More mobile home parks trying to become condos

[Liberal_in_LA]

More mobile home parks trying to become condos

(07-20) 20:22 PDT -- Mobile home parks, still affordable to many people, have become the latest housing battlefield. A growing number of park operators want to convert the spaces those mobile homes occupy to condominium ownership - a move that some residents say would price them out of their homes.

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Santa Rosa's Country Mobile Home Park is one whose owner has applied for condo conversion, a move opposed by a majority of its residents. Among them are Phil Dion, 70, and his wife, Mickie, 67.

"If it went condo, my wife and I would ... have to abandon our unit and leave," Dion said. "We'd have no place to go."

The couple paid $50,000 for their two-bedroom manufactured house about seven years ago. The monthly rent for their space is $515. "We couldn't afford to move our home, and we couldn't afford to buy the lot underneath," he said. "I contacted 13 finance companies, and only one would finance the lot purchase - at 18 percent interest."

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Moving them unlikely

Residents prefer to call them "manufactured homes" and say moving their dwellings is prohibitively expensive.

"In the old days, if you didn't like a park, you unhooked and drove to another location," said Sam DiGiacomo, who lives in a mobile-home park in the town of Sonoma and runs the local chapter of the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League, which represents residents. "But now they're not really mobile; my home sits on a cement foundation, the wheels are removed."

"People think we're nomads that travel from place to place," said Suzanne Angeo, a resident of Santa Rosa's Country Mobile Home Park. "But we live here; these are our homes. Many of us have invested our life savings into them."

Many residents worry that going condo will wipe out that investment.

Potential buyers will heavily discount the value of the homes if they have to pay a big premium for the lots, said Will Constantine, a Santa Cruz attorney who represents park residents fighting condo conversion.

"When a park owner converts, the mobile-home owners lose about 95 percent of their homes' value," he said. "If a resident wants to sell, the person buying has to buy the lot. If you have to pay $200,000 for a lot, you won't have much left over to buy the mobile home."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/21/MN0V18OLQR.DTL#ixzz0LyHzv5QU

[ccharles000]

1. I hope everything works out so the people who live in mobile homes get to stay.

[elocs]

2. This is exactly what I fear is the future of the mobile home park where I live.

It is on a river and there is a huge apartment complex across the street from me where residents may have their own boat slips. Across the river from my mobile home park are some very expensive houses and they look out their windows and see across the river what I am sure they refer to as "trailers". This land used to be in the flood plain but is not longer and is certainly worth a lot of money.

The owner is a woman who is nearing retirement age and I am sure that her kids are salivating in anticipation of getting their hands on this property. The sad thing is that many retired people on a fixed income live here and could not afford much of anything else. I was hoping myself to be able to retire her in another 9 years, but I doubt if this place will still be here then.

[ccharles000]

4. ...

:hug:

[RebelOne]

5. I sort of have the same problem.

I live in a mobile home park and there is a rumor that the owner is going to sell out within 5 years so that condos can be built here. There was a small mobile home park next door and it was sold a couple of years ago. All the residents were forced to move. Some of the older homes were just abandoned. There was supposed to be a condo built there, but so far nothing is happening. I'm hoping the housing market stays down in this area, so that our park won't be sold. I also would have nowhere to go. I own my mobile home and only pay $350 a month lot rent that includes water and garbage and trash pickup.

[elocs]

7. My housing cost is $214.11 a month. Lot rent: $210, property tax: $4.11.

In a college town I couldn't get a decent efficiency for that price. The owner has always been very strict and all homes must be maintained and nothing can be stored outside. This is a small park and there are virtually no kids here so it is very quiet. It's in a nice location by the river where I can see eagles as common as sparrows in the early spring. I can go outside and see the MN bluffs a few miles to the west and the WI bluffs are just a few miles to my east. I am in the city, just a few miles from downtown, 1 mile from a small mall, and 3 miles from a large shopping center plus the bus goes within blocks from me.

