Many local communities are in a foreclosure crisis and home sales are dropping but sales of one type of home are actually going up.
Nationally, the sale of single mobile homes is up a whopping 19 percent in the last year. People who may have never considered moving into one in the past are now taking a closer look.
Doris Cavey is the new face of mobile home ownership. A health center manager for a Maryland retirement community, she was attracted to the affordability.
"You can still have a nice home and maybe have some money in your pocket that you can enjoy life," she said."
Cavey and her husband consider themselves middle-class working professionals, as are most of their neighbors.
We have a different class of people that are coming in," said Bill Cavey."
Sales manager Bill Welch says all 406 lots at the Holiday Mobile Estates are full and there's even a waiting list.
"We have doctors, lawyers. You've got a lot of retired people [that] love the one level," said Welch.
The stigma of the 'trailer park' of the past is dissolving. Mobile homes now have all the amenities of a single family house.
"They go up to 2,000 square feet, up to five bedrooms, fireplaces, Jacuzzis, you name it," said Bill Cavey. Doris Cavey added "When I tell somebody I live in a trailer, [you're right], the first thing they say is oooohhh, 'trailer park'. No, it's a mobile home."
New single homes here are about $50-60,000; doubles are priced between $80-90,000. In 1994, the industry employed new building standards and methods to make these homes significantly safer in the event of a natural disaster, like a tornado.
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