Considering a change, looking for advice

[Jeremy]

My wife and I bought a mobile home about 3 years ago, we live in the San Diego area where prices have just shot through the roof. When we purchased the unit, everything was done...installation, skirting, carport...etc, and I've come to think we got a pretty good deal on it. We bought it new in 98, it's a 24X48 (I think) Fleetwood, 3BR, 2 Bath. Our loan was for about $46,000. (0 down). Now, one of the homes in our park is for sale for $72,000, and it's pretty much the same size, but, one year newer. (Ours is on a larger, corner "lot"....bigger yard, etc.) This got me thinking......

Would it be worth it to sell our home (assuming we could sell in the $70K range) and have a bigger one installed for us if we go through fleetwoodwholesaler? I'm not sure of the costs of having a home installed, but, even if it costs an extra $25K, it looks like we could afford a much larger/nicer home, without increasing our monthly payment.

Any suggestions, warnings, or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. We've just began to think about this as an option, so, we don't really know the pros and cons that need to be weighed.

[Karl]

The price differential scares me. That is hard to figure--why one home roughly the same size as another but one year older will sell for almost $30,000 more. My thought is that the newer home will experience rapid depreciation in the next few years because maybe it was overpriced to begin with.

[Jeremy]

Actually, it's not too strange to suggest a value increase of 30K in three years time the way the housing market is down here. Basically, there aren't enough homes for everyone that wants to live here, so, a lot of people who wanted stick built homes are moving into mobile homes. (We moved in because it was cheaper to buy a MH then it was to rent an apartment. Plus, we get a lot more room, and a little yard.)

[Jeremy]

The last two homes that sold in our park were comparably priced. (One was a newer home, about the size of ours, and was on the market for around $72K, the other, was larger, but older, and was on the market for around $68K....I'm not sure what they ended up selling for, though.)