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Manufactured homes can be be affordable treasures

Manufactured Homes – The struggle to afford housing in New Jersey is real.

The median home price in the state is an eye-popping $328,200, according to the U.S. Census.

You don’t have to be an accountant to know that’s a serious burden on middle-class families, and much more on those who struggle to make ends meet each month.

There is, however an often-overlooked segment of the housing market that could provide some relief: manufactured homes.

Before you rush to write-off manufactured housing based off the stereotypical images of trailer parks, consider the median price in New Jersey is $42,500.

And, in many cases, manufactured homes no longer look like ugly boxes on wheels; they can have many of the same luxuries as a traditional home.

Still, only about 1 percent of New Jersey’s housing units are manufactured homes, according to the Census. That’s tied with Rhode Island for the fourth-smallest percentage out of every state in the U.S.

Manufactured Homes: A Possible Solution At Every Income Level?

Much like the tiny house movement, where people cram their lives, luxuries and comforts into much smaller, often mobile spaces, there’s renewed interest in whether traditional manufactured home parks, even those with rough pasts and bad reputations, can be renovated into something more desirable.

a number of rich and famous people live in and/or are connected to the manufactured home lifestyle.

As the BBC reported, some of the highly custom manufactured homes owned by screen stars boast marble floors and command $2.5 million dollars.

In Robbinsville a town in Mercer County. Mayor David Fried said residents routinely complained about life inside the Mercer Mobile Home Park and promised improvements never happened.

So the town took the park by eminent domain, and now plans 347 low- and moderate-income manufactured housing units.

“This development is a perfect example of how municipalities can use manufactured homes to address the state’s housing affordability crisis,” said Anthony Campisi, a spokesman for Fair Share Housing, the primary advocacy group in New Jersey on the issue.

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New Jersey Real Estate In Perspective is a blog by Dwayne Randolph.

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