LI mobile homes offer affordable private space, conveniences

For the past eight years, Theresa Mannuzza has lived in her mobile home in Calverton.

“I’m on a fixed income and I bought it outright,” says Mannuzza, 72, a retired factory worker.

She has loved living in the Lakewood Park development for everything it offers, she says — the neighbors, the comfort, the convenience and the affordability.

Now she plans to sell and move to the Mastic area to live with family. But her home has served her well.

Mobile homes — actually manufactured homes secured to the ground — account for about 1% of all homes in Suffolk County and 6.6% of all homes nationwide, and are a way of life for thousands of people on limited incomes.

Many are buying these units either as affordable housing, or as second homes, says Tracy Cronin, a real estate agent for Gold Coast Homes & Estates, who has sold a number of units at the Suffolk Pines mobile home development in Westhampton.

“There’s such a need for either low-maintenance second home locations, such as a mobile home or affordable housing, which, depending on the location, on the East End, a lot of these serve as both,” says Cronin. “They absolutely love the fact that garbage is taken care of, snow removal is taken care of, grounds are kept.”

Mobile homes are becoming very popular as vacation homes, too, says Cronin. There are mobile home units leasing in Montauk for $350,000, he says, which is at the high end of the mobile home market.

Originally an oceanfront campsite, Montauk Shores offers both home ownership and leasing options, with prices ranging from the $300,000s for leases to over $1 million for ownership. The development has two pools and a clubhouse and attracts well-known business owners, many of whom are second-home owners, and even second Montauk homeowners for those seeking an oceanfront residence.

“Instead of spending $900,000 or $800,000 for a house and having maintenance, they’re paying less than half and they’ve got no maintenance, other than inside the unit,” explains Cronin of the leased units.

Mobile home owners have their own private space, says Anne Stipes, resident manager of Lakewood Park.

“You still have a bit of a yard around you,” Stipes says. “And a lot of the parks have different amenities for the residents. I think you have a nice sense of community.”

In Lakewood, which has a clubhouse, picnic/barbecue area and a pond, Stipes says, they hold Thanksgiving dinners and holiday breakfasts, among other group celebrations and activities. “We try to do different things like that to get people in the community together,” Stipes says.

Add to that a sense of security. Denice Sidorowicz, who’s lived in mobile home in Bohemia for the past 20 years, says, “It’s very convenient for me, because I come and go. I’m living on my own.”

A part-time food demonstrator, Sidorowicz, 72, says she was going through a divorce when she bought her home. The price was right, she says.

Now she’s selling because she wants to live with family in Tennessee.

She has loved living in the mobile park, she says. “I have neighbors and we all get along,” she says. “I just get in my car and go, not worrying about my place because I know my neighbors will take care of it.”

Each unit is on a 50-by-100-foot lot, Sidorowicz says, adding, “They’re not all stacked up on top of each other. It’s a really nice community. Everybody has their own private stuff.”

Her development, Bunker Hill/Valley Forge, plans to add a community room this year, she says. “It’s just nice. People can walk around without worrying about anything.”

Mobile homes, however, come with other costs. There are monthly land lease fees that are paid to the mobile home park management, ranging from $100 to $1,400. They typically include property taxes, water and sewer usage, garbage and snow removal, and access to any community amenities, such as a park or community center.

The homes are insured by the development, but residents can take out insurance policies for the contents of their homes, which are considerably cheaper than insurance coverage for non-mobile homes, Cronin says.

Many communities, however, oppose mobile home parks. In Nassau County, there are none after the Syosset Trailer Park closed in 2016. The county’s minimum lot size zoning restrictions prohibit building a mobile home community, says Sean Sallie, Deputy Commissioner of Planning for the county’s Department of Public Works.

Things are different in Suffolk. Many mobile home parks have been grandfathered in. Others are accepted.

