Sun Communities Stock Ignites: The Fiery Rally Explained (August 2025)

Sun Communities just turned Wall Street into a bonfire—here's what sparked the blaze.

Manufactured home REIT moons on surprise demand surge

Retirees and remote workers are piling into affordable housing communities faster than you can say 'inflation hedge.' The stock's 20% single-day surge left analysts scrambling to upgrade targets.

Short sellers get torched

Bearish bets evaporated faster than a puddle in the Arizona sun. Seems the 'overvalued' crowd forgot about that pesky housing shortage.

The cynical take: Nothing like a good old-fashioned shelter crisis to make landlords rich. At least someone's winning.

Sunny skies in the second quarter

For its second quarter, Sun Communities' revenue rose by almost 5% year over year to hit $623.5 million. Thanks to a more than $1.4 billion gain on the sale of its SAFE Harbor Marinas superyacht and marina servicing business to an affiliate of financial services giant, the REIT's net income was a bit above $1.3 billion ($10.02 per share) against the year-ago profit of $58 million.

Image source: Getty Images.

Core, or non-GAAP (adjusted), funds from operations (FFO), considered a truer metric of a REIT's profitability, actually fell across that one-year stretch. In the second quarter it dipped to slightly under $232 million ($1.36 per share) versus the same period of 2024's $240 million.

Sun Communities said that, with the Safe Harbor sale, it is repositioning itself as a pure-play landlord of manufactured housing and recreational vehicle (RV) communities. This shift will be overseen by incoming CEO Charles Young, who was tapped to succeed the long-serving Gary Shiffman beginning this October.

Guidance adjustments

Sun Communities also raised its Core guidance, which was surely a factor behind the very bullish investor reaction to the earnings release. Management now believes the line item will amount to $6.51 to $6.67 for the entirety of 2025, up from the previous guidance range of $6.43 to $6.63.

On the flip side, the company reduced its annual per-share earnings guidance, forecasting it will net a profit of $11.34 to $11.50. That's below the preceding range of $12.62 to $12.82.