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Living in a Mobile Home
For many Americans, it’s the only affordable option; for others, it’s a lifestyle choice
An estimated 20 million Americans live in mobile homes. They make up over 6% of the US housing sector, with 8.5 million units. Almost 60% of mobile homes are headed by someone who is fully employed. Another 23% are retired.
Mobile homes are often chosen by the working poor, as the median income of those living in them is only about half the national average.
That doesn’t mean, however, that mobile homes or mobile home parks are necessarily miserable places to live.
My experience
At one point, my husband at the time and I rented a mobile home. For a little over a year, he was working near Houston while I was going to graduate school about 4 hours away. He rented a mobile home. I stayed at an apartment during semesters but stayed with him during breaks.
This gave us an affordable option that we ended up very happy with.
I referred to the mobile home as a “doll’s house” because, while it was smaller in size than a similar apartment, it was so clean and charming. It was very light and bright. In addition to a 12x12 master bedroom, it had two smaller bedrooms so we could each have our own office.