The Montauk Shores Trailer Park, for instance, is a welcome part of the community’s surfer culture, Cronin says. “It’s “sort of a cool retro style summer community,” says Cronin. “They are well accepted by the community and considered a cool asset to have by the owners.”

In Southampton Town, there are several mobile home parks that fulfill a need for affordable living options, Supervisor Jay Schneiderman notes.

“We have some excellent mobile home parks. Some of them offer a lot of amenities,” says Schneiderman, adding that some parks offer exclusive home ownership while others also have rental options.

“They’re often in locations that are pretty accessible, in terms of not being far from bus stops and shopping,” he says, adding, “There’s a sense of community in these developments.”

The mobile home communities in Southampton township exist today because they were grandfathered in through earlier zoning regulations, Schneiderman says.

“All of our zoning codes, even the multifamily codes, don’t allow density at that level, so all of the mobile home facilities that exist in the town today wouldn’t be allowed if they were proposing a new facility.”

Zoning for groundwater protection in the town is at least one acre per dwelling and mobile home developments often have about 20 units per acre, Schneiderman says.

However, mobile homes could be the future, he believes.

Noting a movement toward owning smaller homes, particularly among the young, and as televisions and appliances become more compact, Schneiderman says it’s expensive to maintain a large home, and that mobile homes “may be a more sustainable way to live, particularly if we can hook them up to sewage treatment.”

That, he says, “is the biggest issue: How do you manage the sanitary flow from a facility like that?”

With an eye toward the future, Schneiderman is looking to come up with some models on how to live more affordably in his town.

“It may be these smaller units, whether they’re tiny homes, mobile homes, small cottages where people share one swimming pool for a whole community, one lawn and playground.”

Smaller communal homes might provide a solution to both the issue of affordability and environmental protection, Schneiderman says.

“Even though it’s something from our past, it may be a clue to how we can live in the future,” he says of mobile homes.

“The cost of housing has gotten so far beyond local wages. And, I think you can do it in a way that is more environmentally friendly, too, where you use solar panels and sewage treatment, and have less of an environmental impact than one large home,” Schniederman says.

Mobile homes for sale

Here are a few mobile homes currently on the market:  

Asking price: $49,400

Community: Riverhaven Mobile Park in Riverhead

Schools: Riverhead Central School District

Monthly fee: $756.72

Features: A 720-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath home on a 40-by-70-foot lot in a 55-and-over community, with built-ins, large side yard and deck and two parking spaces.

Listing agents: Edward Kurosz and Susan Ribeiro, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Asking price: $65,000

Community: Gildersleeve Park in Amityville

Schools: Amityville Union Free School District

Monthly fee: $950

Features: A two-bedroom, one-bath home with central air conditioning, new burner and a no-maintenance Rainbow roof.

Listing agents: Kerry Liles and Leonardo Toribio, Exit Home Key Realty

Asking price: $39,900

Community: Lakewood Park in Calverton

Schools: Riverhead Central School District

Monthly fee: $724,

Features: Two-bedroom, one-bath home with washer/dryer, two wall AC units, shed and new refrigerator in 55 And over community, which includes a clubhouse and park with a picnic area.

Listing agents: David Lisy and Gloria Radosta, Century 21 Cor-Ace Realty  

Asking price: $75,000

Community: Bunker Hill/Valley Forge in Bohemia

Schools: Connetquot Central School District

Monthly fee: $927

Features: A two-bedroom, one bath with eat-in kitchen and pantry, updated bath, private yard and shed.

Listing agents: Carine Powers and Natia Chikvadze, Century 21 Bays Edge Realty

Asking Price: $79,900

Community: Bunker Hill/Valley Forge in Bohemia

Schools: Connetquot Central School District

Monthly fee: $1,013

Features: A two bedroom, one bath home with eat-in-kitchen, washer/dryer, central air, propane gas heat and cooking.

Listing agent: Deborah D’Amore, Unique Home Sales of Long Island