Posted on 10/27/2014 3:02:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Houses made in a factory are a cheap and energy-efficient way for poorer Americans to become homeowners—plus, these days, the mass-produced units can be pretty spiffy.
You’ve seen it before: a house, on a truck, on a highway, slowing down traffic with its yellow “OVERSIZED LOAD” sign, its tan vinyl siding nearly screaming “Trailer Park!”
The snobs among us may judge these pre-fab homes as shoddily built, cheap eyesores in a country that’s increasingly eschewing the suburbs for walkable urban areas.
But pre-fabricated homes just might be part of the solution to America's affordable housing crisis.
Home prices are continuing to rise, even as incomes on the lower-end of the scale remain flat, putting home ownership out of reach for many Americans. In some cities, that’s led to renters flooding the markets, which in turns drives rental prices up. Homeownership in the U.S. was 65 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, down from 69 percent in 2005, according to the Census Bureau (PDF).
Families who can't afford homes often find that the apartments available to them are tiny, expensive, and old. Manufactured homes, affordable-housing advocates say, are spacious in comparison....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I don’t mind trailers but hate trailer parks.
I was thinking the same thing. Will this writer go live in one of these prefab units in a trailer park???? Don’t think so. She will prefer to pay an exhorbitant amount to live in her closet sized apartment on the Upper West Side..........
Mine is mostly Hispanic, they generally never bother us and sometimes help out. They can get a little loud on weekends, but not bad enough to bother us. Cheaper than a nasty apartment and much bigger & more private. I used to sell them about 15 years ago and they can be real nice at the upper end.
Manufactured homes can be roomier and less expensive than stick-built homes.
You’re getting more space and more value for the money. A lot of people look down on them.
They’re getting better.
Ah, the race to poverty that liberals embrace. Ever see a communist country with awesome homes and not 400 square foot stacked high and deep apartments?
True. Only problem they seem to be tornado magnets. Whenever there is severe weather the tralier parks always seem to get it first.
Nice and roomy. Its hard to tell the difference in quality from a conventional stick-built home.
If you’re on a budget and need the room, a manufactured home is the way to go.
Mrs. R2 and I are looking to downsize in our retirement years.
In 5 years we plan to sell our family home in the city and place a mobile home on some land we own in the country.
Here’s what we found out about mobile/manufactured homes. You can pay as little as $20 per square foot up to $100 or more.
You get what you pay for. And many come with 2x6’s, R30 insulation, 30 year roofing and hardi-plank siding, more energy efficient features than you can name, and so much more.
You cannot build a comparable site built home for the cost of a mobile home.
I used to sell them for Oakwood homes.
They are n flat, open areas. The geography is the magnet, not the trailers.
It’s more expensive to build a home out in the boonies too.
That’s why Karl Benz invented the automobile.
Did you?
Oakwood and Solitaire Homes are at the top of our list right now.
Very impressive.
Yup - and you can custom design the home and pick out the room sizes, the layout, the features and the overall design.
With a stick home, you have to settle for what it is and a renovation can get very expensive.
Problem was that they were being sold at more,than a competing brick home to people with no credit for no money down.
Then many that have been sold are low cost, with a probable life expectancy of 30-40 years max vs a probable life of 100 years for a typical residence. But they are still being marketed as having a similar life.
And finally, few are on owned lots, so financing is very difficult.
MHs have been touted as the answer for decades. Still not the answer.
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