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Comment by hotpotamus | Hacker News Reader

My parents recently bought a plot of land in a mobile home development in order to house my uncle with mental health issues. They have the exact same requirements you mention above - no travel trailers as permanent housing and permanent housing must meet square footage requirements. In a place named $X Mobile Home Estates. And in supposedly low-tax, freedom-loving Texas; not California.

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Mobile home parks don't sell the land outright, but sell the rights to park a trailer on it. Are the regs from the park or the state

I did not say they bought land in a mobile home park.

> My parents recently bought a plot of land in a mobile home development

Did you forget what you wrote?

In fact I was quite careful with my words to use development because I did not feel that park described the situation. The plot is a quarter acre with it's own electrical and water connections that is in fact owned by my parents. I was somewhat circumspect, but I'll just use the actual name of the neighborhood - it is Canyon Lake Mobile Home Estates in Canyon Lake, TX. Up to a few years ago, it was a rural backwater on "the wrong side of the lake" and does not actually feature lake access or much chance of a view. For the last few years (predating the pandemic, but the pandemic seems like an accelerant) it has, like much of Texas, seen significant in-migration, probably exacerbated by its proximity to Austin. All that said, I still find it ridiculous that they don't allow people to live in travel trailers.

i guess what we are all not clear about is what is the difference between a mobile home and a trailer. my guess is mobile home refers to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_housing which are factory assembled buildings that are moved as a whole to their destination where they make a permanent structure because they don't have wheels.

rules like these probably try to influence what kind of people are going to choose to live there.

I think your statement is correct in theory, but when you get into the actual practice of low-income housing, the lines get quite blurry and calling it a "mobile home" sure doesn't help. I'd say I'm more incensed at the idea of being told how to live on property that I putatively own, especially in a state that claims to have great respect for property rights.

incensed

oh, totally, things like that would drive me mad. if i am ever going to buy a plot of land then i'd want to do it far away from anyone who can tell me what do do with it (short of forest fire safety and pollution)

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