Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Middle-Class Dreams Lie in Ruins in Palisades Mobile Home Park
Middle-Class Dreams Lie in Ruins in Palisades Mobile Home Park
The Los Angeles wildfires destroyed mobile homes, leaving people who saved to build a middle-class life digging through rubble for anything that remained.
The remnants of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates, a mobile home community destroyed by fire. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times
By Jacob Bernstein
Reporting from Los Angeles
Published Jan. 11, 2025
Updated Jan. 12, 2025, 7:02 a.m. ET
Up on Amalfi Drive in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, luxury homes owned by celebrities are still standing. But down at the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates, a mobile home community on Pacific Coast Highway just across from the beach, all of the nearly 200 homes are destroyed.
“Nothing but ruins,” said Maria Nol, who lived in a mobile home there with her daughter, her son-in-law and her three grandchildren. … Ms. Nol was one of many people who worked and struggled their way to a middle-class life but has now been digging through rubble for anything that remained.
“The media is advertising and publicizing all the celebrities that lost their homes, but the people who live here inherited homes from their parents who bought in the ’70s,” Ms. Nol’s daughter, Lynda Park, 43, said on Friday. … Ms. Park had worked at the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church. That also burned to the ground this week. So did the home of the family her mother worked for as a cleaner.
Ms. Nol owned the house in the 16000 block of Pacific Coast Highway but did not have an insurance policy on it. Getting one had become too expensive, she said, given the high probability
{snip}
Jacob Bernstein reports on power and privilege for the Style section. More about Jacob Bernstein
The Los Angeles wildfires destroyed mobile homes, leaving people who saved to build a middle-class life digging through rubble for anything that remained.
The remnants of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates, a mobile home community destroyed by fire. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times
By Jacob Bernstein
Reporting from Los Angeles
Published Jan. 11, 2025
Updated Jan. 12, 2025, 7:02 a.m. ET
Up on Amalfi Drive in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, luxury homes owned by celebrities are still standing. But down at the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates, a mobile home community on Pacific Coast Highway just across from the beach, all of the nearly 200 homes are destroyed.
“Nothing but ruins,” said Maria Nol, who lived in a mobile home there with her daughter, her son-in-law and her three grandchildren. … Ms. Nol was one of many people who worked and struggled their way to a middle-class life but has now been digging through rubble for anything that remained.
“The media is advertising and publicizing all the celebrities that lost their homes, but the people who live here inherited homes from their parents who bought in the ’70s,” Ms. Nol’s daughter, Lynda Park, 43, said on Friday. … Ms. Park had worked at the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church. That also burned to the ground this week. So did the home of the family her mother worked for as a cleaner.
Ms. Nol owned the house in the 16000 block of Pacific Coast Highway but did not have an insurance policy on it. Getting one had become too expensive, she said, given the high probability
{snip}
Jacob Bernstein reports on power and privilege for the Style section. More about Jacob Bernstein
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
They are an extreme ripoff.
Homes are cheap because they are manufactured, BUT YOU PAY OUTRAGEOUS RENT ON THE LAND.
So, when the homes burn, you have NOTHING.
This sums it up from Reddit: 3 years ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/s0jh8a/whats_the_catch_with_mobile_manufactured_homes/
What's the catch with mobile / manufactured homes? why are they so cheap? are they better or worse than renting an apartment?
Housing/Shelter/Standard of Living
i've lived in an apartment for all of my adult life and pretty much accepted by this point they i'll never be able to afford a traditional "house." but every year, rent just keeps climbing and climbing. my studio apartment, split between 3 people, has almost doubled in rent in the past 5 years. i hear people talk about how much better having a mortgage is vs renting, but there's no way i could afford the down payment that a home would require.
so what's the catch with mobile / manufactured homes? why are they 1/10th the price of an ordinary house? every place i've looked for answers responds from an investment perspective and talks about how they depreciate like used cars. i'm not looking for an asset. i don't care if my house is "worth" anything. i would just like to have a home to live in without worrying about the rent climbing up endlessly and outpacing my ability to afford it. are there any downsides for someone who doesn't care about trying to use it as an investment, but just as a place to live in? the only thing i can think of is needing to move elsewhere and then not being able to sell your house for what you owe, but i have no extended family or job or anything that would ever require me to up and leave from where i live now. i live in the desert, so there isn't a big risk of flooding, tornadoes or other natural disasters carrying the house away. i realize apartment complexes are also supposed to provide things like maintenance if things like plumbing or electrical go wrong, but anyone who's ever lived in a shitty apartment complex knows how reliable that actually is.
i don't see any immediate downsides? but i know the grass is always greener. can anyone chime in with some advice?
------
Is it in a mobile home park? You still have to pay lot rent, if so, which is often hundreds of dollars, sometimes equal to regular rent. You don't own the land they sit on and the owner can just keep raising prices because you're stuck. It is nearly impossible to get someone to move a mobile home in some locations and many places outlaw new ones on private land.
-----
Housing/Shelter/Standard of Living
i've lived in an apartment for all of my adult life and pretty much accepted by this point they i'll never be able to afford a traditional "house." but every year, rent just keeps climbing and climbing. my studio apartment, split between 3 people, has almost doubled in rent in the past 5 years. i hear people talk about how much better having a mortgage is vs renting, but there's no way i could afford the down payment that a home would require.
so what's the catch with mobile / manufactured homes? why are they 1/10th the price of an ordinary house? every place i've looked for answers responds from an investment perspective and talks about how they depreciate like used cars. i'm not looking for an asset. i don't care if my house is "worth" anything. i would just like to have a home to live in without worrying about the rent climbing up endlessly and outpacing my ability to afford it. are there any downsides for someone who doesn't care about trying to use it as an investment, but just as a place to live in? the only thing i can think of is needing to move elsewhere and then not being able to sell your house for what you owe, but i have no extended family or job or anything that would ever require me to up and leave from where i live now. i live in the desert, so there isn't a big risk of flooding, tornadoes or other natural disasters carrying the house away. i realize apartment complexes are also supposed to provide things like maintenance if things like plumbing or electrical go wrong, but anyone who's ever lived in a shitty apartment complex knows how reliable that actually is.
i don't see any immediate downsides? but i know the grass is always greener. can anyone chime in with some advice?
------
Is it in a mobile home park? You still have to pay lot rent, if so, which is often hundreds of dollars, sometimes equal to regular rent. You don't own the land they sit on and the owner can just keep raising prices because you're stuck. It is nearly impossible to get someone to move a mobile home in some locations and many places outlaw new ones on private land.
-----
And "investors" are buying up properties and jacking up rents.
Capitalism, Comrade.
https://www.mhbo.com/mobile-home-park/39469-pacific-palisades-bowl-mhc-16321-pacific-coast-hwy-pacific-palisades-ca-90272
The lot rent ranges from $800 - $1,600 per month
These look like real manufactured homes. I have never seen a double-high one.
https://www.biggsapm.com/listing/pacific-palisades-bowl-mobile-estates
Has earlier photos. (just one here)
