At first it might look like a typo as it’s listed as a 1,440-square-foot, two-bedroom home in Saint Helena for $289,000. But it’s not. What it is, however, is a double wide mobile home parked at 8 Los Robles Court, the land for which is leased for $899 per month.
Keep in mind that 8 Los Robles is within Vineyard Valley, a senior community which requires at least one full-time resident of each home to be at least 55 years of age.
There are several other mobile homes listed in the same park for less. Is this a special case somehow? Leasing land is very typical for mobile homes.
Are we taken aback at how cheap it can be to live in St. Helena, or shocked at how expensive a mobile home can be?
I wonder what people who argue “Banishing affordable housing to Manteca isn’t an option” think when they see something like this. Seems like a nice enough place to me….
It’s great if you’re over 55, don’t need to commute to a job in the City, and like living long distances from the cultural resources available in San Francisco and being dependent on automobile transportation.
You mean like pretty much every American over 55, right?
Is there a big Senior pilates class at the SF Opera every morning at 6am that is only open to cyclists, that I don’t know about?
My grandparents enjoyed driving from their mobile home park to the local restaurants and senior center in Fort Lauderdale.
My parents drive for Meals on Wheels near Sacramento, helping seniors. THEY DRIVE AN AUTOMOBILE. The horror.
And you can actually attend a museum a handful of times a year and catch both the permanent collection as well as temporary exhibits. I am looking forward to Ed Ruscha next year at the DeYoung.
So for me anyway, unless one has crazy unrealistic expectations for what it means to be an older person with limited means, a well-tended mobile home in a great climate with cars is a pretty good outcome.
As I’ve said before, I’m not in favor of outer-ring ghettos for lower income people. It’s great if they like it there but if a city can’t find room within its boundaries for people of a variety of means (and ages), I think that’s a less-than-great city.
With 2 parents who made it into their 90s, I can tell you that gradually quitting driving before having the privilege revoked by the DMV is a good plan (my parents didn’t do that). Living in a place with no alternative to driving can be a prison for old people.
And by the way, I don’t know too many working people (other than government employees) who are retired at 55.
I think it’s absurd to call a place like this listing an “outer ring ghetto.” I think it looks like a nice, affordable place to live. I think there are many such places in California and the idea that we need to provide a complete evenly distributed economic ecosystem for people in San Francisco is neither a reasonable nor realistic goal.
St Helena an outer ring ghetto?
St Helena?
Bwahahahahaha. At least it doesn’t smell like piss everywhere and there are not very many tent cities on the main drag.
You really do need to get out of the 49 Square Miles, dixon.
@Soccermom and Brian M–You are confusing “ghetto” with slum. Not the same thing. The following definitions, from Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, make no mention of slums, urine odors, or tent cities.
1: a quarter of a city in which Jews were formerly required to live
2: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure
3a: an isolated group
3b: a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity
And saying that this “looks like a nice enough place” is not an excuse to homogenize San Francisco.
Ironically, two of Napa Valley’s most prestigious properties are also mobile home parks. Both Carneros Inn and Calistoga Ranch are on land zoned for mobile homes. They are both, in effect, gussied up mobile homes.
I’ve stayed at both and never realized that. Thank you.
I moved to Napa last year after 20 years living in the City. Housing is at least 1/3 the cost of SF and the quality of life is 10 X better. Telecommuting solves any long commuting issue. When I do go to SF, I can be there in an hour, but I chose to do so less and less. St. Helena is a far cry from being an outer-ring ghetto.
That fancy timber framed car port is lipstick on a pig. Mobile homes aren’t built to last and aren’t good real estate invesments therefore.
UPDATE: The list price for 8 Los Robles Court has just been reduced to $275,000.
UPDATE: The sale of 8 Los Robles Court has closed escrow with a reported contract price of $250,000.