One of the most financially solvent persons in the world is King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Nobody thought of referring to him as “trailer trash” or a “tin can tourist” when he recently bought a $20,000 house-on-wheels, complete with throne-room, with which to tour his oil-rich domain in air-conditioned comfort. He was just keeping up with the times.
Highway-roving homes are still rare in most of the world. Not so in the United States, where in a few short years they have grown in efficiency, comfort, and luxury from the tent–on-a-box to the complete home, paneled in rich woods and better-equipped for gracious living than the vast majority of houses “built to stay put.”
It was only shortly after World War I that the United States earned the appellation “a nation on wheels,” which still holds good today. Since World War II, it has – in part at least – fast become “a nation of wheeled homes.” And the trend is going strong.
Today, more than two million persons live in some 800,000 trailer homes. They are primarily family groups. The average trailer family income is $1,137 above the national family – $4,450 as compared with $3,313 according to the 1950 census. Their credit rating is high; banks and finance companies report losses on trailer financing at less than 0.16 percent.
Surprising as it may seem, only about one percent of trailers are now bought for vacation purposes, as compared with 50 percent only 16 years ago. About four percent are bought by “nomads” people who are handy at earning a living but have the wanderlust. Fifty-five percent are accounted for by earners in “mobile occupations” construction workers on dams, highways, housing and so on: migratory agricultural workers who follow the sun from south to north and back again over well-established routes and schedules each year; and others who generally receive high pay but whose job duration in any one location is short. In this class is included a considerable number of defense workers of all categories, including atomic scientist.
Service men and their families account for another 25 percent. The day is past when a reservist or guardsman or new draftee, for that matter, with a family will put up with and $85-$100- a month dump miles from camp.
Retired persons account for another 10 percent, and “miscellaneous” makes up the remainder. Among this latter group are very often newly married couples who want to remain permanently in their community, but who can’t find satisfactory housing. They usually turn their trailers into the second hand market and use the money for a down payment on a home or for furniture as soon as they find permanent housing.
The trailer owner is indeed a far cry from a nomadic bum. Estimates on the total of trailers bought exclusively for use as homes range as high as 93 percent, while a surprising fact is that only about 45 percent of these trailers are seldom moved at all from their original site.
In view of these facts, it is not surprising that the trailer industry is big business. About 200 trailer manufacturers now turn out close to 100,000 trailers a year, valued at better than $300 million. There are about 3,000 trailer dealers scattered throughout the United States, most of them in smaller outlying areas where space for trailer “parks” or sites for trailer communities are available. A curious fact is that the Greater New York area has only one or two trailer-coach dealers, while smaller communities often have several.
Two years ago, there were only 6,000 trailer parks; today there are twice that many and the total is climbing rapidly. In Florida, California, and Arizona alone-havens for the retired- there are probably more than 3,000. All major highways are beaded with them, and they are numerous near all high employment and housing–shortage areas. Most military camps now provide them. Publications like “Trailer Park Directory” keep trailerites informed on what goes on in the mobile-home–site world.
Trailer parks range in size from three or four “home sites” to 2,544 at Paducah, Kentucky, where 8,100 persons-families of atomic energy workers-dwell. The Savanah River hydrogen bomb project accounts for 10,000 in the Aiken, South Carolina area.
Some other big parks are: Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois; Van Nuys, California; Bradenton Trailer Park, Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; Memphis, Tennessee.
Park facilities have improved greatly in the past few years. They represent a big investment-currently estimated at around $250 million, while many park owners put as much as $1,000 into each home site. Facilities range from water, electrical and sewage connections to “the works”-all the foregoing plus landscaped plots, telephones, bath houses, laundry, milk and newspaper delivery, recreation halls and play areas for children, and shopping centers. A few even sport swimming pools.
Rentals in a trailer park vary from a minimum of $1 a night for transients through $3.50 a week to $15 to $30 a month. Utilities may or may not be separately billed over the base rate. Sometimes an extra charge of $1.00 to $3.00 a month is made per child
No longer eyesores, trailer camps are now generally welcomed by the city fathers, who have learned rather belatedly that the trailer dwellers are solid citizens and bring profits to local merchants. At one time there was resentment toward trailer children attending local schools, and various devices were used to get eh parents to pay for tuition. Now this resentment has largely vanished and trailer children are welcome, tax assessments on the camps alone generally are higher than on local homes housing an equal number of school children.
So, if conditions fit, why not join the swelling ranks of trailer owners? You’ll find that they’re one of the most respected, fraternal, solvent, and happy groups in the American economy.
Initially published in “Your Car Magazine” December 1953. Your Car Publishing Company, Vol. 1, No. 3
