Lee and Carmelita Clark sold their five-bedroom luxury home on a golf course in Vallejo for $475,000 to be near their children in the Bay Area. They could not afford home prices either, but they did find a manufactured home in the age-restricted Tropics Mobile Home Park in Union City, only 25 minutes from their family. For $222,000 they bought a 1,600 square foot MH with a fireplace and granite counter tops in the kitchen.
But manufactured homes are not the answer to the escalating house prices. No new MH communities have been built since the 1970s. Says Glenn Gilliam, president of Alliance Manufactured Homes, where both couples purchased their homes: “The mobile home market is saturated. You can’t buy land in Sunnyvale and build another mobile home park. Land in Sunnyvale is $5 million an acre.”
Some homes have been around for 30 or 40 years when these communities first opened. Alliance buys three or four older MH each week for reconditioning and resale, but from 2013 to 2014 sales of new homes increased 44 percent, from 114 to 164. The company expects annual sales to increase 15 to 20 percent. The sale price of homes in the larger Bay Area region has risen since 2009 from $209,000 to $289,000.
While MH do not appreciate the way site-built homes might, and the interest rate is often a few points higher, and the lack of new MH communities may put upward pressure on home prices and site rents, santacruzsentinel tells MHProNews Fox and Gwynn and the Clarks are pleased with the choices they have made. ##
(Photo credit: santacruzsentinel–California manufactured home)
