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Mobile home parks are wonderful for retired people who don't want the upkeep of a house. My hubby and I live in one. The windows aren't small as the OP insists. We have a beautiful home with some wonderful neighbors. We plant gardens every year and neighbors share their bounty with the community. Hubby and I have a large backyard for cookouts, and a patio in the front yard. The homes are not on top of one another in here. There is no community pool, but there's also no noise that rides piggyback on a community pool. Our home was paid off in 10 years, as opposed to 30. We have only the lot rent to contend with, which makes for cheap living here.
Someone complained about "renting the lot". So what? Is it any better to rent an apartment where you have no yard to yourself, and you listen to your upstairs neighbor pacing the floors at night?
Do homeowners actually own the ground on which the house is built? No. Try not paying the property taxes and see how quickly you lose the house and the ground on which it stands.
Also, in a decent mobile home community, we have a thing called "community rules", something homeowners don't have (but wish they did). In our community, bad neighbors get evicted. Part of our lot rent ensures us that the park owners maintains and provides a quiet community for his tenants.
Always liked them since I enjoy living in smaller spaces. The mobile home is very efficiently laid out and has only what you need. Not everyone wants or needs a McMansion.
There is some confusion when calling something a mobile home.
Mobile homes are the typical 8' wide "trailers" which can be moved. The term really reflects those built before 1976 before there were any national codes for them. These do not appreciate in value.
Manufactured homes are also mobile homes but they are now subject to federal codes under the eye of HUD. They can be single or double wide and can be placed on a foundation or moved if needed. This is what is offered today and is typical of what is in manufactured home developements or trailer parks. These also do not appreciate in value.
Modular homes are factory built to local or state codes, transported to the site, and permanently mounted to a foundation. These are essentially stick built homes and are superior to manufactured homes. They can appreciate in value much like a stick built home.
In my town that is all some people can afford to live in. One if my friends lives in one and when I visit it is depressing as the homes are so close together and some people don't take care of their area. Still, they have yards and and a community. It is either that or an apartment.
in my opinion, it really depends. I'm typing this from a vacation rental in a trailer park near tampa. The park is nice, has great amenities and would make a great place for a snowbird. There are tons of parks just like this around here. There were a lot of similar parks around where i lived in Phoenix too.
Back in my native Pennsylvania trailer parks were usually occupied by nice people with some really bad seeds here and there. Petty crimes from unsupervised teens were rampant. Drug use was prevalent, but it was typically the consumers that just wanted to be left alone. In general they weren't places I would want to live.
Always liked them since I enjoy living in smaller spaces. The mobile home is very efficiently laid out and has only what you need. Not everyone wants or needs a McMansion.
I doubt that anyone who can afford a McMansion would live in a mobile home
in my opinion, it really depends. I'm typing this from a vacation rental in a trailer park near tampa. The park is nice, has great amenities and would make a great place for a snowbird. There are tons of parks just like this around here. There were a lot of similar parks around where i lived in Phoenix too.
Back in my native Pennsylvania trailer parks were usually occupied by nice people with some really bad seeds here and there. Petty crimes from unsupervised teens were rampant. Drug use was prevalent, but it was typically the consumers that just wanted to be left alone. In general they weren't places I would want to live.
Trailer park or mobile home community? There is a difference.
Agree that it totally depends on the park and their rules.
We have one here that the homes are so close together you can barely walk between them, they are not well maintained and are obviously a cheap way to 'shelve' low income residents.
OTOH I lived in one for a year that was in a park like setting where the homes were required to be tied down, have permanent skirting and concrete steps, and other rules pertaining to the appearance of the homes and yards. The roads and parking pads were paved, most homes had nice landscaping around them and there was a lovely pond in the park too. Cheaper than the usual home or apt in the area but definitely not the dirt poor trailer trash stereotype that is often portrayed on tv and movies.
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