A Little Portion of Land

[Kamaji]

A Little Portion of Land

Mobile homes put the dream of affordable housing within everyone’s reach.

Benjamin Ogilvie
Jul 14, 2023

Making cheap, dignified housing available to poorer Americans is essential to ensuring that all Americans, as Donald Trump put it, are able to participate in “the American way of life.” The only financially feasible way to give every American family their own four walls and backyard is with manufactured housing units, often referred to as “mobile homes.” Mobile home parks have been mostly illegal to construct in the U.S. since 1990, but conservatives would do well to embrace them anyway—they encourage family formation, lower the cost of living, and put the Jeffersonian dream of “a little portion of land” within everyone’s reach.

Most of our housing policy discourse today centers around single-family homes and apartment complexes. Single-family homes are inherently unaffordable for many families. The average price of a home purchased by a first-time buyer was $215,000 in 2019, not even remotely affordable for an individual working full-time and making the federal minimum wage, or even double or triple that. Add in family obligations, and owning a single family home becomes a pipe dream for many Americans.

Apartments can be more affordable than single-family homes, but affordable apartments are generally not dignified places to live. Living in cramped quarters and sharing walls, floors, and ceilings with neighbors makes managing a crying baby or toddler difficult. Tenants have few options if their neighbors develop a penchant for loud parties or cheap cigars, a problem reinforced by the perverse incentives and eviction protections built into some low-income housing programs. And while affordable apartment complexes may not be ideal for families, they are ideal for rats and cockroaches.

Mobile homes are a happy medium. They are more affordable than single-family homes and often more dignified than apartments. Mass-production and economies of scale mean that mobile homes are around fifty percent cheaper than custom-built homes; compare having a Toyota Camry delivered from the factory to having one assembled in a customer’s driveway. The average new mobile home costs only $70,600 in 2016, not including land. Even in relatively dense mobile home parks, residents have some outdoor space to garden or let kids play; many mobile homes have attached porches as well.

Mobile homes are a good deal, which helped propel them to a brief moment of national popularity in the 1960s. The industry collapsed around 1975, however, due to lobbying from home-builders and aligned interest groups, helping to create a nationwide mobile home park shortage that persists today.

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Source:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-little-portion-of-land/

[Free Vulcan]

I spent the first 10 years of my life as trailer trash. People look down on it but don't understand that there is a certain clarity to it. Mom and dad leveraged it with the land they had and work to a good deal of self-sufficiency and many country skills along the way.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Sounds like some Pirate Equity or Vulture Capital lobby wants HUD monies to be funneled to their pre-manufactured home companies.

[Kamaji]

Sounds like some Pirate Equity or Vulture Capital lobby wants HUD monies to be funneled to their pre-manufactured home companies.

I rather doubt the author of the article is pimping for that.

[Smokin Joe]

As a rule, site built homes appreciate in value, if maintained. Depends on how you treat it, as with anything, but an investment as well as a home.

Modular homes (AKA: "double wides") depend on the market, quality, and setup/maintenance.
They can appreciate in value, too. Almost always, you own the land under them, too.
 
Mobile homes (true 'trailer houses') tend to depreciate if not extremely well maintained, depending on markets. Local zoning laws apply. It's just a tract house you can take with you. But land ownership is commonly not part of that picture, and lot rent is something that can vary wildly (especially in boom towns).

My home is site-built ca 1912. WHile that remains my home base, for half (or more) of my career, I spent my time living in temporary quarters on well sites, in about a 12X20 space at best, with the basic amenities. It was not always so 'plush'. Most of those were not trailers, but skid mounted, trucked in, and set up. They have plenty of problems compared to a site built home or any mobile home set up for long term habitation, but much of that stems from a variety of tenants and being set up for temporary housing, to be moved off in a month or two.

I have lived (main residence) in apartments and for a short while (about a year and a half, total), in trailer type mobile homes.

The only reason I can see for this push is the idea that 'you will own nothing'. Setting up a true mobile home is at the discretion of the landowner, renting the space is still paying rent, albeit it generally less than for a house or apartment of similar size, and if you have no place to put it, that asset becomes a liability, quick.

[roamer_1]

I think there's a point here.

Trailer homes and trailer parks are often entry level housing - And not new ones. The used market is the money shot.

One of the trick plays for first time land owners, trying to do it on their own dime is to buy the raw land, develop a driveway, trailer pad, and utilities, buy into a crappy used trailer house to fix up, and that gets them living on their property. Then comes a more leisurely construction of fences and out buildings, and the eventual building of a home.

My younger son is currently in-process, though he bought a large 5th wheel RV camper instead, because trailer houses are largely unavailable, those that are available are too much money... and they cannot be insured, and cause the land to be unable to be insured. The camper however, IS insured and counts as a residence, so the property is insured too and legit.

Trailer parks too - Often entry level housing and very often old folks housing - Housing that is cheap and adequate... And can even be attractive.

To some degree, the tiny house movement has replaced the mobile home, but if you really want to cure homeless housing and entry level housing that is now prevalent, Trailer parks and mobile homes are a ready answer.

[libertybele]

Mobile homes are certainly more affordable, but insurance is high and when I was in banking, they would only lend $$ for mobile homes that were newer and in a more upscale community.

The older mobile park areas (around here at least) are run down and mostly inhabited by those on welfare, running drugs or just out of jail -- the typical stereotype which is unfortunate.

Rent around here is high and you used to be able to buy a home cheaper then you could rent, but that's just not the case anymore.

Now move out of the suburbs and into the country and there are still some older homes more affordable and some are mobile homes with some acreage. Unfortunately, what is now happening is developers are buying up large tracts of property in rural areas and making condos and apartment villages with some steep HOA fees.    I checked on properties and homes in northern Georgia when we were deciding where to downsize to and many of those same areas have been developed.  I'm basing my info on just areas in FL and GA., I'm not sure about the rest of the country.

Is decent affordable housing even available anymore??

[Kamaji]

I think there's a point here.

Trailer homes and trailer parks are often entry level housing - And not new ones. The used market is the money shot.

One of the trick plays for first time land owners, trying to do it on their own dime is to buy the raw land, develop a driveway, trailer pad, and utilities, buy into a crappy used trailer house to fix up, and that gets them living on their property. Then comes a more leisurely construction of fences and out buildings, and the eventual building of a home.

My younger son is currently in-process, though he bought a large 5th wheel RV camper instead, because trailer houses are largely unavailable, those that are available are too much money... and they cannot be insured, and cause the land to be unable to be insured. The camper however, IS insured and counts as a residence, so the property is insured too and legit.

Trailer parks too - Often entry level housing and very often old folks housing - Housing that is cheap and adequate... And can even be attractive.

To some degree, the tiny house movement has replaced the mobile home, but if you really want to cure homeless housing and entry level housing that is now prevalent, Trailer parks and mobile homes are a ready answer.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Better than renting I suppose, but the sticking point is if you own the land beneath them.

[Smokin Joe]

Better than renting I suppose, but the sticking point is if you own the land beneath them.

Right. Otherwise, you're still in the rent trap.

Lot rents here got into the $800/mo range during the oil boom, which is what an apartment went for before the boom. That did not include any utilities.

[Bigun]

https://twitter.com/StephenMoore/status/1680931495052038145