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JULY 09, 21:38 ET
S.C. Leads Nation in Mobile Homes
By JENNIFER HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer
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AP/Lou Krasky [20K]
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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — The Rev. Lawrence Beadle's three-bedroom
home along South Carolina's Grand Strand is appointed with all the traditional
touches: black shutters, a picture window and a carport.
Those amenities may be part of the reason mobile homes such
as Beadle's are growing in popularity here and across the country.
According to the 2000 census, South Carolina is the nation's mobile home capital.
One in five South Carolina households is a mobile home. New
Mexico ranks a close second. West Virginia, Mississippi, North Carolina,
Alabama, Wyoming, Arkansas, Montana and Kentucky round out the top 10 states
with the highest percentages of mobile homes — or ``manufactured housing,''
as the industry prefers to call them.
``When people come to visit — from the outside they form an
opinion. But when they come inside they say, `Wow, what a beautiful home,'''
says Beadle, 74.
Many people think of the old tin-can trailers no wider than
a car when they hear the words ``mobile home.'' But that's not the case nowadays.
Many mobile homes these days are roomier and well-appointed.
And industry leaders say federal and state regulations require today's mobile
homes to be of a much higher quality than those made 30 years ago. In the
North, for example, mobile homes now must be able to hold up under heavy
snow, and in the Southeast, they have to withstand hurricane-force winds.
The new versions fit many of the needs of first-time homebuyers, retirees, even the governor of Arkansas.
Gov. Mike Huckabee moved into a triple-wide in 2000 — and endured
Jay Leno's wisecracks — while the Governor's Mansion in Little Rock was being
renovated. One in seven households in Arkansas is a mobile home.
Bob Martindale, who sells manufactured homes in Myrtle Beach,
says many people are skeptical at first. ``You end up trying to educate people,''
he says. ``Most people have a stigma in their minds.''
Nationwide, nearly 8.7 million households, or 1 in 13, are
mobile homes, according to census figures. That is up from 7.3 million in
1990. The number of mobile homes in South Carolina increased 17 percent to
355,499 during the 1990s.
Florida led the nation in the total number of mobile homes, with 842,701, or close to 10 percent of all U.S. mobile homes.
Mobile homes were least prevalent in the District of Columbia,
Hawaii, Connecticut and Massachusetts, accounting for less than 1 percent
of all households there.
John Cone, executive director of the Home Builders Association
of South Carolina, recommends people invest in an ordinary site-built home
instead, in part because the property is almost certain to increase in value.
But he admits mobile homes ``certainly make affordable housing, and in a
state where we have many poor people, it makes sense.''
Many communities use zoning to keep mobile homes out, but North
Charleston welcomes them in some areas to help revitalize neighborhoods with
depressed property values and stagnant sales.
``It works beautifully,'' says City Councilwoman Dorothy Williams.
``They're built so well and can withstand the (Hurricane) Hugo wind.''
The homes also are popular with retirees such as the Beadles,
who left their ministry in New York nine years ago for the Beachwood retirement
community, where 40 mobile homes with a clubhouse, pool, hot tub and shuffleboards
are all tucked in a grove of pines behind a security gate.
The mobile homes now in the Beachwood community run between
$85,000 and $165,000, according to community manager Carol Marsh. Homeowners
pay property taxes plus $252 a month to lease the land underneath their homes.
``Since most of them are on fixed incomes, they know what they're going to pay every month,'' Marsh says.
Calvin and Sondra Keys gave up trying to build a house along
the coast when they discovered they could design a 2,000-square-foot mobile
home more cheaply.
``Being manufactured on an assembly line, I think they're built
better,'' says Calvin Keys, who retired to South Carolina from Washington,
D.C. ``On other site-built homes, they can cut corners and you'd never know
about it.''
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