View Full Version : Would you live in a trailer park?
http://www.psmag.com/health/how-the-trailer-park-could-save-us-all-55137/
Actually, DH and I have thought about this as an option for when we are older. Other than being so close to other units, it might be alright if in a nice setting.
Maybe someone here already lives in one and can provide insight?
try2bfrugal
10-15-13, 3:22pm
http://www.psmag.com/health/how-the-trailer-park-could-save-us-all-55137/
Actually, DH and I have thought about this as an option for when we are older. Other than being so close to other units, it might be alright if in a nice setting.
Maybe someone here already lives in one and can provide insight?
Yes, we are definitely interested in living in a mobile or manufactured home. DH pointed out that we could live in a mobile home in a resort area in Coastal California where the regular homes cost over a million dollars. We would get the same location, beach access and scenery for a fraction of the price. Plus we want to travel in retirement so we don't want to have a lot of money tied up in a house we won't be living in much of the year.
ToomuchStuff
10-15-13, 3:50pm
A trailer park, no, a trailer, maybe. I never lived in one, but grew up around them, as several friends lived in them. Personally, having one nearby, I would prefer the manufactured housing, which is built similarly to a trailer, with no axle, shipped in sections, and assembled on site, on a foundation or slab. (basement is a good idea in tornado areas)
The trailer parks I have been in, there was only one good one out of the four. All of them do tend to get lower income people, and you do find a lot of the mentality that keeps people there (not save for a rainy day, look for the quick buck, feel good of drugs/alcohol).
The article talks like it is aimed at a "low cost" solution to seniors, the way it starts. I guess you could say low cost because of the landowner has his manager go down and collect the monthly lot rent and see the tenant in alive. Seems to me something paid off and knowing your neighbors was the old fashioned way of doing this.
Mobile homes still require maintenance. My dream home, can and normally is built on site, but they have also made cabins, that could be transported and installed and they don't have some of the issues of normal construction. (Monolithic dome, not the same as a Geodesic dome) They require less energy to heat and cool (then traditional construction), are more soundproof then a trailer, handle the wind and earthquakes better, and have no wood or typical roof to leak/rot/termites etc.
The problem is so many people believed the houses always go up hype and you need a bigger home hype. They can spend themselves into the poorhouse and not own anything. Trailer parks are simply another form of renting, that puts some bug space between you and your roach infested neighbors.
ApatheticNoMore
10-15-13, 4:04pm
I've thought about it, I have nothing against it, mostly I've wondered if it was a better deal than renting an apartment! But really trailer parks aren't that big here though I've seen a few (would it be too pitiful to admit I've drove and walked around them just to check them out and dream before :)). Ok I don't think trailer parks are mansions, but I'm only comparing them to paying rent ok, when otherwise housing is completely crazy costing here - traditional housing is a massive amount of money in one investment.
Without any worries, assuming it was a decent park.
shadowmoss
10-15-13, 5:11pm
I live in a +55 trailer park here in Phoenix. I bought the mobile home and rent the space. Most of the folks who live here are snowbirds and not here 6 months of the year. In fact, from what I hear most are from Canada. So, the time I've been here so far has been quiet. It works for me, and is a replacement for an apartment. The lot rent and utilities, which I pay to the park office, combined are less than my rent alone was on a 1 br apartment. Especially for a part time or short term living arangement (I'm thinking 5 years or so) it combines what I want and need for now.
sweetana3
10-15-13, 5:13pm
I would and have lived in a trailer/mobile home park.
However, it would be something I would check out very carefully. Things like water and sewer are often set up differently here in the Midwest and some parks have their own systems. There have been some significant issues involving clean water and working systems.
gimmethesimplelife
10-15-13, 5:18pm
Trailer park I don't know about.....but I would love to have a small in decent condition trailer on a half acre to an acre of land so I could grow my own food or at least some of it. If I stay in the states I may just do this and I am thinking of SE Arizona or SW New Mexico. Perhaps Las Cruces or perhaps Sierra Vista, AZ. Wonderful climate and at the moment land is not obnoxiously expensive. Plus both places are big enough that you don't have to go to the big city very often - all of what you really need you can find in town. Rob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLjX9eYMAPw
iris lilies
10-15-13, 9:30pm
I live in a +55 trailer park here in Phoenix. I bought the mobile home and rent the space. Most of the folks who live here are snowbirds and not here 6 months of the year. In fact, from what I hear most are from Canada. So, the time I've been here so far has been quiet. It works for me, and is a replacement for an apartment. The lot rent and utilities, which I pay to the park office, combined are less than my rent alone was on a 1 br apartment. Especially for a part time or short term living arangement (I'm thinking 5 years or so) it combines what I want and need for now.
