A few months ago, I quit nomadic life, sold my rig, and bought my place. My home is a “real” mobile home, i.e. a pre-HUD mobile home. My home even has tail lights and a tow axle, though it never moved after arriving from the factory to this lot in the 60’s. It has been renovated with modern windows, upgraded wiring and plumbing, a peaked roof, etc. So it is a comfortable home to live in, nearly 60 years after it was manufactured. Funny enough, the 1960’s tires are still sitting next to the axles under my unit! If this place has another destination, surely it is the scrap yard. I wonder if the original engineers and manufacturers envisioned that someone would be living in this unit 60 years after it rolled out of the factory.
In my area (Massachusetts), you can sometimes have your cake and eat it, too, when it comes to mobile homes because most of the parks in this state are tenant-owned co-ops. They aren’t really for-profit, and all the tenants share taxes, utilities, groundskeeping, etc. and vote on park decisions. I understand that that isn’t the case in other states. Many parks here are 50+ only. I wish I could get into a 50+ park, as I’d rather have older (and quieter/more mature) neighbors. I am 40, so I didn’t qualify. Still, most of my neighbors here are over 50.
Park fees can be very reasonable or exorbitant, depending on the park. Some parks only allow newer units and have very high fees ($700+) and strict HOA rules. Some are downright luxurious, with units rivaling conventional homes in prices. I wouldn’t want to live in such a place, both for the high cost and the regulations. Did you see the GEICO “Cynthia” ad? If not, you should check it out on YouTube. It is hilarious!
My particular co-op is relaxed with both the fees and the rules. There are many older units here (such as mine). But there are rules, and I like having some rules. Nobody is allowed to have a rusting 1980’s Firebird sitting on cinderblocks in their front yard, for example, and I’m glad of that. I saw that very thing in parks in Alabama when I was a kid. My park also does background and credit checks. I realize that such checks might pose an unsurmountable challenge to many.
I bought my unit in the middle of a housing crisis and a boiling market a few months ago, when hordes of rich Bostonians were looking as far as New York for property during the summer COVID hysteria. Conventional homes in my price range were disappearing a day after listing, at prices well above listing. There was a moment during the summer when I was losing hope that I would find a permanent home to call my own. This unit (the one I eventually bought) was hot, too, to be honest, and I didn’t think I would get it, but thankfully I was able to sidestep a Catch-22 situation facing most potential buyers. You see, most people who would be interested in a pre-HUD trailer might not be able to pay cash for such a large purchase, but people who would have sufficient cash (tens of thousands) might not be interested in a pre-HUD trailer. So even during the hot market, the seller had to drop her asking price at one point because she needed a cash deal and couldn’t find buyers with the cash. I should note that it is almost impossible, if not impossible, to get financing for a pre-HUD mobile home. It cost money to join the co-op, too (which then makes you part owner of the co-op). I was blessed to have the funds to be able to buy my unit and join the co-op.
I thank my lucky stars every day that I got into this place. In a period of time when I felt an extreme desire for a home of my own, the Lord answered my prayers. I could have rented, but that would not have given me the same feeling of security because landlords can always sell your place out from under you, raise your rent, or just kick you out. No one can kick me out of my house! Well... technically the park can kick me out if I egregiously violate the rules repeatedly. Massachusetts has strong laws protecting mobile home park residents specifically. And I live in a co-op (not a private or landlord-owned park).
It is absolutely true that manufactured home living can be a cost-effective and safe alternative form of housing for low-income people. Many of my neighbors in this park live happily, comfortably, and safely on very low incomes (some on disability) because it is cheap to live here, provided you own your unit outright.
But mobile and manufactured homes have a stigma that most low-income people are painfully aware of. I believe that reputation comes from bigger parks in the South, and possibly from privately-owned “slumlord” parks with lax standards of quality for both services and tenants.
There is also a reputation that manufactured homes are low-quality in terms of construction. Many units are not at the same level as conventional houses, but some are very good quality. Even some pre-HUD units (such as mine) were actually envisioned as over-the-road traveling homes (as silly as the concept of traveling fulltime towing a 60x10 structure seems now) in the 1960’s and were built accordingly. But many were shoddily-constructed. Hence the HUD regulations in 1976. Since then, most manufactured homes are actually built to a very high standard and will last if taken care of.
Because of the stigma, the pre-HUD/post-HUD history, and issues related to the financing, insuring, and the general depreciating nature of the value of manufactured homes, some states are not opting to approve or encourage more manufactured home parks. In fact, many states (including mine) have banned manufactured homes being installed on conventional lots, too. So in many places, manufactured homes can only be found in the few existing parks.
But they would indeed be a great housing option, I think. Imagine if they started building communities of 100 or so units, with beautiful parks and lights, in a nonprofit, co-op model with tenants sharing costs and responsibilities? Safe places where you could live with all your housing-related costs (including insurance, utilities, and taxes) under $500 and no debt. Safe places where you and your 99 fellow co-tenants/owners could decide how you live and who would live in your community (no gangsters, no drug dealers, no pedophiles, etc.). Safe places that are small and comfortable, where you enjoy low maintenance/heating/cooling costs.
I should add that, despite the success of the co-op model in this state -- with some parks existing fruitfully and happily for decades now -- this state only has around 20,000 units statewide (less than 1% of the homes in Massachusetts)! That goes to show you the disconnect between the value of mobile/manufactured home communities on the one hand, and the attitude of the body politic and the interests of powerholders on the other hand.
