"Drag $100 through a trailer park, and there's no telling what you'll find," White House political adviser James Carville once told reporters to discredit Gennifer Flowers' claims about President Clinton.

Not only a vicious attack on Flowers, the political flak was downright unfair to today's mobile-home, make that, "manufactured home" industry.

Thanks to new technology, the $32 billion-manufactured housing industry accounts for one in three new single-family home sales nationwide. That's up from less than one in four in 1989.

Many of the estimated 18 million Americans live in a manufactured home because it costs about half the cost of a similarly sized site-built home.

Thanks to the efficiencies of factory production, new manufactured housing technology offers housing difficult to distinguish from a site-built home.

Averaging 1,300 square feet, manufactured homes often feature fireplaces, saunas, cathedral ceilings, skylights, bay windows and many of the other trappings of site-built homes. Some are two-story models with two-car garages and a porch.

Because the new technology also adds longevity lenders are willing to bank on, 30-year mortgages are available along with the traditional 15-year loans.

Despite the upgrades, the stigma of manufactured housing remains and some older dilapidated trailer parks, that should be "communities," don't help by remaining eyesores packed with crumpled tin boxes on wheels.

Using terminology to challenge stereotypes at the grassroots level, the manufactured housing industry is out to change that. "We've challenged our own members and park residents to confront the stereotypes whenever they arise," said Bill Schweinfurth of Vedder Community Management in Burbank, CA and the Western Mobilehome Parkowners Association.

Instead of a "trailer" a manufactured home is simply a "home" like any other residence. Rather than "trailer park" it's a "community" like any other neighborhood. No longer a "pad" or "space," again, just like any other single-family detached home, it's location is a "homesite."

Even without the new terms, one needs merely visit a new manufactured home community to see the difference. Palm Harbor Homes in Dallas has enjoyed a 36 percent annual growth rate in the past five years because it's focused on larger homes built by joining together two units in the so-called "double-wide" configuration. Palm Harbor also offers customization: enlarging bedrooms, moving walls or adding bay windows.

Today's manufactured housing also isn't always found in a community setting of like housing.

San Jose, CA-based Advantage Homes, the San Francisco Bay Area's largest manufactured home provider, sold a 4,000-square-foot, four-car garage manufactured home to a Woodside, CA customer with a Pacific Ocean view. Nine more homes are being erected on private lots in Half Moon Bay, CA and more private-site construction is expected in San Jose and Santa Cruz, CA.

The company's new Silvercrest models have cement siding that looks like wood but is fireproof, termite and dry rot resistant. Inside, the living room sports a river-rock fireplace and nine-foot ceilings. The homes are built with 2-by-6 walls, the windows are vinyl, dual-glazed and no different from windows in regular homes. The kitchen includes an island, a refrigerator, dishwasher, stove and oak cabinets. There is a separate dining room, a front porch and a garage.

Advantage boasts of a new two-story manufactured home they offer for a competitive $129,000, including installation costs, in an area where the median cost of housing is above $300,000 and rents average $1,200 a month or more.

"Where else can you get a full amenity home at dramatically less cost than single-family homes, or even most apartments?" asked Schweinfurth.

For More Information

Published: December 31, 1998

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.