By Adam Bonislawski - The Wall Street Journal
When Chuck and Lynda Cohen decided this year to downsize from their four-bedroom Pacific Palisades home, they never imagined they'd end up in a trailer park. They also never imagined they would pay more than a million dollars for the privilege.
Multimillion-dollar properties are no rarity at Paradise Cove, the Malibu, Calif., mobile-home community where the couple, both retired from the film industry, this spring purchased a two-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot trailer for $1.25 million. Earlier this year, a trailer in the park—which in the past has included residents like actor Matthew McConaughey —sold for $2.55 million. And in July, a four-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot trailer with a hot tub and two-car garage went on the market for $3.75 million.
Such prices are partly attributable to Paradise Cove's location. On a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the park is surrounded by conventional homes that can run in the $20 million to $40 million range, said Michael Gardner, an agent with Prudential Malibu Realty. And with amenities like hardwood floors, high-end appliances and granite countertops, these trailers look little different from upscale conventional homes—though all of them have a trailer axle hidden somewhere underneath and can be moved, at least technically.
Mobile, or manufactured (as they are known in the industry), homes originated in the 1950s as a form of inexpensive housing. As opposed to conventional homes, manufactured homes are built in factories and then transported as finished structures to their ultimate location. Because residents of manufactured home communities don't own the underlying land, these properties usually aren't placed on permanent foundations but, rather, are attached to the ground by anchoring systems.
High-end home buyers have begun to invest in mobile homes. The Labenskis spent $300,000 on their Connecticut home, including modifications such as custom kitchen cabinets and a front porch.
Reflecting the overall housing slump, sales of manufactured homes fell by more than half over the past 10 years, to 60,210 homes shipped in 2013 from 130,937 shipped in 2003, according to industry group the Manufactured Housing Institute.
But while overall sales have declined, a new, wealthier class of buyer has entered the market, said Todd Su, owner and president of Advantage Homes, one of the largest manufactured-home dealers in California. According to Kevin Flaherty, vice president of marketing for Troy, Mich.-based Champion Home Builders, per-unit spending on optional features in the company's high-end Silvercrest line of homes, which start at $90,000, has risen 140% to $25,000 since 2011.
Industry executives attribute the change both to downsizing retirees and skyrocketing real-estate prices in certain areas, which are prompting more people to consider trailer living as a (relatively) affordable option.
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