Leading Question

Despite a punishing series of hurricanes that leveled countless mobile homes, the industry is confident it will prevail, but not without hardship.

Manufacturers report record back orders for factory-made housing, even on the heels of Charley et al. "If right now is any indication, the future is bright," says Frank Williams, executive director of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association, a Tallahassee-based trade group with 1,500 company members. A builder in Pinellas County, for example, is at least 1,000 units behind, he adds.

One reason for the backlog is that people need to replace mobile homes that were destroyed. But even before the storms hit, orders were on the rise, Williams says.

Images of the flattened mobile homes have not turned people away, either. They are aware that the surviving structures were late models, built to post-Hurricane Andrew codes. "That's a pretty strong testimonial," Williams says.

Manufacturers may be faring well; however, some manufactured home owners have suffered setbacks. A law updated in October by the Florida Department of Highway Safety, in response to the hurricanes, prohibits the movement and relocation of pre-1994 mobile homes within Wind Zone III, in which Southwest Florida is located. Florida contains nearly 825,000 units built before 1992, or about 78 percent of today's totals, according to department statistics.

The problem for pre-'94 owners is that selling their home for use within the zone is next to impossible, Williams says. Basically, the unit is obsolete and worthless, at least in that area, so there's no collateral or equity.

"We're talking about hundreds of thousands of homes statewide," he says.The pre-'94 units can be moved inland to Zone II properties, so a seller must find a buyer there.

Manufactured homeownership in Southwest Florida can add the hurricane difficulties to a challenge they've been facing in recent years: the loss of parks.

Communities are being sold to developers who pay top dollar for the large spreads, many of which are located in prime spots. Then the mobile homeowners must find new space among a dwindling inventory, if they want to stay in the area. "Some of these older [mobile home] parks have become very valuable," Williams says. -Phil Borchmann