Probably within ten miles of my rural house there are several that have been set up as homes in people’s back yards. I don’t know if they contain family, or renters, but they are obviously operated as permanent dwellings. Why? I’m a landlord and I get several calls each month from people who are former renters or who have gotten my number from a renter they work with. Homes have gotten so expensive people can’t buy them so they’re renting. I’m sure there are other reasons but the average home price in my area is $350k. Few people can afford the service on that loan.
My guess is a hefty percentage of the RV’s sold will end up as permanent dwellings. BTW, this is against the zoning codes. I’m waiting for the code enforcement people to crack down. It could happen on any day so they’re running a risk of fines at the minimum. The law also allows the county or city to assess taxes on however long they think the dwelling was there. These and penalties could end up in the thousands of dollars. As more and more people do this, it will raise this up as a problem. (I’m wondering about how they’re disposing of sewage, for example, as the ones I’ve seen obviously don’t go anywhere so they’re not driving off to an RV service area to dump it.)
On our road had a guy buy an acre that already had water, septic and electric on it. He got plans approved for his cabin and workshop...the workshop was gonna be bigger than his cabin. Lived on a boat at the lake but moved his RV to the acre when he started the grading. Great guy...got to know him while he was prepping the land and getting ready to build. Then he died. Grifter adult kids tried to move into the RV and setup their lives on that land.
We visited the County Zoning Office and the next day they had the RV red tagged. It was legal for him to live in it while building...not for them to squat in.
More to the story but this was one time I was thankful for the County Zoning Dept.