All of the mobile homes here are single wides and older, including mine, and I am not sure they could be easily moved and I'm not sure there would be room in the area for all of them because some parks do not want single wide homes. I can hear the clock ticking and I know it is only a matter of time until we are all told to get out. Sad because this would be the perfect and inexpensive place for when I retire.

[SoCalDem]

13. Now might be a good time to look for a patch of land somewhere

You might evne drive around and look for places in the hinterlands with a mobile already on it.. Maybe they would sell you a bit of their land, and if services are already there, it might pay you to have your place moved.

Land prices are also down now:)

and then you would be "saving" the space rent every month, so if the land payment cost about the same, you'd be ahead, since no one could force you off..

[elocs]

14. I don't know how movable my old house is and it is expensive to move them.

Besides, I am semi-retired and don't have money for either moving my home or buying land. The beauty of where I live is that it is near everything I need and I wouldn't even really need to have a car. Maybe I'll have to get my name on the senior citizen high rise list.

[SoCalDem]

3. This is the main drawback of not owning the land UNDER the home

There was a time when mobile home parks were inexpensive, but once housing boomed, the land became so expensive, that many owners of parks, just wanted the money all in a lump sum, and the "tenants" gone.

Many around here have increased the "space rent" to such a level, that many oldsters cannot afford it, even if their "home" is paid for. One nearby, has $750.00 a month space rent. they WANT the tenants to move out & away

[elocs]

8. The reason the land under my home is valuable is because it is in the city

and in a desirable location. Most mobile home parks around here are on the fringes of a town or city or out in the country. Outside of being notified to move I would anticipate the rent squeeze where the rent is raised so high that people could no longer afford to live here, particularly senior citizens living on a fixed income and I am within shouting distance of that.

[SoCalDem]

9. Around here, so many older parks have been engulfed by city

and the parks, once on the outskirts, are now sitting on some pretty primo land.. :(

[elocs]

10. Being right on the river my park was once in the flood plain, but no more.

In a city which is landlocked between the river and the bluffs, that makes this land very valuable.

[SoCalDem]

11. every time we leave Las Vegas, I always wonder what people must think

There are these big homes, that people built a few years back...waaaaay away from "town", and now they are all surrounded by cheesy tract homes and condos.. so much for seclusion:)

[gorfle]

12. Yup.

If you don't own the land your house is sitting on you'd best keep your house mobile so you can move it if you have to.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. I always wondered how that worked... owning the home but not the land. I see the risk involved

But condo prices are in the toilet also. Maybe the conversions won't happen.

[quiller4]

17. Although it is higher than our space rent, I wouldn't consider $750

excessive for our current space. Our space rent including utilities is around $550 but those with triple wides in our park pay closer to $700. All units in our park are owner occupied and at least one of the residents in each unit is 55 or older. About half the residents are snow birds and own a second mobile or park model in California or Arizona.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. Not to mention that the repulsive Keloe SCOTUS decision gives the city

the RIGHT to force owners to do condo conversions or develop higher end properties and the like or run the risk of an eminent domain seizure in order to increase the tax basis.

As far as I am aware, mobile homes are considered pesonal property and depreciate much in the manner of cars.

Mobile home parks are pretty much doomed to obsolescence IMHO, although they provided affordable housing for many. I have seen lots of places with older mobile home parks is highly desirable locations and as several posters have pointed out, the next generation of owners will have no hesitation in selling and developing.

[quiller4]

15. In condo conversions I'm aware of, mobile owners saw an increase

in value. We live in a senior mobile park and our association approached the owners because we would like to go condo. Our park owner wasn't interested. We all saw it as a way to protect our homes and investment from encroaching development. Since the assessed value of our entire park (based upon current use rather than highest use)is just over $500,000, our lot values range from $10,000-$23,000.

[AwakeAtLast]

18. Very happy I finally got out of my mobile home

but I hope these people get to stay. This is basic robbery - $515 for LOT rent?

[Hepburn]

19. Try looking at what the prices are in Malibu and Palos Verdes Penn.

Try $1,500/month space rent and mobile ~~ old ones ~~ that are selling for around $200K...and much more if there is an ocean view.