Affordable Housing Experiment in A Trailer Park
by Larry Hotz, All Denver Real Estate
University of Colorado students have spent $44,000 to design and renovate an affordable housing project in Boulder, one of the most expensive real estate markets in the state. The home was unveiled to the public at an open house on September 21.
The experiment created one chic, loft-like home out of an old, single-wide trailer in a Boulder trailer park where the most recent home sold for $14,500. The asking price for the custom renovation is $50,000. If someone needing affordable housing pays that asking price, it will set a record for the trailer park.
The University of Colorado contributed $24,000 and Thistle Community Housing, a private, non-profit foundation, has chipped in an additional$20,000 to renovate the dumpy trailer into one glitzy, state-of-the-art “affordable home”. The trailer was salvaged and otherwise would have gone to a nearby landfill.
Boulder is home to The University of Colorado and reasonably price housing is difficult if not impossible to find. The average current sales price in Boulder is now $549,500.
The trailer is has two bedrooms, one bath and a large screened “exterior room”. The
home measures 11×47 and The CU Architecture students didn’t cut any corners in the design and renovation. They used top-of-the-line new, double-pane windows, efficient spray-foam insulation, recessed lighting, and designer fixtures to create a chic look that would be the envy of even the most expensive Denver lofts.They even showed social conscience by using recycled jeans for some of the insulation. Here are more photos.
So, here is the question: Is this a good use of the money for affordable housing? Or, is it just an ineffective experiment to amuse the University of Colorado students and the non-profit Foundation? Is it an effective, “cutting edge” affordable housing program? We would like to hear your comments.
(Photos courtesy Denver Post and Inside CU)
Um, yeah, nobody will spend $50k for this trailer, because they’ll still have to live next door to the $14k’rs.
That’s like somebody buying a $1m mansion next to, well, a trailer.
Someone said, “Location, location, location!”
Why don’t they work on making the $50,000 trailer cost $14,000. Now, that would be money better spent, huh?
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I live in the UK and find this idea great.about 8 miles from where I live is a place called “Box Hill”, on top of this is a large Caravan (trailer) park. the least expensive start at about £70,000 ($140,000). Housing here in the UK has shot up in the last 5 years and it would be great if I could buy some land and have one of these. Awesome work.
Well said Jay!! Something tells me that the college kids probably don’t come from trailer parks & are trying to replicate the life they came from… but in a transient (for them) place.
If it is true that the average sale price is $549,500, then why not spend $50K+. If more college students spent the time and money, then that one trailer would not be the alone.
This like modifying a Civic, putting a big wing, turbo, new interior…
Doesn’t change the fact that it is still a civic.
I like turtles.
I think it makes PERFECT sense for the Boulder market.
I’d like to get some more information if I could.
Like what it is they did so I could renovate my own trailer.
Please let me know.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. Plenty of people buy trailers that don’t end up in trailer parks. I don’t know the numbers, but quite a few people buy trailers to put on land they’ve purchased, often as a temporary home while they’re more permanent structure is being built.
For a relatively small investment, they can now have a nice, attractive guest home or pool house extra.
Put simply though, trailers aren’t just for people who can’t afford anything better.
That cantilevered roof will make a nice sail when the twister comes roaring through. It does show that ‘manufactured’ housing doesn’t have to look like drek.
Perhaps if it only costs $40,000 to renovate each trailer, an investment firm could upgrade an entire trailer park and produce a complete housing development with a buy-in price at 1/10 the average.
Yes…its in a trailer park…and thats problematic for most.
But think on a larger scale…
If there could potentially true communities of “houses” like this could be something new, inspiring, and affordable for people struggling to get by in a market that almost makes no fiscal sense.
Hell, in florida we pay 300k+ for ugly, uniform houses, with poor construction in shitty locations.
I’m not saying its perfect….but its definitely a start.
Long story short…i’d live in one if the location was right.
