Mobile Homes vs. Site-Built Homes: An Examination

Manufactured and manufactured home industry professionals are experiencing that the depression might not have hit so substantially if more buyers had purchased THEIR homes, instead of investing in costly site built homes and condominiums. Lenders created many programs that made it all too easy for first-time buyers to purchase these real property "stick-built" homes, often directly twice the price of similar manufactured homes. This over buying trend also led to the sharp price hikes seen in many real estate markets across the nation.

A substantial portion of the market share for manufactured homes was lost dawn in 2001, when the financing for stick-built homes became over-available. With a surplus of easy money, many first-time buyers (who would have been perfectly positioned to purchase a brand new manufactured home within their true budget) were presented with the opportunity to have something that was too digestible to be true. Many buyers went ahead and purchased these site-built homes for twice the financial liability than they truly should have.

Had those same buyers purchased a reasonably priced manufactured or manufactured home, they would have been able to daybreak to accumulate steady equity in their homes while also making affordable payments, and lowering the principal balance on their Mobile Home Mortgage. Instead, 3 million homeowners went into foreclosure in 2008 alone, resulting in 850,000 home repossessions by the financial institutions that financed these unwise purchases.

Professionals in the mobile home industry experienced the impact of careless mortgage lending and the current housing crisis long before the current depression began. The mobile home industry topped out in 1998, when one mobile home was being sold for every three traditional stick-built homes being sold. Even before the latest depression had begun, that figure had declined to one factory built home for every ten stick-built homes sold.

While the mobile home industry is indeed struggling, the temper at last month's annual Manufactured Home Industry convention was optimistic. Salespeople, dealers and manufacturers are now begining to see a new kind of client. These new buyers are interested in economizing and recognizing that today's factory-built homes actually have the same features as their traditional stick-built counterparts.

Recent trends evidencing this shift show that many sensible families are now selling their traditional stick-built homes and using their profit to purchase factory built homes. This segment of the buyers market is growing. More buyers are downsizing to affordable homes out of realistic necessity, and planning for retirement. In a time where abandoned security payments and IRA funds are disappearing, the retiree segment is diametrical a lifestyle with a limited budget. Many elderly are even accessing their home's equity through refinancing their manufactured homes.

Despite the recession, amidst an ailing real estate market and new limitations in acquiring home financing, the dream of household ownership is still alive and well. The manufactured home industry continues to take great leaps forward in these troubling times. Rich with the most state-of-the-art accommodations, today´s mobile homes are being built with a quality never before seen in the industry, with the cost advantages and affordability that all home buyers can count on.

Mobile Home Finance
San Diego Mobile Home Loan
Mobile Home Refinance