People online talk so much about the need for affordable, small-footprint, community focused housing that goes against conventional zoning laws. Well, they’ve literally just described a trailer park, but those same people will use the term as a classist insult.
Not a whole lot to expand upon here, but if there are any good counterpoints or questions in the replies, I’ll respond there or edit my post body.
Someone else touched on it but mobile home parks can actually be very exploitative because the home isn’t actually mobile, it can generally never be moved again, but the owner has no claim to the land. So it’s all the downsides of owning a home AND renting with literally none of the upsides. The home doesn’t appreciate, and you have no control over your future payment, and can even be evicted from your home that you own outright. Without some change there, they are not a solution.
To your point though, building housing developments organized like mobile homes could be viable, however if you’re going to use up that much land you really should also build vertically to make the most of it. But then you get into the same issues we have now, building up costs a lot more, no longer stays affordable, etc.
Mobile homes not appreciating isn’t strictly because of the conditions you described, though. You could say the same about a condo: you’re obligated to pay a monthly fee, if you don’t you can be removed, it isn’t mobile. In a sense it’s worse because of the possibility of a special assessment. But, condos often do appreciate in value.
Most condos appreciate in value, and an HOA fee is not that same as literally having to lease the space your home is on.
I agree that condos do typically appreciate in value.
I think you’ll need to convince me that condo fees are fundamentally different than rental fees in a trailer park.
From my POV, it’s a fixed cost. The fees are used to fund maintaince on the greater whole of the housing system. A portion is used to fund the managing entity. If you fail to pay them, you will be legally removed. In your estimation, what is the practical difference?
My argument is that there are other more important factors that result in the relatively low demand (and this lack of upward pressure that results in property value appreciation), because I agree that condos do generally appreciate in value.
Can you think of ANY other reason that may contribute to the lack of upward pressure on trailer park dwelling values?
Trailer parks suffer many of the same pitfalls that “the projects” do. Economic opportunity and mobility is largely impacted by who your neighbors are. If all your neighbors are low income and struggling to get by, you’ll have a hard time making connections that land you a better paying job. Large concentrations of struggling people also attracts exploitative companies to set up shop nearby and pull laborers from the marginalized community.
Some cities have achieved measures of success in requiring luxury condo and apartment buildings to include a certain number of low income housing units. Maybe you could do something similar to require a variety of price tiers in new housing developments.
Trailers and manufactured homes also use the worst of building materials available. Lots of formaldehyde containing material, super thin walls, poor ventilation, etc. Do you remember the fema trailers after hurricane Katrina? Trailers are better than being homeless, but i would much prefer that we focus on getting people into small affordable housing that doesn’t carry health risks.
We shouldn’t shame people for living in trailer parks, but I wouldn’t encourage anyone to live in one either.
Basically, the depreciation of a trailer over time and the large expense to replace it places a massive insurmountable burden on the person long term. The same housing expense for on-site construction is a long term investment with equity that lifts people out of a poverty cycle. The exploitation schemes regarding land use are often institutionalized where trailers are only permitted inside zoned land, and there is no zoned land that can be purchased outright. This is then used to exploit the poor folks that have no choice but to pay their abusive feudal overlord for whatever whimsical excuse they use to hike land rent to pay for their second Ferrari through privateering.
Same goes for homesteaders, when you have just undeveloped land, building then living in a super big house is kinda a waste. Dream scenario for me personally is to have a smaller house on a good plot of land about 15-30 minutes of driving away from town. I want to be far enough so I get the benefits of being a bit further from everything without having to make the trip into town only a monthly thing
While residents own their homes, they still have to pay rent for the lot, and each time a trailer park is sold the new owner looks to recoup their investment one way or another.
Good news in the states at least is resident owned communities have started to see a lot of success, check it out.