They could have built a real house from scratch for $60k and it would have been more feasibly called “low-income housing”. All they did was gold plate a turd, besides, the land that crap box is sitting on is the real determination of how valuable it is.
I agree with Jay, I really dont think anyone will want to spruce up a 14k trailer for 50k. They should have found a way to take a house that normally costs alot, and find ways to save and cut corners to make it affordable. Also, I’m not sure building materials are really what is jacking up the price of homes, its more so population density, and property location.
Want to live cheap? Move out of the city.
So those of you in Colorado will scream to the high heavens about the cost of promoting democracy in Iraq, but then you do something silly like this?
Oh, but you make yourselves feel SO much better because you put recycled blue jeans in the walls. Umm yeah…
Sounds more like a good waste of money to me.
Remember: A pig is STILL a pig even if it’s wearing a gold chain around its neck.
I think it’s a great idea. Who says affordable housing has to look “affordable?” I do agree with Jay to some extent. You can’t just plop that $50k trailer in the park with the rest of the $14k trailers. However, an entire park of “designer” trailers could prove to be quite marketable (given that our housing recession decides to take an upturn).
I would like to see more projects like this begin to take shape in the near future. Perhaps then, America would start to realize the value of a well-designed home compared to that of a huge house that was constructed merely for the purpose of keeping up with the Jones’. Not many people outside of the design profession know the immense affect that one’s home environment has on their well-being. No amount of space in the world can make you happy the way a home designed specifically to your spatial needs and your asthetic preferences can.
I think it’s time for consumerism to take a step back and make way for attention to detail, as well as sustainability – in the terms of only having what you need. Grow up America – buying a huge house because you want to impress your friends is just juvenile. Why not blow them away with great design rather than an echoing expanse?
I like the idea i live in a mountain community in California were the houses are all trailer homes and some of the old single wides are selling for 150k i have double wide but next door their is an old single wide that needs help so i think that your idea is a great one! even my trail could benefit from this kind of make over Im a single mom with 3 kids and one very ill Im trying to remodel myself and it is difficult so big points for you all for trying to help the people
Great way to lose $44,000. Who wants to live next to a bunch of white trash people? Good luck selling that place!
I agree with Jay when he said:
Why don’t they work on making the $50,000 trailer cost $14,000. Now, that would be money better spent, huh?
…honestly, It’s probably more fun for the students than useful for affordable housing. Given the location (surrounding) if they get $50k from a serious buyer I would be surprised. When your talking about that price range, I would still say (despite how much nicer the $50k home looked) that a typical buyer would choose to pay the lower price. Just my thoughts though.
maybe you can polish a turd?
it’s not about being in a “trailer park” as we know them. too many morons on here can’t see the bigger picture, thankfully a handful of people can!
David said it best so far. start mass producing it like this and you’ll cut the costs even more. create a community of these, with a few different layouts, and then control who’s actually buying them and you can jump start a great community of people in need of a helping hand. Quite honestly, habitat-for-humanity should look into these. Not to mention the people of New Orleans.
there’s a great deal of potential to these if people were just a little bit more open minded.
First many single wide trailers can be very decent and nice looking with many amenities. I’ve seen lots that are high class looking. Of course they can be expensive new, but this is up in the country in New York State. Used trailers, decades old, can run you $50,000. Around the cost of far newer ones.
I don’t think they spent their money wisely at all and I don’t know why. Is it because they did not bother at all? Or that they did not think to research for advice or to find ways to go high scale for far less expensively then they did?
I know people, including myself that could have made 2 or 3 trailers look like $130, 000 or more with about only $10-$15,000 . How? We use our brains, ingenuity, resourcefulness, know how, and common sense. Personally the photo of the one they “upgraded” looks like a real piece of shit and very impractical and useless.
Yes some people in trailer parks are Trailer trash and have that low classless mentality and approach to life, but many are just the opposite and many Trailer parks have a wonderful, highly classy lay out and regulations to be followed that respectful, classy people any where of any income would follow.
