One of the finest areas to retire in is Orange County California. While home values are perhaps at their lowest levels nationwide in the last decade, many retirees looking to buy a new home in the Orange County metropolitan area still have to contend with a $420,000.00 median home price according to DataQuick (Source: DQNews.Com). Is retirement in a new home in Orange County a viable option still? The answer is yes, even for people that want the most home possible for the lowest possible cost.

Manufactured homes are growing in popularity and will continue to play a significant role in retirement options for seniors. In Orange County, there are a large number of gated, planned communities offering clubhouses, excursions and trips as well as social events that only allow manufactured homes to be developed on their grounds. Some of these exclusive communities are in high end locales and others are located near some of the best beaches that Southern California has to offer.

More and more people are turning to manufactured homes as a retirement option, not solely because of cost, but because of the quality of construction, custom options available and the ability to cost effectively retire in desirable areas like Orange County.

The quality of construction in modern manufactured homes is equal to or in some cases superior to site built homes. In addition, modern manufactured home builders have been leading in energy efficiency options that many site built developers don’t even think to consider. For example, Hallmark-Southwest provides solar thermal and solar photovoltaic options for all prospective home owners. Go to the average site built developer and ask them to engineer solar photovoltaic and solar thermal systems in to a new home in the average development tract and they’ll most likely shake their heads in disbelief that you’re asking the question. Not so with manufactured home builders.

Aside from solar photovoltaic and solar thermal options, manufactured home builders are able to re-arrange the placement of interior walls, build kitchen islands and extend dimensions of interior rooms far more easily than your average site built developer. The fact of the matter is that modern manufactured home builders are far more able to provide their clients with truly custom homes that the average site built new home builder in planned developments.

If you are looking to buy a home and retire in Orange County, the good news is that while the median price in the are may be $420,000.00, you can quite easily afford a similar or higher quality home for half of this figure or less. The moral of the story is that manufactured homes in Orange County are a good consideration for retirees that want it all: new home, custom features and affordable price.

Almost everyone has dreamed of living in a home on the coast. For most, the reality is that coastal living is far out of the mainstream budget. Some people feel that during difficult economic times, such as we are experiencing now, that it’s the best time to buy. And while this is true in a general sense, it may not necessarily be true about coastal living. Properties along the California coastline always rebound faster than inland areas and, in fact, in some of the most exclusive areas and in beachfront locales, sometimes prices don’t fall very much at all.

So, how can people obtain the dream of living in a coastal community and remain in budget? The answer is by living in a planned community along the coast that caters specifically to manufactured homes. Perhaps the though of a coastal, manufactured home conjures up images of low rent areas, but, in fact, there are a number of coastal communities that cater specifically to manufactured home buyers that are gated, secured and feature all of the amenities of large tract home gated communities.

Manufactured homes these days are rarely distinguishable from their site built counterparts as the quality of construction has increased substantially due to consumer demand and from industrial competition to offer manufactured homes that consumers want to live in. Manufactured homes are also far more customizable than many consumers think. Walk in to a tract home development and ask the sales staff if walls can be moved to fit your needs. They’ll look at you like you’re asking questions that don’t fit the context of their business, and they’d be right because tract homes are not unique, they are simply variations on a theme, that variation is typically something site built developers refer to as “elevations” or the exterior facade of the home.

The fact is, gated, planned communities along the coast are far less expensive to live in, in most cases, than buying an existing coastal home. New manufactured home buyers can choose to live in a community that leases land or sells the land to the new home owner. Manufactured homes themselves are typically much less expansive than their site built counterparts so the overall coast of achieving the dream of coastal living can be actually far more affordable than many people think.

If you want to live on the coast and you want the best possible home and pay the least overall price, consider a manufactured home.

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