Manufactured Houses

Some people spend a lifetime chasing the American dream, but David Gonzales had his dropped off in Boyle Heights by crane. For Tanzolia Williams, it was brought to Watts on a truck. Gonzales and Williams are getting the first two deliveries of a new vision of home ownership--manufactured houses for inner-city customers--being marketed by an Alhambra firm.

Welcome to Canyon View Estates in Santa Clarita. This gated community features a pool and spa, two tennis courts, a basketball court and a 6,500-square-foot clubhouse. New single-family homes here start at $69,950, and a 1,836-square-foot home with appliances, drapes and floor coverings will set you back just $109,950. By the way, Canyon View Estates is a mobile-home community. Mobile-home parks aren't what they used to be.

The home-building industry tends to be conservative, holding to the notion that if the old system works, there's no need for change. But a few adventurous builders are willing to look at new ways of doing old things if doing so will enable them to cut costs so they can reduce prices or avoid price increases while still making money. One example is metal framing.

When Ken Steigall sold his modest mobile home in the Los Angeles suburb of Canyon Country, he hoped to clear enough profit to make a down payment on a traditional house. But to his surprise, the $8,000 in sale proceeds wasn't nearly enough for a down payment on a conventional home in the same area. And even if Steigall had more cash, a friend in real estate explained, he probably wouldn't be able to qualify for a loan based on the modest salary he earns as a pool cleaner.

When James and Diana Jones outgrew their 1,200-square-foot home in Palmdale, they bought a 2 1/2-acre lot nearby and began searching for a contractor to build them a larger house. They figured it would be at least a year before they'd step into their dream home. But before signing on with a traditional builder, the couple visited a manufactured housing dealer who offered them a lot more house in a lot less time for a lot less money. After walking through models at several dealer showrooms, the Joneses were convinced that manufactured housing was the way to go. "The more we talked to them and looked into it, the better it sounded," James Jones said.

Gail Foy wouldn't want to live anyplace that looks like her old vision of a mobile-home park: "a whole bunch of these homes-on-wheels plopped on a great big lot with maybe a tree at the end." But Foy does want to own a house in the city of Santa Clarita, where she works, and she can't afford a conventional house on a private lot there.

Jess Maxcy, president and chief executive officer of the California Manufactured Housing Institute and a resident of Riverside, has been named recipient of the Chairman's Award for 1989. The award is presented annually by the chairman of the institute to recognize outstanding service and performance by an individual.

The signals are becoming louder that Japan is about to make an onslaught into another major U.S. market--the housing industry. What surprises a researcher is that these signals are being ignored. Charles Graham, professor of architecture and environmental design at Texas A&M University in College Station, Tex., says that manufactured Japanese housing is far superior, both in quality and technology, to its U.S.

Riverside-based Fleetwood Enterprises has started construction on a $1.9-million, manufactured housing facility on a 22-acre site in Roxboro, N.C. When completed in early 1986, the plant will be the third one established by the California firm in North Carolina within the past three years.