Mobile Homes Are So Expensive Now, Hurricane Victims Can't Afford Them (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Hurricane victims emerging from ravaged trailer parks are discovering that the U.S. mobile-home market has left them behind. In Florida and Texas, dealerships are swarmed by buyers looking to rebuild their lives after hurricanes Harvey and Irma, but many leave disappointed. The industry, led by Warren Buffett's Clayton Homes, is peddling such pricey interior-designer touches as breakfast bars and his-and-her bathroom sinks. These extras, plus manufacturers' increased costs for labor and materials, have pushed average prices for new double-wides up more than 20 percent in five years, putting them out of reach for many of the newly homeless.

Comments

"The Dow is at record-breaking levels"

[PopeRatzo]

have pushed average prices for new double-wides up more than 20 percent in five years, putting them out of reach for many of the newly homeless.

Late-stage capitalism is when you can't afford the rope to hang yourself, but your #MAGA hat is subsidized.

In other news...

The guy who Trump picked to head Health and Human Services tripled the price of insulin when he was CEO of Eli Lilly. After the drug's patent expired.

https://www.thenation.com/arti...

Re:"The Dow is at record-breaking levels"

[RedK]

Late-stage capitalism is when you can't afford the rope to hang yourself, but your #MAGA hat is subsidized.

That's not Capitalism.

Capitalism would be someone finding a way to make the ropes cheaper and selling them to you, and including a #MAGA hat for free in order to bolster the sale.

Just as with this mobile homes situation. Communism just means the state is stuck buying "His and Hers sinks" for everyone and thus overpaying, lining the pockets of some friend of the party. Capitalism means a business opportunity for someone to make a 20% cheaper model to serve the increased demand and thus carve himself a new niche.

Of course, it helps to put "Trump Derangement Syndrome" aside, since this has nothing to do with Trump.

Re:"The Dow is at record-breaking levels"

[HornWumpus]

Anybody who regularly uses the phrase 'late stage capitalism' has drunk the koolaid and isn't open to reason.

It's a tell. Save the effort. Your time is better spent arguing with brick walls.

Re:Chinese trailers?

[DontBeAMoran]

So, the same way as most American-made trailers are made then?

Contrast to Socialism

[Anonymous Coward]

The Dear Leader decides what people want AND need.

Then, it turns out that His decision was not based on reality, or did not stay based on reality.

The people begin to suffer, and rebellion stews.

The Dear Leader pours all of His resources into crushing the rebellious masses under his gold-clad heel.

This is not correct

[rsilvergun]

saying this implies the cost of Mobile homes has gone up. Manufacturing costs are way, way down. The actual problem is that 30 years of wage stagnation has reduced the buying power of working class people. They can't afford basic shelter.

This is a classic example of an anti-worker wing narrative at work. The breakfast bar adds $200 to the cost of the home. The his and her sinks $500. The cost of the home goes up $10,000. Nobody talks about the $9,200 gap or why people can't afford it. The implication is that poor people are being frivolous with their money, which in turn implies they have low moral character which in turn gives the middle class and rich a reason to abandon them to their poverty because, after all, it's their fault for having low moral character. It's prosperity gospel without the tinge of religion.

Re: This is not correct

[bradley.uffner2292]

The stupid part is that it's actually true. This country is in full blown, barely non-violent, class war. Somehow the rich got the poor and middle-class to pick sides and fight each other like it was some kind of football game, except with very real consequences.

People who live in glass houses...

[Comboman]

If you live on the gulf coast or tornado alley, maybe a mobile home isn't your best bet. The main reason the price or new units is so high is because the supply of used units suddenly dropped, forcing people who would have bought a used unit to buy a new one.

Re:This doesn't ring true

[HornWumpus]

In rural Texas? Old houses won't be much more and will appreciate in value rather than deprecate like a car.

Mobile homes aren't maintenance free. Rather the opposite. Built like shit from shit materials.

'No lawn' implies mobile home park. What does 'trailer park supervisor' mean to you? 'Lehey' is a part in a TV show, but it's based on reality. 'Trailer park supervisors' ARE notorious petty tyrants. Trailer park neighbors are also 'colorful' bunch. I've never lived in one, but have known a couple of people that spent a couple years in one. 'Trailer Park Boys' is a documentary.

Trailer parks are redneck ghettos. Nobody has things worse than white trash kids from the trailer parks. Their culture is as broken as any inner city slum dweller, but no help for their 'privileged' asses.

Re:If you are homeless...

[barc0001]

> I was able to have my own car when I was 16 because I bought two identical model year non working beaters ($400 and a $150) and combined them into one 'working' car.

Sure, and you were able to do that because you were young, able and - most importantly - almost certainly having your living expenses paid for by your parents while you spent hours and days learning how to combine two machines into one, in garage space or backyard space provided by your parents. Probably with their tools too. I did something similar and while it makes a great bootstrappy fantasy, the reality is there was a lot of support in place to allow you (and me) to do that. Things a lot of people these days don't have. I live in a condo now with a full time job so I neither have the space (against strata bylaws to do anything more involved than tire rotation/change in your parking spot) nor the time to work on cars much so I instead spend more to have a reliable vehicle.

People might be buying new mobile homes because as a former resident of one I can tell you things on older ones tend to go south a lot faster than a comparably aged traditional house. That causes unexpected expense that can be even more costly than larger payments from buying new. The first 2 years I owned my place I spent close to 10K on repairs and maintenance, including a roof replacement.

> trailer homes don't increase in value like real estate.

Depends on the trailer home. I bought and lived in a trailer home 10 years ago for 50K, sold it for 90K 3 years ago. Now the Vancouver boom has really reached out to the valley and my neighbors at the old trailer park are listing their 30 year old, sometimes-renoed partially homes for anywhere from 125K-200K. And getting it. And this is on leased land. Crazy...

Example: Here's one just shy of a quarter million:

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/18681563/18-10221-WILSON-STREET-Mission-British-Columbia-V4S1E2

15 years ago that would been sold for less than 40K.

Re:Good.

[HornWumpus]

Most 'shed banning' is done by HOAs. _Never_ buy a HOA property, it's just that simple.

Unless of course you're an 'HOA person', than fuck you...we'll both be happier living as far apart as possible.