What I want to know is this: how much are your air conditioning bills? In the midwest where weather is extreme, having a poorly insulated trailer house is not the best thing.
I took a little vacation to a tiny town in MO, Hermann, and there is a trailer park right in the middle of town. It's been a while since I saw one of those, I would imagine that they are all zoned out now. It was spread over a couple of blocks and was kinda/sorta seedy but not real seedy.
I think that trailers are fine in places that have moderate weather.
iris lilies
10-15-13, 9:38pm
Trailer park I don't know about.....but I would love to have a small in decent condition trailer on a half acre to an acre of land so I could grow my own food or at least some of it. If I stay in the states I may just do this and I am thinking of SE Arizona or SW New Mexico. Perhaps Las Cruces or perhaps Sierra Vista, AZ. Wonderful climate and at the moment land is not obnoxiously expensive. Plus both places are big enough that you don't have to go to the big city very often - all of what you really need you can find in town. Rob
But--water. Water for the plants, ummm. Where does that comes from?
Here's a Google map photo of where I lived in 'Cruces 33 years ago. Has not changed one bit including the vacant lots across the street. How cute is THIS???? It was a complex of duplexes built in the 1940's. Cute!
http://tinyurl.com/krl7nek
SteveinMN
10-15-13, 10:30pm
Except for the lack-of-a-basement-is-not-a-great-idea-in-tornado-country thing, yes, I'd consider it. It would have to be a property I'd stay in until I couldn't anymore and I'd be as careful selecting the community as I would any other community of stick-built homes. But, yes, I'd consider it.
Float On
10-15-13, 11:12pm
We lived in a very cute little trailer when we were first married on a 1/2 acre lot in an area that was a mix of trailers, modular, and older stick built. We just drove by there the other day and it was gone along with the 3 neighboring trailers. It really had a lot of storage and good uses of space and a wonderful big covered deck on the front.
I know the park I wouldn't mind moving into in FL in a few years. Big lots, well-maintained, water canals (for kayaks and small boats), and only 10 minutes from a wonderful state park beach area. (gulf side, Englewood area, south of Tampa and north of Ft Myers). We've got friends there who always let us stay with them when we'd be in FL for 2-3 months for the winter art shows so I've spent a bit of time there.
I don't like summer heat so I'd have to consider a summer place in MI as well.
Lived in one on our property for almost 20 years...
The units built after they established standards for them (late 70s early 80s,could be off) hold up much better than their earlier counterparts.
Plus side,they're fairly economical simply because theres little unused space,easy to keep clean as well.
Considering a park,I would pay a visit to the local police,sherriff and ask about the types of calls they respond to there.I'd also take a drive through at various times and see what the clientele appears to be,I.E. Friday nights,weekends,when the kids tend to be out of school.
They all seem to start out with good intentions, a park with only seniors in resdience probably would be less problematic.
goldensmom
10-16-13, 6:37am
Yes, but it would depend on the trailer park. My parents lived part of the year in a Florida retirement trailer park that I liked. In my former employement, I had dealings with people in local trailer parks and although not representative of every trailer park resident there is no way I'd live there. Depends on the park. I would live in a mobile/modular home.
I lived in one for 2 years in the 90s and I would do it again if necessary.
shadowmoss
10-16-13, 9:59am
My utilities so far have been low. The roof has had more insulation added and a second cover of some sort, as have most of the older mobiles in my park.
jennipurrr
10-16-13, 11:37am
I know of some decent manufactured homes/trailer park communities along the Gulf of Mexico...a lot of retired people. I would definitely consider living in something like that. I would like to have a lot of amenities outside/nearby since I assume the trailer would be pretty small.
