new home buyer

[sarah]

I'm pretty young but ready to buy a new home. I've been looking around and have found that if I get a manufactured home that I will be getting much more house than if I had one built. I'm looking at a 2700 square foot manufactured home. I hope to live in it for about 10 years. I am skeptical though, I don't currently see any con's to owning a manufactured home but I know there is a gray area that I'm just not seeing. My main concerns are appreciation and the durability of a manufactured home. Can you help?

[mac]

Own it with land, not in a park - get a smaller house, if needed. The land is what appreciates, and interest rates are same as site-built.

We have been in a higher-end home a year now; the quality of materials and workmanship is good. The only things I would have done differently were to insist on a plywood or OSB floor, for water resistance (though our kids are grown) and possibly a heavier snow load - time will tell if 30# is enough - it meets code for the area, but might like it to be thicker.
Make sure to add the cost of a permanent foundation - concrete runners or a full slab. You'd have that anyway in a site-built house.

[mac]

Own it with land, not in a park - get a smaller house, if needed. The land is what appreciates, and interest rates are same as site-built.

We have been in a higher-end home a year now; the quality of materials and workmanship is good. The only things I would have done differently were to insist on a plywood or OSB floor, for water resistance (though our kids are grown) and possibly a heavier snow load - time will tell if 30# is enough - it meets code for the area, but might like it to be thicker.
Make sure to add the cost of a permanent foundation - concrete runners or a full slab. You'd have that anyway in a site-built house.

[jgn]

The key to any homeownership and appreciation is location. That is why people will pay $200k for a shack and tear it down because of the land. I do take exception to the previous post because I have found interest rates about 1/2% higher on MH on owed property.To say that a MH will appreciate at the same rate as a site built is a much debated subject. On the same street next to each other I find a site built home will appreciate faster than a MH but studies show they are the same. There is still a stigma associated with MH and you decrease your number of buyers with a MH. Be sure you are looking at owning the property because if you a thinking of a park you are better off renting an apartment for awile.

[rmurray]

The appreciation example you gave has some merit...It all depends on whether absolute dollar increases...or...percentage increases are considered..

A 10% increase of a $100,000 manufactured home package will not be as much money as a 10% increase of an equivalent $170,000 stick built...What seems to be left out of these studies is the additional cost of interest and taxes on the stick built..

Actually for most folks..appreciation is not important at all...Equity is...If the above buyer could afford the stick built example...he would be VERY wise to finance the manufactured home example for the same payments....this would build huge equity over 10 years..and make the manufactured home by far the best investment..OR...a diligent home investor would take the monthly savings and invest them in the stock market and again be tens of thousands ahead with the manufactured home..

Of course...many of us would take the savings and spend it on other things...maybe children's education..charitable gifts..maybe just lifestyle...again..the manufactured home gives the owner many additional life benefits that do not fit into a simple study..