A small trailer park (sorry, manufactured home park) located on North Willson in Bozeman is in the cross hairs of development plans.

Kick out the MH’s and build multiple three-story duplexes in their place. Affordable housing gone. Welcome to another high rent district on the North Side.

My Affordable Housing

About ten years ago my wife and I disposed of our Bozeman home and moved into one of the Mobile Home Parks in Bozeman.

Why on earth would we do something so stupid? All that equity gone, losing an appreciating asset to live in a depreciating asset. Why?

Plus, you don’t own the land. Why do such a thing?

Consider this, as I did. The fine folks on South Willson don’t own their land either. They pay, as I do, lot rent in the form of property taxes. It’s semantics.

Don’t pay your property tax and guess what — you’re homeless.

My Affordable Housing Retirement Plan

Since I realized too late that retirement was closer then further I had to make serious plans for our financial future.

One of those plans was to dump a $1,500 a month mortgage payment for a $400 lot rent payment on something I owned outright.

That freed up $1,100 a month to invest in an interest bearing financial vehicle rather than pay it to a bank and hope my home might appreciate as real estate usually does.

However, in Bozeman I found that Mobile Homes also appreciate in this market.

In hindsight my decision to downsize our living quarters and upsize my investments has paid off handsomely in spite of the Great Recession of 2009.

Some Final Thoughts

For some people there might be a negative stigma attached to living in a mobile home. I really don’t care considering that I’m able to do most of the things my wife and I want to do without the worry of the monetary consequences. It’s a good feeling to have.

Our home appreciates as does our investment portfolio. I live in affordable housing. So do the folks on North Willson.

If the city commission was true to its word it would deny the raising of that park. Destruction of affordable housing to make way for unaffordable housing makes little sense.

Just because it’s on wheels doesn’t make it bad. Comments below.