where it was before a December drop that marred a year-long steady increase in the share price of the manufactured housing and RV community developer.

The stock price rise — while most dramatic in 2019 — has been steady for several years, going from under $70 in early 2015 to above $160 as the company has grown its development portfolio. Sun Communities grew from having just under 70,000 home sites in 2013 to more than double that now at 144,000. 

Re-Investing In Existing Communities

Sun COO John McLaren told Crain's Detroit Business in an interview published Sunday the growth followed the real estate investment trust's move to acquiring already operating RV resort communities, especially in places where it would be hard to build new ones, like on Cape Cod. 

"But they needed a certain level of investment," McLaren told Crain's. "Then we put the investment in and because it's such a tight-knit sort of community, word got out and more people started coming to us because they saw the work and care we put into those resorts."

Sun's New Developments

The company has also continued to build new developments, including RV and vacation cottage resort communities in California wine country and South Carolina, and an RV and manufactured home community in Colorado. 

While RV resorts and vacation homes may call to mind affluent second home buyers, a key to the manufactured home business in the next few years may be their affordability, McLaren said. 

Asked where the industry is headed, McLaren said: "I think some of it is going to be dependent upon how well the industry does in terms of the affordable housing conversation."

RV and manufactured home communities, he said, "are just an incredible option for affordable housing, which is a big issue across the nation." 

Sun Communities shares were trading slightly positive on the day at $162.12 at the time of publication Monday.

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Photo by Sunarms via Wikimedia.