A few days ago, a Dallas Morning News reporter traveled to Florida to research manufactured home communities located there.  He showed great wisdom in the timing of this event as ice, sleet, and snow enveloped the North Texas area probably about the same time his plane left the runway.

Dallas is a long way from the Florida coast, and you have to wonder why the Dallas newspaper has an interest in MH communities in Florida.  Perhaps Scott Burns, the reporter assigned to that research, is contemplating retiring soon, as he has been writing for that newspaper for a long time.

For whatever reason, Burns met some interesting people and made some interesting discoveries about living in manufactured home communities during his tour. He tells about a “boat guy” named Gene Snyder who was looking for a nice home for his 91-year-old grandfather who had been living south of Key Largo.  The family members wanted him to live closer, but the grandfather was reluctant to move.

“So I asked if he would move to a place that was on the water,” Snyder said. That option changed everything. His grandfather sold his place in the Keys for $400,000. He bought a $60,000 manufactured home with three bedrooms and two baths at Crystal Bay in Dunedin, Florida, on the Gulf Coast.

“It wasn’t fancy. But it was clean and the park was spotless,” Snyder said. “When he moved in, he was the oldest resident, and they just adopted him.”

“They have a kind of family there. They have Christmas dinner, dances and other events. We kidded him that he had more friends in the park in a month than he had in a lifetime of living in the Keys. It has a sense of community. The only drawback is that the park is very seasonal. It almost shuts down during the summer.”

Gene’s grandfather died at 103.

“Now my mom has moved in,” Snyder said. “She says she would have laughed if you had told her she would live in a ‘trailer park,’ but she’s delighted.”

He explains that many of the residents take walks at night, but not a lot of walking gets done because everyone visits.

Today, Snyder said, the manufactured homes on canal lots look across the water at lots that sell for $400,000. Now in his early 50s, with a son in college, he and his wife are looking ahead. They hope to sell their conventional home and find a place in Crystal Bay on the water.

That would make three generations, all with many choices, deciding to live in what many still call a “trailer park.”  Burns says this makes him wonder whether we’re at the beginning of a change in how we think about the biggest lifetime expense most people have — shelter.

Burns continues his story by relating his meeting with Jonie Green, a retiree from Indiana who spends every winter in Crystal Bay with her husband. He said she showed him the new docks, the pool and other amenities.

He learned that Crystal Bay was an early “resident-owned community.” These are communities where the residents vote to create a cooperative and buy the land in their park rather than rent it. Today the manufactured homes and shares sell together, and most units are resident-owned. To become resident-owned, at least 70 percent of the residents must take part and buy their shares.

So, Burns decides to see if any homes are for sale by searching the Crystal Bay website.  He says he only found four units for sale. “One is $60,000, two are offered at $65,000, and a new and larger unit has a $129,000 price tag,” he explained. “The monthly maintenance is $145.” There are other costs such as taxes, insurance and utilities, but he discovers that they are low relative to owning a conventional house.

Jonie Green tells Burns that “Forty of 107 places here are year-round, and the year-round folks are increasing,” she adds. He said they laughed and commented that after the present winter people were enduring further north, all of the residents might live there year round in 2016.

Burns observed that Florida isn’t the only destination for snowbirds, but noted that it has a varied stock of housing, including a multitude of resident-owned and land-rental manufactured home communities. “When you look at the investment and expenses, it’s pretty clear that this is a great way to have a low-cost second home. But there is a bigger picture. For some, it could be an entire retirement strategy. It could be a good reason to rethink our shelter decisions,” he added.

Perhaps Burns may be relocating to Florida soon.  Living expenses in Crystal Bay are a whole lot cheaper than where he presently lives in the Dallas area. ##

(Photo Credit: MH Village)

 

Article submitted by Sandra Lane to – Daily Business News – MHProNews.