Mobile home

Behind the cosmetic work fitted at installation to hide the base, mobile homes have strong trailer frames, axles, wheels, and tow-hitches.

In the United States, this form of housing goes back to the early years of cars and motorized highway travel.

However, in the 1950s, the homes began to be marketed primarily as an inexpensive form of housing designed to be set up and left in a location for long periods of time or even permanently installed with a masonry foundation.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the homes were made even longer and wider, making the mobility of the units more difficult.

Nowadays, when a factory-built home is moved to a location, it is usually kept there permanently and the mobility of the units has considerably decreased.

Many brands offer optional hurricane straps, which can be used to tie the home to anchors embedded in the ground.

This national regulation has allowed many manufacturers to distribute nationwide because they are immune to the jurisdiction of local building authorities.

Yet, older models continue to face the exposed risk to high winds because of the attachments applied such as carports, porch and screen room additions.

However, even with that change, rapid depreciation often resulted in the home occupants paying far less in property taxes than had been anticipated and budgeted.

The arrival of mobile homes in an area tended to be regarded with alarm, in part because of the devaluation of the housing potentially spreading to preexisting structures.

Other restrictions, such as minimum size requirements, limitations on exterior colors and finishes, and foundation mandates have also been enacted.

Under a trial program approved January 10, 1997, the wider homes could be delivered on specific roads at certain times of day and travel 10 mph below the speed limit, with escort vehicles in front and behind.

[8] In December 1997, a study showed that the wider homes could be delivered safely, but some opponents still wanted the program to end.

[9] On December 2, 1999, the NC Manufactured Housing Institute asked the state Board of Transportation to expand the program to allow deliveries of 16-foot-wide homes within North Carolina.

One subset of mobile home parks, retirement communities, restrict residents to those age 55 and older.

[12] Newer homes, particularly double-wides, tend to be built to much higher standards than their predecessors and meet the building codes applicable to most areas.

Often, the primary differentiation in appearance is that factory-built homes tend to have less of a roof slope so that they can be readily transported underneath bridges and overpasses.

They are frequently used as temporary housing in areas affected by natural disasters when restrictions are temporarily waived.

Some of these communities simply provide land in a homogeneous neighborhood, but others are operated more like condominiums with club homes complete with swimming pools and meeting rooms which are shared by all of the residents, who are required to pay membership fees and dues.

Mobile home (or mobile-homes) are used in many European campgrounds to refer to fixed caravans, purpose-built cabins, and even large tents, which are rented by the week or even year-round as cheap accommodation, similar to the US concept of a trailer park.

The institute is a UK body who produce a range of standards for businesses and products to ensure they are fit for purpose.

A static caravan normally stays on a single plot for many years and has many of the modern conveniences normally found in a home.

Static holiday caravans generally have sleeping accommodation for 6 to 10 people in 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms and on convertible seating in the lounge referred to as a 'pull out bed'.

Once purchased, static caravans have various ongoing costs including insurance, site fees, local authority rates, utility charges, winterisation and depreciation.

Modular homes are transported on flatbed trucks rather than being towed, and lack axles and an automotive-type frame.

Both styles are commonly referred to as factory-built housing, but that term's technical use is restricted to a class of homes regulated by the Federal National Mfd.

That occurs often after considerable litigation on the topic by affected jurisdictions and by plaintiffs failing to ascertain the difference.