In hard times, mobile homes shed their old image
When Beth Lopez and her husband, Henry, separated two years ago, they decided to sell their three-bedroom, three-bath family home in east Palmdale. Lopez knew she had to downsize. But the search for a new residence led her to a dwelling she had never before considered: a mobile home.
“It was not something I had ever thought of,” said Lopez, who is 52 and unemployed. “But of course things change in life.”
As do perceptions. For the uninitiated, the term “mobile home” may conjure up images of garbage-strewed trailer parks, with scruffy children and underfed dogs. But a mobile home -- “manufactured home” is the term preferred by the industry -- can be well-appointed with two to three large bedrooms in a complex with a pool, spa, social activities and 24-hour security. And in Southern California, the land of $1-million tract houses, a mobile home can cost $20,000 to $300,000.
Lopez bought her $122,000 mobile home outright by securing a second mortgage on her family property to cover part of the cost. She pays $360 a month to lease the city-owned home site at the Boulders at the Ranch I in west Palmdale. (Leases in some private communities in Southern California can run as high as $1,100 a month.)
There’s not a mad rush to buy mobile homes in Southern California, and dealers acknowledge that their sales have slowed in recent months. But in today’s slumping housing market, with growing numbers of homeowners facing foreclosure, renters trying to flee rate increases and first-time buyers struggling to acquire property, industry observers offer anecdotal evidence to show that affordability, built-in amenities and the possibility of remaining or becoming a homeowner have heightened the appeal of the manufactured home. And in some instances, the opportunity to move into a better neighborhood is a plus as well.
“We’re getting a lot of inquires . . . a lot of calls, about pricing and location,” said Patricia Lambert, president of Harold Rowsey Enterprises Inc., a Garden Grove-based company that has specialized in the sale of mobile homes across California since 1975.
Lambert said her company’s website traffic has been up 15% in recent months.
Similarly, Debbie Gentile, owner of Gold Coast Mobile Home Sales in Riverside, has noticed a spurt of interest in the Inland Empire. She said Web traffic on Gold Coast’s site is up 40%.
Terri-Lei Wheeler, housing coordinator for the city of Palmdale, said she now gets two to five inquires a week from people interested in moving into one of the three Boulders mobile home communities managed by the city. Before the recent subprime mortgage crisis, she got one to three inquires a week.
All of the 1,941 spaces in Palmdale’s 10 mobile home parks are leased, said Wheeler, noting that “regular housing prices are so out of reach for many.”
Retiree Bill Lamey, president of the homeowners association at Boulders at the Ranch, said there were 100 vacant sites when he and his wife moved into the community four years ago -- before the housing market slump. Now all the spots are taken.
About 10 people are on a waiting list for vacancies at the Boulders, where single applicants cannot earn more than $47,500 a year and the income for a six-person household cannot surpass $78,600.
Stigma is hard to shake
There are 48,000 mobile homes in Los Angeles County, according to statistics from the county assessor’s office. Orange County has 18,649, according to the assessor’s office there. About 64,000 such homes are in Riverside County and 17,500 in San Bernardino County.
Yet the “trailer trash” stigma remains.
According to housing officials and industry experts, any reputation attached to manufactured homes is largely based on ignorance.
In most Southland communities, the image of “the pink flamingo in the rock pile and the single-wide trailer” is not accurate, insisted Lambert of the Orange County retailer.
At the Boulders, for example, view homes valued from $70,000 to $130,000 offer three to four bedrooms and spacious living areas that flow into each other. Other communities boast properties with features such as vaulted ceilings, fireplaces, ceramic tile flooring and walk-in closets.
Of course, stereotypical trailer parks of ramshackle homes and slum conditions do exist. The quality of a community rests largely on the management and the enforcement of park rules, industry specialists said. And some parks with lower leases might attract residents less able to adequately maintain their property, they added.
Residents of mobile home parks also acknowledge that living in such close proximity to neighbors has its drawbacks, such as limited privacy. And finance specialists point out that manufactured homes typically depreciate over time, so they might not be as good of an investment as a conventional home.
Two-home balancing act
The decision to buy a mobile home is sometimes complicated by the current state of the real estate industry. Some, such as Beth Lopez, have found themselves juggling two homes.
It has been 18 months since Lopez and her former husband put their family home up for sale. Despite a price drop from $380,000 to $334,900, the house did not move. The Lopezes recently took the home off the market. They have continued to pay the $905 mortgage, while Beth Lopez lives there with her son, his wife and two children.
She hangs out at her mobile home on weekends and is eager to move in permanently.
Maria Perez, 52, a stay-at-home mom, and her husband, a truck driver, are facing a similar predicament.
The Perezes had originally wanted to move with their two school-age sons from their manufactured home at the Hacienda Mobile Home Estates in Lancaster to a larger conventional property. But the monthly mortgage payments for the $350,000 house they wanted would have been $3,000. So the Perezes decided to stick with the mobile home market -- and upgrade to a better park.
About a year ago, a site became vacant at one of Palmdale’s Boulders communities, and the Perezes quickly selected a new $139,000 three-bedroom home for the lot.
But the couple have not been able to sell their current home -- despite slashing the price from $80,000 to $65,000. They continue to pay $160 a month to hold the vacant site at the Boulders.
Perez said many buyers have been interested in her current home but failed to qualify for a loan.
Gentile, of Gold Coast in Riverside, said although purchasing a manufactured home typically requires a smaller initial investment and lower monthly payments than conventional housing, the financing options offered are usually more stringent. For example, adjustable rates are not available.
A relative bargain
Most of Teresa P. Micka’s recent clients at her Bella Mobile Homes Sales in Palmdale have been renters.
“Sometimes it’s cheaper to own a mobile home than to rent,” Micka said.
Leroy McKelvey knows this firsthand.
The construction industry worker said he is paying $1,100 to rent an 800-square-foot apartment in Lancaster.
This month, he dropped by an open house that Micka was holding at the Chaparral Mobile Estates in Lancaster. The home featured 2,000 square feet with three bedrooms and was priced at $79,900. Depending on the level of financing, a new owner could expect monthly payments of below $1,000, Micka said. McKelvey was impressed but has yet to buy.
Ginny Titus, 45, a divorced mother of a 13-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, was paying almost $1,700 a month, plus utilities, to rent a single-family home in Riverside. She qualified for a loan for a conventional house but couldn’t find one in her price bracket. Last August she moved into a three-bedroom, two-bath property in Riverside’s Rancho Caballero mobile home community.
Her monthly bills including the mortgage on the $88,000 home are almost $100 less than her previous rent. She has ample living space and access to a community library, pool and spa.
“I’m building my credit. I’m building equity,” Titus said. “It’s just a fabulous way to get in on the ground level.”
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