Where I live though, I can't think of a trailer park that doesn't have issues with crime/drugs, etc. Not interested in those kind of surroundings. It is likely because aside from housing projects, they are the most inexpensive options in this area, and they are dirt cheap to rent. Iris Lilly, there were still two until recently in the city limits here...they are fairly dilapidated because some sort of zoning law happened where you could not put new trailers, but existing must have been grandfathered. So now the trailers left are 30+ years old. One was recently going to be turned into a "luxury" RV park but that never came to fruition, so now at this point it just open land. The other is a few blocks from my house and really seedy. I feel bad for the folks there as the housing is truly as substandard as it gets.
Also, I think used trailers can be a great bargain, but the prices on new ones seem astronomical and they depreciate quickly.
pinkytoe
10-16-13, 11:45am
I found this site to locate mobile home parks by city:
www.mhvillage.com
I'm with Jennipurr. All the trailer parks I'm aware of attract the wrong element. No, thank you. Now, a manufactured home on a standard foundation/basement on my own property would be quite a different matter.
early morning
10-16-13, 12:50pm
Not if there was any way to avoid it. First, of course, there is the wind. Not even tornadoes - wind and trailers are not a good combo. 2nd - lack of insulation, for temperature AND for noise. My parents had a double-wide on their own lot on a canal in FLA - Srs only - but I swear you could hear every footstep and every conversation in the trailers on either side, and they had about two car-widths between them. 3rd - they are mostly ugly, at least the newer ones. Some of the old models are rather cute. AND in a park where you rent the site but buy the trailer, you can have a lot of trouble selling if you want to move. Mobile homes aren't all that mobile. This is a situation my aunt is in right now. The park is lovely but the lot rents keep going up, as are utilities. She wants to move back up north to be with her kids and grandkids since my uncle died, but she can't afford to do so without selling the trailer. It's been for sale for 3 years, its in excellent condition and the price is pretty low, but she's had no real offers. There is too much competition in her area and no one wants a used trailer in her park. Around here (Ohio), when land values were going up many parks closed and non-renters had to move their trailers or abandon them. Many lawsuits, but the park owners were the only winners.
Could I live in one? Of course, if need be. Do I want to? Oh, no!
frugalone
10-16-13, 3:06pm
We have a decent trailer park near our home. Never saw the cops being called there, never had any trouble with the residents. They even help take care of the street in front of our house.
That said, I don't know if we could live in a trailer. DH has far too much stuff. We looked at a few before moving into our house and they really seemed small. And that was when we were just living in an apartment! So I don't know...
gimmethesimplelife
10-16-13, 9:40pm
But--water. Water for the plants, ummm. Where does that comes from?
Here's a Google map photo of where I lived in 'Cruces 33 years ago. Has not changed one bit including the vacant lots across the street. How cute is THIS???? It was a complex of duplexes built in the 1940's. Cute!
http://tinyurl.com/krl7nekYou have a good point about water IL. My first season working at the El Tovar on the South Rim, I went to look at some land outside Valle, Arizona, a little gas station/post office/restaurant/hotel/two gift shops and nothing much else tourist stop about 30 miles south of the Grand Canyon. And what stopped me from buying the land was just that - water. Either you go fetch it or have it delivered to you and it costs a small fortune to have it delivered. Very good soil, though, and a wonderful climate. About 6,000 feet so some snow but not the huge amounts Flagstaff at 7,000 ft gets and hot but not obnoxious summers in which many fruit trees will grow. But yeah, the water is a hassle. Rob
Tussiemussies
10-16-13, 10:50pm
No, where we live there is such a stigma about living in a trailer park, or even having a trailer. My Grandparents lived in another state where you could put a trailer on a piece of land in the city and that is what they did, I didn't mind it at all and have many happy memories from there. In another area where it is accepted it is okay with me. We also have too many things that we use right now to fit into one!
ToomuchStuff
10-17-13, 2:29pm
The more I have thought about this, I wonder why doesn't someone make an organization (or a offshoot), like Habitat for Humanity, that takes these smaller, older homes (think two bedroom on smaller lots) and convert an area to a senior living community?
