4 ms·

No, the real difference is that trailers depreciate over time, while houses (and property) appreciate. Mobile homes--when purchased--are not an investment in t

No, the real difference is that trailers depreciate over time, while houses (and property) appreciate. Mobile homes--when purchased--are not an investment in the same way real estate is. Think of them more like automobiles that wear out and eventually have to be replaced.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago
Actual homes depreciate too - it's just the land that may go up in value.
- Spooky23 11y ago
  Houses are a capital asset, they get maintained and you can borrow against them to improve. Newer houses may be different, as the standard of construction in many cases is pretty awful these days. Trailers are cars with beds. They only go down.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    Are you European? American houses simply aren't as well-built as houses you might be used to, and they never have been. Sure, history is the reason why we don't have any 500yo houses. One might wonder, however, why we don't have any 100yo houses. Any that do exist are on a historical register, because they are rare. The reason is stick-and-mud quick construction methods. This is actually a perfectly reasonable practice, as Americans move around quite a bit. Some of the crappiest 80yo houses I've seen were in Toledo OH and Detroit MI, two cities that don't actually need much century-old housing. But that sort of thing exists everywhere, and in many places is regularly torn down and replaced with new buildings that will also be torn down within the lifetimes of many people living today.
    - sokoloff 11y ago
      No 100 year old houses?! My first house was 220 years old in NH and the house I own now is ~95 years old in a city with hundreds, if not thousands of 100 year old homes. Yes, a few are on a registry (Colonial era houses near Harvard Sq and a few along the river) but the vast majority are not.
    - Spooky23 11y ago
      Nope, I live in upstate NY. Structurally, and in my opinion, good homes built before the mid 1950s are way better than anything today. The lumber was better, finishing work is better and materials are better. Keep a food roof on them and they will be around in 200 years. The new stuff is built cheap with lots of glue and questionable durability. In my area (upstate ny) you can find houses built in the 1850s easily. A few can be found back to the 300+ age range. There aren't many because we had few people back then and city growth over the years razed many.
    - morgante 11y ago
      > One might wonder, however, why we don't have any 100yo houses. Any that do exist are on a historical register, because they are rare. That's frankly a ludicrous house. The house I grew up in is nearly 200 years old, and it's certainly nothing special and not on any historical registries. Many houses in the Northeast are of a similar age.
    - jessaustin 11y ago
      Haha, I should stipulate that I don't mean to diminish how special anyone's particular 15th-century greek-revival saltbox bungalow is. That was kind of my point.
  - ArkyBeagle 11y ago
    If you own a rent house, you can fully depreciate the actual house over a span of time. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p527/ch02.html http://www.irs.gov/publications/p527/ch02.html It is land that gains in value, unless the house is unusual in some way.
Turing_Machine 11y ago
"No, the real difference is that trailers depreciate over time, while houses (and property) appreciate." It is a myth that houses always appreciate. Real estate bubbles have occurred over and over again, dating back to ancient times.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago

Actual homes depreciate too - it's just the land that may go up in value.

Spooky23 11y ago
Houses are a capital asset, they get maintained and you can borrow against them to improve. Newer houses may be different, as the standard of construction in many cases is pretty awful these days. Trailers are cars with beds. They only go down.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  Are you European? American houses simply aren't as well-built as houses you might be used to, and they never have been. Sure, history is the reason why we don't have any 500yo houses. One might wonder, however, why we don't have any 100yo houses. Any that do exist are on a historical register, because they are rare. The reason is stick-and-mud quick construction methods. This is actually a perfectly reasonable practice, as Americans move around quite a bit. Some of the crappiest 80yo houses I've seen were in Toledo OH and Detroit MI, two cities that don't actually need much century-old housing. But that sort of thing exists everywhere, and in many places is regularly torn down and replaced with new buildings that will also be torn down within the lifetimes of many people living today.
  - sokoloff 11y ago
    No 100 year old houses?! My first house was 220 years old in NH and the house I own now is ~95 years old in a city with hundreds, if not thousands of 100 year old homes. Yes, a few are on a registry (Colonial era houses near Harvard Sq and a few along the river) but the vast majority are not.
  - Spooky23 11y ago
    Nope, I live in upstate NY. Structurally, and in my opinion, good homes built before the mid 1950s are way better than anything today. The lumber was better, finishing work is better and materials are better. Keep a food roof on them and they will be around in 200 years. The new stuff is built cheap with lots of glue and questionable durability. In my area (upstate ny) you can find houses built in the 1850s easily. A few can be found back to the 300+ age range. There aren't many because we had few people back then and city growth over the years razed many.
  - morgante 11y ago
    > One might wonder, however, why we don't have any 100yo houses. Any that do exist are on a historical register, because they are rare. That's frankly a ludicrous house. The house I grew up in is nearly 200 years old, and it's certainly nothing special and not on any historical registries. Many houses in the Northeast are of a similar age.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    Haha, I should stipulate that I don't mean to diminish how special anyone's particular 15th-century greek-revival saltbox bungalow is. That was kind of my point.
- ArkyBeagle 11y ago
  If you own a rent house, you can fully depreciate the actual house over a span of time. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p527/ch02.html http://www.irs.gov/publications/p527/ch02.html It is land that gains in value, unless the house is unusual in some way.

Turing_Machine 11y ago

"No, the real difference is that trailers depreciate over time, while houses (and property) appreciate." It is a myth that houses always appreciate. Real estate bubbles have occurred over and over again, dating back to ancient times.