Posted on 09/26/2009 4:12:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Most of the mobile homes in the U.S. are located in the south, where land is more plentiful, the weather is warmer, and rural poverty is higher.
The region is home to over 56% of the mobile housing units in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey data released Monday.
Specifically, two cities outside of Jacksonville, Fla., had the country's highest concentration of mobile homes, which are generally about 12-feet wide and include a kitchen, a living and dining area, and one or two smaller bedrooms. While mobile homes make up only 6.17% of the nation's residences, they comprise 45.5% of the units in Palatka, Fla., and 41.6% of units in Lake City, Fla.
"Florida has an overheated housing market, especially with the recent bubble," said Jacob Vigdor, public policy and economics professor at Duke University. "In any area where housing is expensive, mobile homes can represent one of the few cheap options."
Open spaces But high housing costs aren't the primary driver behind the large number of mobile homes in the southern U.S. Much of it has to do with the more sprawling nature of the Sun Belt cities that weren't developed until later in the 1950s, said Vigdor.
"You don't have to go far outside of a city like Charlotte to find trailer parks or single plots of land with mobile homes. Cities that grew up in the automobile age are naturally more hospitable to mobile homes," he said. "When land is inexpensive, you can get a parcel and put a mobile home on it for cheap."
And that notion is especially attractive to the south's poor, rural population.
"Mobile homes will make up a significant part of the housing market in any place you can find significant rural poverty," Vigdor said.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
After looking at my 401k recently, I will either retire overseas (Philippines) or buy a nice 5th wheel or Travel Trailer and live in a nice RV Park.
There are parts of the country where it can be done very inexpensively and has a moderate climate.
Yep. Arizona in the winter, Maine (or Montana) in the summer.
The writer obviously hasn't seen a double or triple wide. Although I'd personally go for a Jim Walter instead.
And don’t forget the freedom factor alot of pre-fabs owners are looking for. Why buy a 30 year old fixer-upper in the city when you can have 2009 technology and 2 acres for half the price. Not to mention the fact that with the extra breathing room a man can convene with nature when called and the neighbors are none the wiser. The tomato plants may not survive that extra “watering” but who cares when you can grow more than you can eat anyways?
P.S. always wash the tomatoes.
I agree with your post. The article bothered me because it seemed to disparage people who choose to live in mobile homes inferring that they are poverty stricken, rural Southerners, hence less intelligent than the editors at CNN. Mobile homes can be very charming as can any living quarters if they are clean and attractively decorated. What a snobbish assertion CNN Money is making when it looks down its liberal nose at hardworking people and their homes.
CNN:
This just in...
Most igloos are in Northern climates where air conditioning sales remain near all-times lows!
Well duh, most tornadoes are in the South!
It’s actually an outdoor theatre set in Sweden or some such. I could see building something like that for college kids or similar.
Star-Telegram photos/Ron T. Ennis Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, had lived in this small domed rental unit in the Ellis County town of Italy since April 2008. Star-Telegram photos/Ron T. Ennis
We just purchased a mobile home three weeks ago, and are still getting settled. We paid cash, so no mortgage and the taxes are reasonable.
Been retired since '99. About two years before the real estate top, I sold my stick-built house in Nevada, paid off the mortgage and bought a 1,600 sq ft double-wide manufactured home on a quarter acre for cash just over the line in Arizona.
Having gone through the pre-Prop 13 binge in California, I could see the same happening in Nevada - ever-rising property taxes forcing me to move, probably at an inconvenient time.
We paid extra for "winterizing" (more insulation), with the result that our power bills are $45 in winter and $120 in summer via our coal-fired utility in Utah. Home is 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a BIG master bedroom, large oval tub, seperate shower and a walk-in closet (now filled with cases of food). The whole outfit is fairly well built and cheap to maintain.
And, there's no chickens or junker cars in the area. I used to think "Trailer Trash" too, before I took a closer look. They've come a long way, baby. Many people would do well to check out these homes, especially now.
I’d have modular home if they were allowed in the township where we will own property, but alas there are so many restrictions.
The obvious attempt here is to paint southerners as white trailer trash. It won't wash. Too many affluent northern retirees destroy the argument.
I’d rather live in a tent on my own land than in a million dollar box in a gated community. I rode through one of the big high dollar developements last week, guards and gates all over the place, it made my skin crawl. Every damned blade of grass in the place is organized and regimented.
I lived in a mobile home for 5 years waiting for the property I wanted to become available. It paid 18,000 and got 15,000 when I sold it. I lived cheap. It was very nice. Only draw back is storms. LEAVE. And I am a physician. I now have the 40 acers and the home I wanted. It was fine for just me.
The reason there are no mobile homes on Long Island is they are zoned against. Believe me, people would buy them if they were allowed to.
In the town where I moved from, taxes on a brick and mortar come to about 10K a year AVERAGE. They can’t tax a motor home like that. I’ve often noticed the compassionate liberal doesn’t help the poor, they just move them out of their neighborhood.
My granddad was one of the first to snowbird in Bonita Springs in the 50’s. Pulled into a motel with his trailer and asked the guy to let him park for the night. Eventually became a 200 trailer park. ON the Imperial River
He wintered in Florida in mobile homes every year for the next 40 years. 3 places in all. (swallowed up by developers)
Always on the water, with access to the Gulf.
Many fine memories of fishing for grouper just out of sight of land in a 22 foot outboard, and coming in with a 33 gallon trashcan full of fish and assorted large ones on the deck
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Someone is going to lose a mobile home..............
Amen, Bro..!!
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