Buying a trailer and renting a lot, seems to me to be like a phrase I read once, putting spinners (fancy spinning car wheels) on a trailer.
Right now: NO. I'm 70, DH is 69. We are both "young" for our age. :) We live in a subdivision on the outskirts of Boise Idaho, about 1400sqft, 3br 2b, and while it feels a bit too big for us at this time, it has a big garage and DH absolutely has to have that. He does a lot of woodworking and building and fixing things. He'd go crazy without his garage/shop. And he'd drive me crazy.
It seems to me there are a lot of mobile home parks in the general Boise area. Some are quite nice -- a friend lives in a very nice seniors-only park, very well kept (don't know the $$), but it seems so sterile. Three other friends and families live in a much-older park which is nice because it has lots and lots of trees and grass and the like, but the homes are old, some in bad repair. Last winter was very hard here, and a lot of people's pipes froze and one family was without water for months. Had to go down to other friends' to shower and haul water for the toilet. In the snow :) ... In trying to dig out the water lines they tore out a lot of insulation and they had to only live in one part of their mobile home, and I do believe they used space heaters for heat.
So ... I would rather not. I grew up "poor", as they say, and we did live in a trailer park at one time in the mid-1950s -- very small trailer, mother and daddy in the bedroom, such as it was, kitchen in the middle, and my sister and I slept on the couch. No bathroom, of course, so we had to go down to the bathhouse to use the facilities, and I truly don't remember how we washed clothes. ANYWAY ... DH came from a much more well-off family, and he's not inclined to consider a mobile home at all.
Time will tell. We'll cross that road when we come to it.
When looking at our return to the US, I considered a variety of housing options, including a trailer park. There are a few nice ones. We also looked at a camp site as an option. There are several campers on camp sites for sale for about $5-10K. Obviously, everything needs a bit of gussying up, but it's do-able. I mean, if you need ap lace to live, you need a place to live. "Elements" and stuff can be managed in their own way over time, and we don't have anything to steal, so. . . yeah.
Anyway, we ultimately were able to secure an affordable apartment, and it's a better fit for us, I would say.
Yes, we plan to live in an adult mobile home park when we can no longer manage living in our cabin. We chose a very nice one in a small town below the snow level and plan to rent only. The park has been around for some time, mature trees are plentiful, shading the homes, since hot summers are the norm. It is kept up well, we know some of the residents, and they speak highly of the park and enjoy living there. All the homes are double wide and well maintained. Living there is part of our long term plan as we age.
Here in SoCal we have some beautiful - and expensive - trailer parks that are very resort like. We also have some seriously dumpy ones and everything in between. So, depending on the park, it's condition, amenities and cost...yea I'd live it one BUT... one big problem is when the park's lease expires and then the park is sold to a developer who wants to build something on the land and the park's tenants must either sell their trailers or pay to have them relocated elsewhere. This has been happening here in droves and has caused a real crisis for lower income seniors who have lived at the park for 30 years or so and now must move to an expensive area.
...BUT... one big problem is when the park's lease expires and then the park is sold to a developer who wants to build something on the land and the park's tenants must either sell their trailers or pay to have them relocated elsewhere. This has been happening here in droves and has caused a real crisis for lower income seniors who have lived at the park for 30 years or so and now must move to an expensive area.
This almost happened in Scottsdale a few years back during the real estate boom. The trailer park had been on some prime r.e. and developers had been eyeing it for many years. This time the tenants raised a stink and managed to get the politicians to get the developers off their backs. Then the r.e. bust happened, so things have been status quo, but that doesn't mean the developers won't come sniffing back if it's there's a few bucks to be made.
Unfortunately that didn't happen here and tons of mobile home parks closed - even the state of Calif bought out an oceanfront one to develop. Many of these places were in oceanfront extremely expensive communities like Laguna Beach and were developed into upscale hotel complexes like the Ritz. But it has happened to many other parks as well. And those few that remain have had huge prices increases for space rent - some going for $2000/month or more. So my advice to anyone who wants to buy a mobile in a park is to make sure it has many many years left on it's land lease and that it is rent controlled.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.