And Trash is trash is trash and I’ve met too many trashy people living in obscenely expensive homes or apartments. Money hardly guarantees class.
Doesn’t the fact that lenders frown on mobile type homes in terms of mortgage lending hold back projects like this?
Eradicating The Stupid Home Owner
http://www.stupidhomeowner.com
There may be an increased need for trailer homes if so many people continue to default on their mortgages. Maybe the banks should start looking at loaning to people who want them. Is it true that a mobile home has a title like a car and the trailer can be repo’ed if the people don’t pay?
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Terry- It’s true that folks buying mobile homes cannot get as favorable financing as those buying “stick-built” homes. Rates are even higher when the land is not included.
Brett – Mobile or modular housing that is on land which is deeded does get a regular warranty deed just like a home or nay other piece of land. However, many, if not most, mobile homes are sold exclusive of land. So, they they must lease land from a landlord, the mobile home park owner. Those buyers do not deeds. They get titles like a car.
Just down the highway about 15 miles from Boulder are good mobile home parks in good neighborhoods where 1500 ft permanent mobile homes can be had for around the 50K mark. I’m not poor, went to CU, am thinking of retiring in the area, but would not buy this one. This is a relatively cheap exercise for the architectural students. What next? Some government agency will provide the funding to a “disadvantaged” family into the home, who will then change the home back into a $14K building in a short time. In liberal Boulder, this is called the market system.
Do you think it would be possible to get the plans for
the remodeled trailer. we love the design. we just bought a trailer that is similar in vermont.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP–SUSAN CHARNOK
Wonderful idea from creative minds. The shift is for more simple living and we are seeing people downsize as the population ages. I think this is the start of a new trend.
Thank you Alaina!
I have to say that I am appalled by the attitudes that some of you have exhibited towards trailers and mobile homes. Much less that attitudes that you have shown towards those of us on the lower end of the economic spectrum.
Being poor does not make you trash. Being poor does not make you exhibit deviant social behaviour, in fact that sort of behaviour is exhibited on every level of society.
I live in southern Mississippi, in a 1975 Crimson model trailer. We renovated the trailer recently and I do have to say that it is cozy and comfortable, not to mention adorable. In fact during Hurricane Katrina, my parents lost the roof and carport of their house. My trailer which was sitting not a thousand feet away came out of the hurricane untouched. Hmmmmmm. Luck? Structural integrity? Coincidence?
We will be replacing it with a double wide soon. This is not because living conditions are unbearable, but simply because we hope to start a family. We cannot do so in a 1 bedroom home. We hope to find someone who will take care of our home and love it like we have when we sell it. It’s actually a very sad time for me. I feel like I’m replacing an old friend.
Why another mobile home you may ask? It’s simple, building materials are outrageously expensive. After the hurricane our population doubled (people moving to Mississippi from New Orleans), and the building supply companies and contractors taking advantage of the sudden increase in demand raised their prices by at least a 150% price margin.
Yes, you can blab all you like about the principles of economics. Blah Blah. I understand all of that, being a southerner and a “trailer dweller,” does not mean I am stupid. Trailers depreciate blah blah, I’ve heard that before. Guess what, the finest stick built mansion will also depreciate if you don’t take care of it. Depreciation, well everything depreciates doesn’t it?
Mississippi was already an economically depressed region before the hurricane. Add to that people losing the majority of their assets in one storm, and companies with the supplies in demand raising their prices and what have you got? A damned impossible situation thats what.
So I cannot afford to build, does that mean that I am not entitled to a comfortable home? Does that mean that I cannot enjoy some luxury in my life?
Hell no it doesn’t. It just means that I have to find an alternate route to get what I want. That means I might have to be creative and set aside old prejudices to get there. You’ve got to work with what you have, and I for one am very happy to see that there are at least some people out there who are experimenting with improving old things that most would just discard and label as, “turds”.
