Home Sweet Mobile Home : A Humble Abode? Not to Those Who Buy Them

When Kay Piotrzkowski moved from Oregon to San Diego, she spent two years living in apartment complexes and condominium projects. Then, last year, she bought a mobile home in Encinitas.

“I tried apartment living and decided I didn’t enjoy having the common walls,” Piotrzkowski said. “I looked for a (mobile home) park where I could buy the lot.”

Piotrzkowski settled on Park Encinitas, a 155-space park purchased by its tenants in 1985. Her home is within walking distance of shopping centers, has reasonable homeowner association fees and includes the use of amenities, such as a clubhouse and a swimming pool.

And it was affordable.

The purchase price of $83,000 for the 20-year-old, two-bedroom, single-wide included the land. The cost ranks far below market value of a single-family home with a comparable amount of living space.

Piotrzkowski is not alone in her calculated decision to settle in a mobile home.

North County has about 170 mobile home parks. The majority of park dwellers are seniors, but there are also parks attuned to families and younger singles.

In most mobile home parks, the lot spaces are rented but the homes are owned by the people who live in them. Increasingly, though, mobile home owners are buying the parks where they live.

Once, mobile homes really were mobile. They were built on wheels and could be hooked to the back of a truck and pulled down the road.

Today’s mobile homes typically are not mobile at all: They are called “manufactured housing” and have only moved once--from the factory where they were built to the lot where they are set up.

The homes, sometimes indistinguishable from those built on site, often feature spacious living rooms with vaulted ceilings, formal dining areas, laundry rooms, kitchens with breakfast nooks, and bedrooms with walk-in closets and dressing areas.

The process of moving a mobile home has become expensive and complex. That lack of mobility has made them especially vulnerable to rent increases.

Several cities in North County have stepped in to preserve mobile home parks as a source of affordable housing. Poway and other cities have become park landlords; Oceanside and Escondido have adopted rent controls and San Marcos has a Mobile Home Rental Review Board.

Although there are no new rental parks being built--rising land costs and the price of development have made them unfeasible--there has been an increase in new subdivisions catering to manufactured housing. The lot and home are purchased together, much as they would be in a conventional new housing development. The subdivisions have attracted younger, first-time buyers who find they can afford to buy into them.

“There are as many different types of mobile homes as there are automobiles,” said Vicki Armstrong, owner of Expert Mobile Home Brokers. “It is a whole different product than it used to be.”

Some mobile home parks are bare-bones operations; some have country-club luxuries.

Here is a look at how mobile home living has evolved in North County:

RESIDENT OWNED PARKS

Carol Pollock, Vivian Cohagan and Mary Sanelli grabbed paint brushes recently and voluntarily refurbished the clubhouse kitchen at Vista Cascade, a resident-owned mobile home park in Vista.

Pollock, 70, and Cohagan, 76, previously painted two card rooms in the clubhouse.

“It all belongs to us so it’s an improvement on (the quality of) your life,” said Pollock, a park resident since 1980. She planned the champagne party last April when 102 park residents banded together to form a nonprofit corporation to purchase the park.

In recent years, 16 parks in North County have been bought by mobile home owners in Encinitas, Carlsbad, Fallbrook, San Marcos, Vista and Escondido.

“North County has a higher percentage per square mile of converted parks than any other county in California,” said Don Olmsted, former regional director for the Golden State Mobilhome Owners League, a tenants’ group.

Many of the conversion parks allow residents to purchase their individual sites while others sell a share of the cooperative.

“We tried to buy the park seven years ago, but couldn’t come up with the $1 million and the bank wouldn’t loan the money,” Vista Cascade board member Martha Hancock said. “We signed an 18-year land lease with the (former) owner and just rented the business. In 1989, when the owner decided to sell, we tried to purchase the park (again). We had 15 days to do it and it was right at Christmastime so we weren’t able to buy it.”

Eventually, the residents struck a deal with the new owner. They secured a loan from the Bank of America, and for $5 million and the initial investment of $3,500 per resident, the residents bought their park.

Last weekend they celebrated their one year anniversary of park ownership with a party attended by about 80 residents and Vista Mayor Gloria McClellan.

“Neighbors are close. They watch out for you,” Pollock said of her decision to purchase in Vista Cascade. “You meet a lot of friends. You don’t all participate in all the activities. You have a choice. We have bingo once a week, bridge, pinochle and cribbage. We have a monthly dance with our own band, the Cascadian Stompers, who are most all residents. Park living is ideal.”

Another park purchased by residents is Oak Crest Estates, Inc., a 105-space cooperative in a secluded valley near Interstate 15 in Fallbrook.

Of the three mobile homes currently for sale in Oak Crest, prices range between $55,000 and $100,000.

The former rental park was owned by the California Department of Transportation. A nonprofit corporation was formed in 1984 and residents bought shares in it. The residents own an interest in the park rather than an individual lot.

Administrative fees, which replaced the former rent scale, have remained at $120 per month since the cooperative was formed, said office secretary Rosalie Hennig.

Fees include trash, water and common area maintenance. Residents pay an additional cost of $7.50 per month for cable television. Common areas include a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a clubhouse with a pool room and a library, and shuffleboard courts.

“There is a growing movement throughout California for people to buy their own parks,” said Marty Orenyak, community development director of the City of Carlsbad. “Every park (there are seven in Carlsbad) has explored with with us the possibility of buying their own park. Mobile home parks are as close to affordable housing as you can get anymore.”

LUXURY RENTAL PARK

Rancho Carlsbad Country Club displays the park name on a stone gateway lined with trees.

The neatly manicured lawns, wide meandering streets, and stretch limousines and Mercedes-Benzes parked in the driveways alter a first-time visitor’s image of what a mobile home park should look like. The gated community with 504 spaces has 24-hour security covering the 106 acres of park land.

Although monthly lot rental fees are stiff--between $610 and $850, which includes water, trash, sewer, cable television and all facilities--residents say the price is worth it.

“It’s the kind of place where you feel you’re almost always on vacation really,” said resident Esme Simes.

Amenities at the park include a fully-equipped exercise room with locker rooms and saunas for men and women. A 62-foot diameter circular heated swimming pool complements a Jacuzzi, which seats 30 people. The 12,500-square-foot recreation center includes two arts and crafts studios, including a pottery room with kilns for firing, and an enclosed area with four shuffleboard courts.

A community clubhouse can be reached by crossing a lake filled with birds and ducks on a lighted, arched walkway bridge. The 13,500-square-foot clubhouse has a fully-equipped restaurant-style kitchen, a pool room, a library and reading room, a ballroom, where monthly dances are held, a card room for bridge and poker players and a lounge, where free movies are shown every Friday night. The Bank of North County offers banking services at the clubhouse every Tuesday morning.

In addition, Rancho Carlsbad adjoins an 18-hole public golf course and discounted rates are offered to park residents. Other park amenities include tennis courts, horseshoe pits, picnic grounds and a gardening area. In the 20-by-20 foot individual plots, members of the Garden Club raise vegetables and flowers.

“I’ve become a farmer in my old age,” resident Helen Franklin said, as she prepared to plant vegetables with the help of her friend, Minde Newman.

Group activities include dance lessons by resident Mary Jo Holland. The eight-member tap dancing troupe, called the Ranchettes, with dancers ranging from age 57 to the mid-70s performs once a month throughout the county.

“This is like living in heaven,” said resident Jane Bailey, as she practiced a duet in the clubhouse ballroom with Naomi King for an Easter performance of the 30-member singing group, the Mobile-Aires, who are all park residents.

Purchase price of mobile homes in the park range from $38,500 to $90,000, according to Simes who is licensed to sell mobile homes as well as real estate.

Currently, the park houses four brand-new homes, which range in size from 1,344 to 1,945 square feet. An addition to the park of 100 spaces and a new sports complex is planned for the near future, Simes said.

The country-club style park is not for everyone, points out Johns Vincent, a mobile home dealer in Vista. He said some park residents moved to other sites in Carlsbad and Hemet in recent years because of the high rents needed to finance the amenities.

FAMILY RENTAL PARKS

Although 90% of rental parks in North County cater to seniors, families and younger singles can rent sites in about 23 parks.

El Camino 76 Family Mobile Estates in Oceanside falls in the family-park category.

The 80-space park, built approximately 20 years ago, has a clubhouse, tennis courts, a children’s play area, a swimming pool and a laundry facility.

“About 80% (of the coaches in the park) are double-wides,” park manager Don Cooper said, adding that a third of the tenants no longer have children at home.

The average double-wide mobile home sells for about $35,000 to $45,000 and the single-wides sell for approximately $20,000, Cooper said. Because of the scarcity of family parks, many of the mobile homes command a higher purchase price, he said.

Lot rents average $230 per month and do not include sewer, trash pick-up or cable television.

“We don’t have a lot of coordinated activities,” Cooper said. “It is not very practical in a family park with younger people who need to work five days a week. On the weekends, they want to enjoy their own families. There is no time for coffee klatches or knitting circles as in the senior parks.”

Cooper feels the family park offers “more peace and quiet” than an apartment complex and is safer and more secure.

“People in mobile home parks are more aware of who belongs in the park and who doesn’t,” Cooper said. “One reason is that the turnover in mobile home parks is substantially less than in apartments. In the last 15 months, only two (mobile homes in the park) have been sold.”

CITY-OWNED RENTAL PARKS

In an effort to preserve affordable housing, the Poway City Council has purchased three of the five rental mobile home parks in the city, according to Reba Wright-Quastler, director of planning services.

“We’re buying them from the park owners and renting them to the people in order to stabilize rents,” Wright-Quastler said.

The decision made Poway the first city in the state to become landlords in mobile home parks.

The city paid a total of $8.5 million for Poinsettia Senior and Poinsettia Family mobile home parks. The purchases were completed in July, 1988. On Jan. 15, the city closed escrow on Poway Royal Mobile Estates at a cost of $21.6 million.

Back in 1985, Poway residents asked the city council for rent controls as they were being economically evicted from their homes, Wright-Quastler said. The gap between their incomes and the cost of the parks prohibited resident purchase of the parks.

“Through tax-exempt certificates of participation, the city bought the parks and was able to bring the financing down,” Wright-Quastler said.

Renters in the two Poinsettia parks pay approximately $329 for their spaces, while those in Poway Royal are on four different rent scales with the average being $416, including sewer charges. The planning services director admits that if the city keeps the park rents artificially low it may ultimately increase the value of the mobile homes in those parks. However, a long term plan is being studied with one option to sell the sites to the residents.

“There are a number of things to decide,” Wright-Quastler said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do long term.”

In the meantime, the Poinsettia parks house 260 spaces with approximately one-half reserved for seniors and the other half rented to families. The family park has a playground and offers children’s activity classes during the summer months.

Both parks have clubhouses and swimming pools. At Poway Royal with 400 spaces, there are tennis courts, two clubhouses, two swimming pools and a well-maintained recreational vehicle parking area.

Poinsettia Family Mobilehome Park resident DeAnn Evans, 29, spent part of her childhood in the park. She makes her home there now with her husband, David, and their two sons, age five and three. The couple bought a mobile home six spaces from DeAnn’s mother’s.

“We purchased here because of the affordability and because it had a yard,” Evans said. “The City of Poway is trying to get more organized activities. At Christmas, there was a big, huge party for the kids. At least 75 kids showed up. Last summer, for the first time, they gave swimming lessons (for the children). This summer, they’re planning on offering more activities for kids.”

Other cities have recently joined Poway in purchasing parks, including the purchase Jan. 2 of The Views in Escondido and the February 1990 purchase of the 112-space Sycamore Creek Mobile Home Park in Vista.

The Sycamore Creek land abuts the historic Rancho Buena Vista area. Wyvetta Wilson, housing community development specialist for the City of Vista said that the mobile home park will eventually be phased out and the land redeveloped as parkland and open space. Meanwhile, for 12 to 15 years, the residents will have stability in rents.

Lot rents at the city-owned Vista park range from $261 to $308, Wilson said.

A few spaces are rented on a monthly basis to RV owners, who may stay up to 7 months.

In San Marcos, the city became a partner with the homeowners in the purchase of their parks, according to deputy city manager Paul Malone.

“Mobile home parks were a big priority to the city council,” Malone said. “With redevelopment funds, we bought the spaces in parks outright and we lease them back to the residents for a nominal fee that varies depending on their income.”

Currently, the city owns 12 to 15 sites in Madrid Manor Homeowners Assn., Malone said. The city may also purchase some sites in Casitas Del Sol, which converted to a resident park about a month ago.

“It is difficult for all 200 mobile home residents to buy their share at one time,” Malone said. “(This plan) allows for additional time for the homeowner to come up with the money.”

PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS

Vista Del Mar in Vista was developed as an own-your-own park. Residents own their own lots on which they can put the home of their choice. The difference in the development compared to a standard subdivision is that lot owners must live in manufactured homes.

George Lind has lived here since 1983.

“Of the 256 spaces in the park, all but five or six have sold,” Lind said of the Vista property. “We have a swimming pool and tennis courts, yet our homeowners dues are $41 per month compared to condo complexes.”

Gesturing to the manicured lawns, driveways and the stuccoed buildings, Lind said that most of the homes traveled from the factory along the interstates on flatbed trucks.

“They were put on a permanent foundation and there was never the intent to move them again,” he said. Most have two-car garages.

In the first phase, lots sold from $35,000 to $45,000, but now a typical lot can cost between $70,000 and $80,000. Model homes in the development are selling for $157,000 to $175,000, which includes the land. The homes are 1,400 to 1,850-square-feet with cathedral ceilings, fireplaces and wet bars.

“In rental parks, you have a lot of investment in someone else’s property,” Lind said. “My wife and I were looking for a kind of place without big lots. We have a nice patio where we can do a little gardening. We didn’t want to be slaves to the yard. We play tennis and there are tennis courts here. The clubhouse has a fully-equipped kitchen which we can use at no cost. We like the (swimming) pool, but didn’t want the cost of maintaining it. When you get to a more mature age, these things appeal.”

Shadow Ridge Oaks, another planned manufactured home development in Vista, has four models for sale ranging in price from $149,000 for 1,325-square-feet to $175,000 for 1,600-square-feet. Homeowner association dues are $57 per month at the 136-site development. Amenities include a recreation center with a swimming pool and a Jacuzzi.

“On the dollar per square foot, you’re getting more for your money with these manufactured homes,” Shadow Ridge resident Sharrie McIntosh said.

She and her husband purchased the 1,935-square-foot manufactured home on a 5,200-square-foot lot for $164,500.

“All the plumbing is under the house. It is insulated well. The heating comes from the bottom so it is not wasted. I would never buy a home on a slab. You go to sell your house and the foundation’s cracked. These are built to earthquake standards,” she said.