North Dakota doesn’t show up on most mobile home park investors’ radar. It’s not Florida. It’s not Texas. But the data tells a more interesting story than you’d expect from a state with fewer than a million people.

Our database tracks 307 mobile home parks across North Dakota. CoStar’s market survey covers 86 of the state’s larger properties. Put those two data sets together and you get a picture of a market that is overwhelmingly small, overwhelmingly private, and — in the right pockets — quietly active.

The Numbers: 307 Parks, 79% Small

Of the 307 mobile home parks in North Dakota, 243 of them — 79% of the total — fall into the small category (under 50 lots). Another 34 are medium-sized (51–100 lots), and just 30 qualify as large (over 100 lots).

That breakdown matters for valuation. Small parks in North Dakota are almost entirely owner-operated and rarely listed on any brokerage platform. When they do sell, they often trade based on relationship, local reputation, and a simple income multiple — not institutional underwriting.

If you’re trying to value a small park in North Dakota, you’re not working off comparable sales the way you would in a coastal multifamily market. You’re working off cap rate benchmarks, local rent data, and context about why the park exists in the first place.

McKenzie County Leads the State With 42 Parks

The county-level breakdown is revealing. McKenzie County — home to the Bakken oil patch and the city of Watford City — has 42 mobile home parks, more than any other county in the state. Williams County (Williston) has 27. Mountrail County has 24.

See the pattern? The western part of the state, driven by oil and gas activity, has a disproportionately high concentration of mobile home parks. These parks weren’t built for long-term affordable housing — many were built fast to house workers during the Bakken boom. Some are still running lean. Others were consolidated or repositioned after the bust.

Ward County (Minot, home to Minot Air Force Base) has 33 parks. That’s a different driver entirely — military-adjacent workforce housing, which tends to be more stable.

Burleigh County (Bismarck) comes in at 19 parks, representing the state capital market.

Cass County (Fargo), the largest metro in the state, shows just 14 parks. Urban density, higher land values, and more multifamily competition tend to limit MHP inventory in larger metros — and Fargo reflects that.

What CoStar Shows for the Surveyed Market

CoStar’s custom market report (86 buildings, as of June 2026) gives us a snapshot of the larger, more institutional end of the North Dakota MHP market:

  • Average rent per unit: $1,225/month
  • Average rent per SF: $1.12
  • Vacancy rate: 6.6% (vs. 7.0% five-year average)
  • Existing units tracked: 8,340
  • 12-month absorption: -67 units (negative, meaning slight softening)
  • Cap rate (survey): 3.7%
  • 5-year average cap rate: 4.7%
  • Sales volume (past year): $0 recorded transactions in CoStar’s survey

That last number is worth pausing on. CoStar tracked zero recorded sales transactions in the past 12 months for the surveyed market. The 5-year average sales volume is $19 million annually — meaning there are years with activity, and years with nearly none.

For buyers and sellers trying to value a North Dakota park right now, this is the fundamental challenge: there simply isn’t a deep comparable sales pool. Valuation has to lean harder on income approach and national cap rate benchmarks.

Rent Trends: Slow and Steady

Rents in the CoStar-surveyed market have been climbing consistently since 2021. The average asking rent hit $1,225/month in mid-2026, up from roughly $1,100 in 2020. That’s modest appreciation by coastal standards, but in a state where the median household income is around $70,000, it reflects real affordability pressure.

Occupancy has been running in the 93–94% range for the past two years — a relatively healthy level that suggests demand is holding despite the negative short-term absorption. The concession rate is 1.2%, slightly above the 5-year average of 0.8%, which hints that some operators are having to work a little harder to fill units.

Who’s Buying and Selling in North Dakota?

According to CoStar’s buyer/seller data for the market:

91% of sellers are private owners. This is nearly identical to Nebraska (92% in last year’s report) and reflects a consistent truth about Great Plains MHP markets: these are mom-and-pop portfolios, not institutional dispositions.

On the buyer side, the mix is more diverse — 45% private, 35% institutional, 20% private equity. That gap between who’s selling (almost all private) and who’s buying (increasingly institutional) is where opportunity exists for operators who know how to approach off-market owners.

Open Door Capital was the top buyer in CoStar’s dataset, followed by Hurst & Son LLC and Havenpark Capital Partners. On the sell side, Havenpark Communities led, followed by Oakland & Company and The Atkinson Company.

The presence of Havenpark on both sides reflects consolidation activity — they’ve been active acquirers nationally and have sold some smaller legacy properties as they’ve upgraded their portfolio.

What This Means for North Dakota Park Valuation

If you own a mobile home park in North Dakota and you’re trying to understand what it’s worth, here’s the honest framework:

For oil patch parks (McKenzie, Williams, Mountrail counties): Valuation is highly sensitive to occupancy stability. Parks that filled up during the Bakken boom and then partially emptied are worth significantly less than their peak-year income would suggest. Buyers will underwrite conservatively and apply a discount for workforce-dependent demand.

For military-adjacent parks (Ward County/Minot): More stable demand base. Closer to a standard income approach. Occupancy near or above 90% with stable long-term tenants commands a premium over oil patch parks at similar lot counts.

For Fargo-area parks (Cass County): Limited supply, urban adjacency, and a growing metro make these the most competitively priced parks in the state. If a large park trades here, it will likely attract institutional interest.

For rural small parks statewide: The absence of comparable sales data means valuation is largely negotiated between buyer and seller. Sellers often anchor to replacement cost or gross income multiples. Buyers focused on cash-on-cash returns will underwrite to a cap rate in the 7–9% range for smaller, less stable assets.

The Bottom Line

North Dakota has 307 mobile home parks, and 79% of them are small, privately owned, and not actively marketed. CoStar tracks 86 of the larger properties and shows a market with healthy occupancy, modest rent growth, near-zero recorded transaction volume in the past year, and almost no new supply coming.

That combination — stable operations, limited sales data, and private ownership — is exactly the environment where a well-prepared buyer with a direct outreach strategy can find value. And for sellers, it’s also the environment where getting an independent valuation matters most, because there’s no active market to benchmark against.

If you own a mobile home park in North Dakota and want to understand what it’s worth in today’s market, request a complimentary broker opinion of value at MyMobileHomeParkValue.com/valuation.

Want access to the full North Dakota park database — all 307 locations, county-level breakdowns, and monthly market updates? Join MHP Club at Skool.