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Comment by yboris | Hacker News Reader

I lived in a mobile home for 6 years. 920 square feet purchased for $50,000 with $600/month rent on land. I live in New Jersey where apartments cost no less than $1,200 in my area.

Simple calculation says I saved about $40,000 so far while living in a better environment and space. Buying a house in this area costs no less than $200,000 and land taxes come out to ~$500/month anyway.

I highly recommend mobile home living for just-married couples.

ps - our community does not allow people to rent their homes out, so everyone who lives here takes care of the property well. I suspect this may be an important feature for better quality of life in such a community. And there are no trailers -- all homes are stationary.

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I have some relatives who lived in a trailer for a dozen years or so. However, it definitely provided my relatives a considerably better quality of life at a considerably cheaper cost than nearby apartments.

I know that after speaking to them about it, their only real regret was that there was no real equity in the home since they sell like vehicles -- depreciating assets. They bought it for $40k, sold it for $5k, and paid about $500/mo in rent for the land.

They were forced to move when the land owner decided to get out of the mobile home tenancy business and sold their property to a developer.

> Simple calculation says I saved about $40,000 so far

That only works out if you can sell your mobile for $50k - typically (there are exceptions based on location and market conditions, but typically) mobile homes depreciate in value, while 'fixed' homes appreciate.

6 years ago if you'd put that $50k down on a 200k house, you'd have had a ~1k mortgage and a home that has appreciated to ~240k, instead of a mobile home that has depreciated.

The housing appreciation is overrated: your house is worth more, but so are all the other houses you want to buy when you move. And people complaining when the housing prices fall also confuse me: so what, the house you buy when you move is cheaper too.

The trailer home I bought was built in 1984. With all the people moving out of NYC into New Jersey, similar mobile homes in my development have sold for $80k. I may end up selling for a similar amount. Though I do think you're right and it is typical to lose money when re-selling a mobile home.

As a side note: I paid 0 tax when purchasing it (it's not a house, no house tax). My "closing" expenses were $40 to get the title registered at the local DMV / MVC (Motor Vehicle Commission). It's pretty nice.

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