The median price of homes selling in Manteca continues to be north of $600,000.

Not only has that increased the demand — and price — for older and smaller single family homes, but it is also raising the prices paid for mobile homes.

Just like with traditional “brick and mortar” homes,  mobile homes that are newer and have been updated and/or remodeled are seeing the highest price increases.

A spot check of pending mobile home sales in Manteca shows:

*A two bath, two bedroom 1,488 square foot mobile home in El Rancho Mobile Home Park that was built in 1978 and last sold in 2024 for $62,000 and was then significantly remodeled has a pending offer of $152,088 — a $90,000 jump in value in a year.
*An El Rancho single wide with two bedrooms and one bathroom with 720 square feet built in 1973 that last sold in 2022 has an accepted offer of $75,000.

*A two bedroom, one bathroom home with 868 square feet in El Rancho that sold for $106,000 in 2021 has a pending offer of $129,500.

Mobile homes are not financed like traditional single family homes.

Still, more people are looking at mobile homes as options.

It’s been 65 years since the last “mobile home park” has been built in San Joaquin County.

The county has adopted new zoning to encourage their development as well as identify appropriate areas to establish them.

And while they are still known in planning vernacular as “mobile home parks”,  what county supervisors paved the way for are in reality manufactured housing parks.

 The homes aren’t your great grandfather’s single or double wide trailers.

Nor are they your grandfather’s basic “box” modular homes built in sections in a factory.

Modern manufactured homes that are stick-built in factories today are often designed with modern architectural nuances that resemble those built on lots.

Comparison data places the actual cost savings per housing structure at between 10 and 20 percent less for manufactured as opposed to traditional stick-built homes on sites.

They manufactured homes average from 1,200 to 1,400 square feet.

The parks they are located in have a much higher density than standard neighborhoods.

As such, between two to three times the housing units can be placed on an acre.

That in turn reduces the infrastructure and land costs.

Such mobile home parks that are basically manufactured homes have been effective in making a dent in Southern California at-market housing making them within the financial reach of more people.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com