Where are the visionaries? Trailers are small. A small house where you own the land or a group patio style housing project would be more desirable and more practical. The key is keeping it small–put the storage in a community garage. I would like to get involved with someone in the Boulder area that agrees with my idea. With my approach, the owner would truly have an investment. Many projects at universities such as the remodeled trailer are costly and not very rewarding and I ask where is the value and the vision? The US level of training at our universities is not acceptable in many areas. On a side note, scientists are usually more disciplined so I do respect them more. You can’t BS your way through math. Does anyone want to band together to build affordable, small starter homes?
At age 62 I have no qualms passing the torch to the younger generation, they will make it beautiful for years to come. Best of luck and please pass on your knowledge.
God Bless.
Is that really “Living” if you are living in a trailer?
This is so funny because I am about to remodel a 14′ x 40′ 2 bed 1 bath old trailer. I figure it can be done for $8,000 – $10,000 and the trailer only cost me $6500. I am not going all out…except maybe in the kitchen ;). I realize at best I could sell it and get my money back out of it…but the real profit will be in potential rental income when I decide to upgrade to something bigger. I can’t wait to “Pimp My Trailer”!
My family and I are planning to buy an 11,000.00 trailer with no water or heat and completely remodel it…then our monthly lot rent will be only 180.00 and we will suddenly be able to afford groceries and bills…as soon as we sell our 5 bedroom house with a huge yard! (and a huge mortgage payment!) I think it is a great way to downsize in this economy. We figure it will cost about 30,000 to get the work done. We live right near Steamboat Springs, CO and the houses there are quite pricey. I am not so snobbish that I won’t live in a trailer park…my son will be eating better, and that is where my priorities lie!
This is to all you people (the haters) who made negative comments related to trailers and the people who live in them. I’m sorry to tell you this, but we are all doing time here in this savage garden, this place we call planet earth and just cause you got lucky and happend not to be born one of the unfortunate, doesn’t make you any better than the rest of us. Matter of fact, I feel sorry for anyone who spends their time thinking they are better than others instead of understanding they are just “luckier” than others. People like that spend alot of their time spreading negative energy and in the end it does go back to them. Karma doesn’t care whether you live in a trailer or a mansion….. That being said, I think the trailer idea is great! Keep up the good work!
I am buying a lot on an fabulous island off the coast of North Carolina. The lot includes a run down trailer.
( cheaper for the seller to include it rather than pay to have it hauled) I think of it as a diamond in the rough. Having renovated many ugly houses, I plan to repair, renovate, and paint, paint, paint! I’ll stay there in the off season and rent it as a vacation rental during the tourist season. I figure I’ll have a furnished vacation home for under 65K walking distance to the ocean,and extra income to boot!. Trailer snobs? You can find me laughing all the way to the bank!
It is a shame that many counties and most cities will not allow a mobile home(old or new), or even new modular homes, to be put on your own lot. I can understand some areas, but all areas? I would love to do this on my own lot, either move in an old one, or buy a lot that had an old one on it. If I could have a full acre or 2, I could fix a single wide up and then move a used double wide(or 2 more single wides with a room between them). If they are set on a dug out foundation that has concrete to put the supports on, you can get these set as good as a stick built home, a new roof, some dual pane windows, insulation, could make a real loft like place to live. Use the small one for a guest house and then fix up the larger one similarly. I think that 100 to 200 k + land could have a great place for a family and grand parent. In a place that would allow that, a pole building could be put up for a garage. win win. It is too bad that most counties around here won’t allow it.
A great reason to renovate a mobile home is that newer building codes price you out. Communities that have allowed these in the past and have old ones around(on the owner’s own property) are usually very glad to allow just about any renovation because the improvement helps everyone. This is one way a person of limited means may be able to have his part of the American Dream.
That being said, I would never do a full renovation on a mobile home in a park.