pinot

I did not know there are gated houseboat communities too!! I bet they are rare and very expensive? Isn't that very cold in winter?

Murphy

We have tornadoes in Iowa and many people live in mobile home parks. Many parks have sturdy shelters nearby in case.

Judy_M

We live in a gated mobile home park in Mesa, Arizona. Ours is a 55 and over park. There is a pool, clubhouse with computers, library, movie rental and many many activities going on all the time.
We pay lot rent, water and trash pick up. Most homes are double wide a few triple wides. Our home is 26' by 60'. We have 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, den, utility room, kitchen and living room. We have been in Arizona 20 years 10 in our mobile home, and we really like it.

Ramona Byrd

My sister lives in a senior park and her trailer house..sorry, MOBILE HOME is much nicer than my own older house. She has two bedrooms two baths, built in dishwasher and all the other day to day things that nice homes have. She has her own car and drives all over, but the park has meeting hall and probably swimming pool, don't know about that. I visited her during cold weather so we stayed in a lot.

I know lots of older folks who are darn tired of keeping up their houses and yards, so moved to these places. Also know a lady who was tired of her kids dumping spoiled brat grandkids on her to baby sit for days at a time, so she moved to a Senior only park and loves it.

Bill'sBonBon

I am a transplanted Floridian now living in GA. I had a Double Wide...3 BR. 2 Full Bath. Livingrm.,Den Dining room,utility for washer and dryer. Beautiful Home. In PalmBeach co. On Lake Okeecobee which is 40 miles by 60 miles. Lived there all my life until now. My Home went thru. the first 2 Hurricanes in 2005.. First one did no damage at all,but took shingles off my neighbors CBS home, Concert Block Struct. Did several thousands of dollars damage to her home and a lot of others. We felt so blessed. Second Took the torched down roof off and several pieces of plywood decking. But that was the only damage, Water is what did the damage and mold afterwards. Walls still stood only Roof came off on one side and it just peel off from the constant wind. Still had decking except for the several that went with torchdown roof. Lost it and some material things not much, was blessed got insurance money after only a short delay.
This kind of home is not for anyone to stay in during hurricanes. But not many homes are if it is a strong hurricane. Like Andrew in FL. Took everything in its path. You just use common sense if you live in the South. Like you would if you lived where the thornados go thru. In south Fl. you see very few Twisters which you don't have a warning from. Hurricanes You are given updates constantly thru your local radio and TV stations. So you know when to Evac.
Mobile homes or Modular homes which is the same except they take the axels and tires and put it on a foundation can be as beautiful and cost as much as a built home. Before moveing where we are,My DH BIL works for a mobile home company. We were looking at them, One I loved Which they called a modular was over $300,00.00 LOL!!! It had an upstairs a whole 2nd level. BEAUTIFUL!!!
BillsBonBon

Ramona Byrd

When you are looking to buy a Mobil Home, you can design your own and make it very, very insulated and put different rooms where you want them. It's like the manufactured houses you design, you want windows there and sink here and doors there, you can put them anywhere the law allows. One of my brothers did that after their house burned down, the new one is lovely, much better than the old one.

pinot

Oh Ramona! I had to laugh about the second part!!! Thank you!

lalaland

Our 2nd home is a mobile home in a senior park in Yakima, WA. It is 14x70, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dishwasher, w/d, we have a covered double car port and storage unit on one side and a covered porch on the other side. The park has both single wide and double wide homes. The mobile home was already in the park when we purchased it, we didn't move it there. We spend our summers there, the rest of the year it is unused. Our neighbors keep an eye on it while we are gone.

The park has a recreation room, lots of activities, it's pretty secure and well maintained. We pay rent on the lot we're on. We opted to be in a senior park rather than a family park because the senior parks were better maintained. You do need a car to get around but it's located near everything you could possibly need.

Being a senior park, it has lots of rules which is a good thing in some ways but my DH has decided that at his age he doesn't like people telling him what he can and cannot do with his property so we will probably sell it and buy a small home next year.

amma

You can get "Alaska" pack mobiles, that have way more insulation for the colder climates and the hotter ones too.

Parks around here are family, adults only or seniors, all pay rent for the lot, you do your own yard work, and pay all of the utilities like a standard home. Some have all/part of the other mentioned amnenities, others have none...

Here in Washington state, we rarely get tornadoes, but we do get wind storms that can be 100+ mph, so they have "tie downs" that secure the mobile homes to their foundations. Our main problem is the wind knocking down huge fir trees, so it doesn't matter whether it is a mobile home or standard, the destruction is about the same.

The only downside to a mobile home is they depreciate in value here, and a standard home usually appreciates. But they still can be a very attractive alternative financially.

We also have a lot of houseboat communities along the rivers and on the lakes. They range from older (I would be scared to even walk on the docks lol) to beautiful, huge homes. Some families have lived for generations in houseboats here.
They are starting to make more rules/regs about them, making it more difficult to build marinas or allow people to work on/maintain/or move in new homes... something to do with the Environmental issues.

neece

Excuse they are NOT trailers. They are mobile homes or in some cases manufactured homes. Here in Indiana there are lots of mobile home communities. This man I used to see(I still can't believe I ever went out with him) got married and was living in a trailer park. (this is my story when he writes it he can say community) He spent his week vacation building a deck on his trailer. Went back to work and came home to find a notice that he was supposed to have a permit to build the deck. Took his next week of vacation tearing it down. My friend and I were going to fix some cocktails and watch him tear it down but showed great restraint and stayed home with the cocktails. This is one of my favorite old boyfriend stories. :lol: :lol: :lol: