Cheap Living

Mortgage rates are beginning to climb again as the economy rebounds (somewhat), and buying a place to live is getting to be expensive again. Not that it was ever cheap, mind you, but the foreclosure markets is beginning to dry up except in places like Cleveland and Detroit where the economy was devastated to a much greater degree than elsewhere. Solution? Buy a mobile home!
Fifty-five thousand mobile homes are sold each year, and estimates are that 20 million Americans live in the , roughly, 8.5 million mobile homes in this country.
Mobile homes got a boost (?) during the Miss America pageant by contestant Brooke Mosteller who claimed to be from the state with 20% of the population living in mobile homes because "That's how we roll." I thought it was cute, but some South Carolinians were a bit miffed because of the stigma attached to their choice of dwelling. "Trailer trash" is a term that comes to mind though I am certain it is not applicable in many cases. For some, it's a cheap way to have a place to call home. To some with an uncertain future, being tied down to a home on a foundation creates issues. Finally, the idea of associating those living in trailer parks being mostly povery-ridden unemployed folks creates a stigma not easy to erase.
Facts:
South Carolina is the state with the largest population of people living a "mobile" lifestyle: roughly 18% of the population.

Of those in this country living in mobile homes, 57% are employed full-time, and 23% are retirees (many of them living in Florida and definitely NOT down-and-outers.

However, the average income of those in residences of the wheeled variety earn roughly half as much as the average American, and

eight of the top ten states for mobile home usage are also among the top ten poorest states in the country, and

true to the stereotype, those eight are all southern states.

Sure...who wants to live in something like that when the winter temperatures drop to unreasonable levels? I'd move it south, too.