Jimmy Buffett, trailer parks and tiny homes

By: J. David Chapman/August 10, 2023

I am writing today’s column from Camp Margaritaville RV resort in Crystal Beach, Texas.

This resort has restaurants and bars called License to Chill and Fins Bar & Grill. It has the largest pool at any RV Resort in the country, a Fins Up! Fitness Center, and a 5-acre food and entertainment park with a turf field. The resort has live music daily and panoramic views of the Gulf of Mexico.

Jimmy Buffett sings about them, police departments raid them, retired people in Florida live in them, and I have always wanted to own one. I’m talking about trailer parks. There is even a Canadian mockumentary television series focusing on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents called Trailer Park Boys. OK, it is no longer politically correct to call them trailer parks, so I’ll refer to them as manufactured home parks or mobile home communities.

America’s growing affordability housing gap is forcing many people to reassess the traditional single-family home model and look at mobile home communities as an alternative. This affordability challenge, along with changing demographics, is driving a modern incarnation of the traditional trailer park. Today’s manufactured homes are energy-efficient, and many communities now have swimming pools and playgrounds. These amenities are making them the perfect choice for both retiring baby boomers and millennial-age young families.

As we have traveled around the U.S. in our RV, we have noticed an increase in tiny homes put into slips in RV parks. This appears to be a growing trend. This trend utilizes existing spaces and provides an alternative housing option. The RV Park already has electricity, water hookups, and waste disposal facilities to accommodate the needs of RV travelers. It also allows the tiny home owners to enjoy the amenities and communal atmosphere of an RV park.

Traditionally, owners of tiny homes have had a difficult time finding places to put them. Having the ability to place the homes in RV parks seems to be the perfect solution, and many of these parks are becoming small neighborhoods of tiny homes while accommodating their existing RV customers. We are hopeful that renting a space in an RV park for placement of tiny homes will be an affordable option for those looking to downsize or minimize their living expenses.

J. David Chapman is a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).