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I see so many nice acreage parcels or pretty farms and instead of houses they have mobiles -some not so nice? They probably aren't poor with all that land.
My guesses are maybe the tax rate is low on mobiles or maybe only ranch hands live there but they are just guesses.
Whether or not a person can afford having a house built, mobile and other types of "manufactured" homes are the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to have a livable home in rural areas where even finding a reliable builder is a problem. To say nothing of the extra costs/problems caused by being in a more remote location.
New Mexico ranks 2nd in the country for per-capita Mobile Home ownership, after South Carolina.
Possible reasons landowners for some reason prefer mobile homes here-
New Mexico, with a few exceptions, is a crappy state to set up a farming operation (always has been), which is why our land prices have historically been lowest in the lower 48. Water availability is low (either from the air, wells, or streams), and soils are alkaline and paper-thin. So no reason to ever have built a farmhouse or barn for much of the state.
Although we've had logging and sawmill operations in the state, most of the places you'd want to build a mobile home were near none of that. It was faster, cheaper, and more lasting to build an entire trailer and haul it across NM's excellent road network.
Between sand, granite, or hard volcanic rock with no topsoil, much of the state makes a traditional slab foundation far more expensive. Mobile homes get around that problem.
Mobile home parks are among the least efficient ($) uses of urban and suburban land, but land here has stayed relatively cheap. I can remember driving across Phoenix and Mesa in the late 90's and seeing an ocean of trailer parks. Those trailer parks are now all gone, replaced by apartment communities.
The Navajo reservation has a huge population, the culture values personal isolation rather than clustering together in dense cities, and the tribal government has some unorthodox approaches to land ownership (the tribe owns the land, so members of the tribe can't own it to the exclusion of others). No land ownership, no home loans. Trailers, on the other hand, can be removed and are thus the go-to option for people living on the rez.
Possibly a farm with all that beautiful irrigated land may be owned by a farmer with a lot of wealth but not very much spare cash.
I know of NUMEROUS farmers who have given up on the drudgery of farming in favor of selling off their land for housing development - and the highest density use seems to be trailer parks. With trailer parks, the farmer has monthly rental income without all the hassle of worrying about crop failures, etc. That also leaves open the option of eventually subdividing and selling off the land piece meal.
Thanks everyone. I just don't know. Maybe people just love their crops so much they don't care about their house. Some are in bad shape. Maybe the workers live there and owners somewhere else.
I'm talking about Southern NM -don't know about the rest of the state. I hope the South is good for Pistachios although I don't know how profitable they are.
Thanks everyone. I just don't know. Maybe people just love their crops so much they don't care about their house. Some are in bad shape. Maybe the workers live there and owners somewhere else.
I'm talking about Southern NM -don't know about the rest of the state. I hope the South is good for Pistachios although I don't know how profitable they are.
Lots of pistachios grown in Alamogordo. I suggest that anyone visiting should take the tour at Eagle Ranch.
Fun and informative:
I lived at the Tinsley Trailer Court in Alamogordo in from 1973 to 1975. I had all these homeless cats living outside. I counted up to 32. Sometimes I wish I had stayed there and until all the cats had died. Now I see they got that Kitty City in Alamogordo.
Rich with a poor Cabeza. This forum has a topic - and its not for your mental health issues. You can start a new thread for that.
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