Seniors Buying Upscale Park Trailers to Spend
Retirement in Vacation Spots
These luxury Park Models look more like a cottage
than a trailer; seniors have bought 80,000
June
7, 2008 - For many seniors, retirement means downsizing to a smaller
home, and perhaps even moving to a less desirable location to save
money. Others, however, have found an affordable way to live in some of
the most sought after destinations in the country. Some retirees even
have winter and summer homes.
Alleene and Dominic Pedicone sold their Wisconsin
home and bought a recreational park trailer or "park model," which they
use during the summer months at Yukon Trails Camping, an RV resort in
Lyndon Station, Wis., near The Dells. And the Pedicones still had plenty
of money left over to purchase a manufactured home in Florida, which
they use during the winter months.
The key to Forward Living is the creation of an
environment with adaptive technologies that help seniors comfortably,
independently and safely age - within their own home
"It's worked out very well for us," said Alleene,
65, a retired secretary. "You couldn't get an apartment for what we pay.
And we're in very pretty locations."
While most people have never heard of recreational
park trailers or "park models," they are gradually being discovered by
senior citizens, who collectively have purchased nearly 80,000 of these
units during the past 10 years, said William Garpow, executive director
of the Recreational Park Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA) in Newnan,
Ga.
Garpow attributes the park model's allure not only
to its price, but to its aesthetic appeal.
Unlike manufactured homes, park models" are
400-square foot movable resort cottages that are designed exclusively
for part-time recreational use. Typically upscale in appearance, they
often include hardwood floors, bay windows and lofts as well as cherry,
oak or maple cabinetry. They also are very affordable, with prices
starting in the $30,000 range.
These recreational park trailers look more like
cottages than trailers, even though they are really trailers, says Jeff
Crider of the RPTIA.
But since nobody likes to use the T word, they
call them park models instead. They're technically classified as
recreational vehicles, but they're too big to tow. They are actually
quite cute, which explains why seniors are willing to live part-time in
these units.
And
because park models are technically classified as recreational vehicles,
they can be set up on leased sites in campgrounds and RV parks and used
as weekend retreats or seasonal vacation dwellings.
That's precisely what's happening at Yukon Trails
Camping and at many of its sister RV resorts, which are owned and
operated by
Equity LifeStyle Properties Inc., a Chicago-based company whose
parks collectively have roughly 7,000 park models.
The same concept is being promoted by Queensbury,
N.Y.-based Morgan RV Resorts, which owns and operates parks throughout
the Eastern United States, including
Peters Pond RV Resort in Sandwich, on Cape Cod.
Both ELS and Morgan RV Resorts specialize in
leasing park model sites in locations many people could not otherwise
afford.
"It's beautiful here," said Marion Steinbrenner, a
retired teacher who sold her house on Cape Cod and used some of the
proceeds to purchase a $40,000 park model at Peters Pond as well as a
permanent RV site in North Fort Myers, Fla., where she keeps a fifth
wheel for use during the winter months.
Steinbrenner said this approach has made sense for
her financially because it enabled her to retain some of her equity for
other uses during her retirement years while still enabling her to keep
her living expenses to a minimum.
Steinbrenner said monthly lease fee for park model
site at Peters Pond range from $3,000 to $6,000 per year, and include
all utilities except for telephone service and propane.
Park model owners at Yukon Trails in Wisconsin, for
their part, pay about $1,900 per year in lease and utility fees, not
including electricity and heating.
Some seniors buy two park models and keep one up
north and another in the Sunbelt. But most seniors who like these units
just have one for part-time use. They spend the rest of their time in
another type of RV or manufactured or site built home, adds Crider.
"We think these units offer the most affordable
vacation option in the country," said Garpow of RPTIA, adding, "If your
retirement dollars are finite, this is a way to stretch them."
Editors Notes:
For more information about the increasing use of
park models in campgrounds and RV resorts across the country as well as
contact information for parks in your area that have park models for
sale or for rent, contact Bill Garpow, executive director of the Newnan,
Ga.-based Recreational Park Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA) at
(770) 251-2672.
Additional information is available on the
association's website at
www.rptia.com.
Photos - Copyright Breckenridge Div, Of Damon
Corp. all rights reserved
Click for information
June
7, 2008 - For many seniors, retirement means downsizing to a smaller
home, and perhaps even moving to a less desirable location to save
money. Others, however, have found an affordable way to live in some of
the most sought after destinations in the country. Some retirees even
have winter and summer homes.
And
because park models are technically classified as recreational vehicles,
they can be set up on leased sites in campgrounds and RV parks and used
as weekend retreats or seasonal vacation dwellings.