Mobile homes are housing units built in production facilities and transported to their owners location. As opposed to conventional homes that are constructed on site, mobile homes are usually far cheaper and are often associated with rural areas and high-density developments. Although these houses are usually placed in a permanent location, as the names suggests, they do have the ability to be shifted. This ability to be moved is required in many areas, where such homes are popular. The unique selling proposition of this form of housing has undoubtedly been its mobility. Initially these homes were mainly marketed to people who led a mobile lifestyle, such as construction workers. However, beginning in the 1950s, mobile homes began to be looked upon as a cost effective alternative by people who could not afford a traditionally constructed home. Mortgages to finance the purchases of mobile homes are comparatively harder to obtain and a few restrictions are applicable. Institutions providing mobile home finance prefer not to finance any homes that are more than 20 years old. Mobile homes with structural modifications or alterations do not qualify for finance because these alterations tend to decrease the value of the homes, since they can no longer be compared with standard mobile homes. Although mortgages for mobile homes are available from some lending institutions, banks dont usually finance mobile homes because the current default rates or foreclosure rates for these kinds of homes is far in excess of traditionally constructed homes. The tendency of mobile homes to depreciate quickly in resale value makes loans that use these kinds of homes as collateral far more risky, compared to traditional home loans. The terms of mobile home financing gets limited to far less than the typical thirty year terms of traditional home finance and interest rates are usually higher. With the rates low and there being no lack of customers for traditional homes, banks prefer not to deal with properties such as mobile homes, which entail a higher risk. |
