Is it that they are simply of poor quality?
Is it because they are often owned and lived in by lower income people and maintenence can’t be kept up?
How do modern ones compare to older ones?
In: Engineering
They make some pretty nice ones, many newer ones can go for 70k+.I think they’re often viewed as trashy because they can be much cheaper to purchase than a house and therefore attract a lower economic class of people.
It may also have to do with the fact that while regular realestate increases in value over time, mobile homes and trailers are a depreciating assets, meaning they will always be worth less than you bought them.
Can’t say I’ve ever stayed in a trailer/mobile home that “sucked”, but I’m in the UK and those things are less common here anyway–they’re almost always holiday homes, so I assume they’re better maintained than a place which somebody is using as super cheap housing.
Kinda depends on how you define suck. But mobile homes aren’t really built for long term habitation. They’re built with very different criteria in mind than a house.
For example, they’re meant to be moved. That means they have to fit on the road. They have to be lightweight enough to move easily. They’re not designed for permanent grid hookups (electric, sewer, gas, water).
And that means a lot of choices are made that you wouldn’t make for a conventional home. Like thin, lightweight walls that don’t insulate heat or sound very well. Plastic is lighter than glass, wood, and stone. So the building materials often look and feel less luxurious.
This also means wear and tear hit these structures a lot harder than a conventional home. At the same time maintenance is a lot harder. If the paint peels on your wooden house or the brickwork on your stone house need some attention, you put some work into it and it looks great again. If mobile home panels start to peel, it’s not as easy to fix.
And at the end of the day, lifespan expectations and production methods for these structures match. No manufacturer builds mobile homes with the idea that four generations of your family will live in it.
People who live in them generally own the mobile home, but not the land it’s on. Since the land is the good investment, they’re missing out on that. As far as the mobile home, it costs more to move than it’s worth, so when it’s time to go, there isn’t much you can do with it except sell it to somebody else who can’t afford land.
Modern ones can be pretty tricked out if you have money for it. But then you might as well buy a house lol.
Modern “Mobile Homes” are entirely different from the old ones… much better built, look less like trailers and more like homes. The ones you’re likely picturing are from the 1960’s-1970’s, clad in metal that rusts, etc., are 50 years old, and not well maintained. Modern ones having more traditional home exteriors with vinyl siding or other materials more similar to traditional homes, have roof lines more in line with traditional homes, etc. to
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