Coming to Mobile Home Park Near You

[RambleTamble]

We talked about this in another thread, but 60-75% of homeless people are homeless because they can't afford housing -- not because they can't find a job. Many people working full time can't afford a place to live.

Maybe it's time the government started building low-income housing again like they did back in the '60s and '70s. Meh, who knows?

 

[Teacher Terry]

It’s happening to our mobile home parks in this part of the country too and some of them are really nice. People are free to move their mobile home, but the expense is enormous and many people can’t afford it and even if you can, where are you going to move it to since mobile home parks are getting bought out. Even if you found a place to move it to how long would that last before that one got bought out.

 

[Kadee]

Fairly close to where I live is a over 50’s lifestyle village , it’s a 7 min walk to a nice calm water beach ( well most of the time )



in a rural town / area , easy commentating distance to the city 1.5 hours drive away on a main highway

Now …..the homes at the over 50’s are on land….. that’s leased , the homes are all the same ….built onsite transportables…..constructed so they can be moved …if you are unhappy there you can take your home elsewhere ( part of contract )
So it’s sumilar to a mobile home …in a way …look the same as many permanents…. in caravan parks homes

This village was still in planning stages about 7 years ago , we attended to the launching / sales talk / what the whole village plans were about 2 years before it was started …..but of course COVID got in the way during the development of the land putting in the services / roads / septics systems .

Im not sure if it’s a year to year lease or a set time, and you must have the whole outside of the home repainted at the cost of $9 to $10.000 every 4 years ….

with the housing problems in Australia and the soaring cost of land prices , I’d fear putting $300.000 ++ into a transportable home on leased land ……much the same as caravan parks contracts ….i believe the rent for the land only …..in the over 50’s is about $200 a week for a single person $270 for a couple …thats a fair bit of money coming out of a fortnightly aged pension , you still have utility costs like electricity / water / and internet / phone
insurances

We are not looking at downsizing our home at this stage , however our federal government recently started a campaign trying to push us oldies out of our own homes to make room for family’s ….and migrants …
no way are we going to pushed out of our own 4 bedroom home ….till we are good and ready to down size

 

[RandomName]

This sounds similar to the old days when they used to kick tenants out of big buildings so they could turn it all into condos.

I'm kind of on the fence with things like rent control and other government involvement. Can be good or bad or both, it seems, lol.

Back in 2008 with the Wall Street collapse due to mortgage fraud, it all started (imo) when govt forced Wall Street to make home mortgage loans to people to whom WS would not normally want to make loans to.

As far as the predatory acquiring of huge numbers of homes by a single entity, I would feel OK with some sort of 'protections' offered by govt for Joe Average Renter.

As far as the migrant thing goes, govt is happy to pay 100% for food and rent for migrants they move into your town, with your taxes, without even asking you about it. (see Ireland, UK, Minneapolis, MN, etc) Not a good use of govt, imo.

 

[VaughanJB]

The housing market looks pretty scary from what I'm reading in your post. I'm so glad I paid my house off when my husband passed away. People have told me to sell it and get something smaller. I wish my house was not as big as it is, but I sure don't want to take a gamble with it. I'm staying put! I do feel bad for people losing their homes right under their feet. Some of them (not all) can't afford to move. There is section 8 housing, but from what I'm told, it takes years to get in them. Private investors (33% ) sure are not helping out the homeless population. Sounds like they're helping to contribute to it.

Since looking into this I have found that it's happening in the UK too.

It seems as though the paradigm is changing, and along with it the so called "American Dream". Due to high prices of real estate, and the fact that wages aren't keeping pace with inflation, the dream of home ownership is moving beyond a segment of the populace. So being a renter will become increasingly prevalent.

 

[RandomName]

In my medium size city, they're saying we have a huge and ominous 'housing shortage', but the housing they're taking about isn't for the locals, it's for newcomers from nearby states and cities who want to move here, for the 'lower cost of living' (for how long, lol?) . The narrative is that the locals are morally obligated to build / allow new housing for the newcomers, even if it results in a lower quality of life for the locals.

 

[VaughanJB]

In my medium size city, they're saying we have a huge and ominous 'housing shortage', but the housing they're taking about isn't for the locals, it's for newcomers from nearby states and cities who want to move here, for the 'lower cost of living' (for how long, lol?) . The narrative is that the locals are morally obligated to build / allow new housing for the newcomers, even if it results in a lower quality of life for the locals.

It's a real problem. In the UK they're talking about increasing the number of homes being built. Sounds good, sounds reasonable.

But what does that mean? Firstly, it means pieces of land, somewhere, is going to be built on. And it has to be land where people want to go. This is good in brownfield sites, but more often it seems to be greenfield. People living near these greenfield sites balk. They don't want woodland and fields near them to disappear in a maze of homes, for roads to get a lot more traffic, and all the noise, mud, and muck a large building project brings.

It also has an effect on the value of the properties of these people. No-one wants their home to lose value. And while I don't think class is a huge issue, there are areas where they won't want young families in social housing to arrive.

There's a big movement in the UK toward apartments. Unused office blocks are being converted into individual units, etc. It's almost at though the explosion of apartment building in the 1960's didn't happen. These places were great when you first moved in and they were new. Five years later they began to break down into rat runs that couldn't be policed.

 

[RobinWren]

Here at least in BC many homes are built on leased land owned by First Nations. If one is to buy a property in those areas it is best to check to see how long the lease runs. Years ago I remember a park that was fairly new that had to close down because the soil was contaminated, I think that was the reason. members had to move their homes, problem was there were very few avaliable pads to move their homes onto. We call them manufactured homes and are now being built on site.

 

[Jules]

It’s happening to our mobile home parks in this part of the country too and some of them are really nice. People are free to move their mobile home, but the expense is enormous and many people can’t afford it and even if you can, where are you going to move it to since mobile home parks are getting bought out. Even if you found a place to move it to how long would that last before that one got bought out.

It’s the same around here. These older mobile homes are fine to live in but not sturdy enough to be moved. They’re worth nothing. If the new mobile park owners had to pay out a fair market value, even if not very much, they might not be so quick to buy them.

 

[VaughanJB]

It’s the same around here. These older mobile homes are fine to live in but not sturdy enough to be moved. They’re worth nothing. If the new mobile park owners had to pay out a fair market value, even if not very much, they might not be so quick to buy them.

I don't know, Jules. The thing is, these investment funds have a bottomless pit of money, and they're in it for the long haul. Immediate profit isn't necessarily their goal, and regardless they're going to pass on any loss or extra to the people staying at the site anyway.

I do want to say that while stories tend to focus on today, and the ramifications of these purchases on residents who are being hit with price rises etc., I actually don't think it's the end of it. Project say, 30 to 50 years from now. The way things are going, normal home purchases are truly going to be out of reach for normal working folk. These funds will own swathes of land and properties. Housing is going to be become increasingly difficult, leaving them in control.

In other words, we're starting down path where our descendants are going to be controlled by these funds.

 

[RandomName]

Apartment buildings are the new craze in my town. Sometimes they'll follow the 'develop every square inch of open land' theme, and squeeze them in between other buildings, sometimes they will tear down old historic homes and put in an ugly apt building. Lots of controversy about it. Often it is 'mixed usage', meaning a number of the new dwelling units are subsidized, and have income limits for their occupants, and the rest are 'market rate'. To oversimplify it, I'd say the 'market rate' units go to high salaried folks moving in from outside, maybe telecommuting on their laptops.