While 64,000 of these trailers are still being used, if math serves me, there are approximately 80,000 that are not. (Over 8,400 of the trailers have never been used!)
Just as the need for "all the freakin' trailers you can send us!" was a godsend for the industry then, the unloading of these surplus trailers by FEMA now threatens to collapse the market. It's a huge potential nightmare for those same dealers and manufacturers. (FEMA is selling them for 40 cents on the dollar.) Again, if that industry knows how to pray they probably are.
Photo Credit: By Danny Johnston -- Associated Press
Perhaps that's why FEMA is rationing the sell-off of these mobile homes a couple dozen at a time. Like when my wife's Louisiana cousin went to look at the thirty FEMA was auctioning off recently. Now, I don't know how often FEMA has these sales, but if they sell 30 every week, I estimate the 80,000 in FEMA inventory should be totally depleted by sometime in mid-2058.
I suppose that's the source of my dream about these things, for last night I decided I'd better 'get while the gettin's good.' I went to Hope, Arkansas (see photo) and found the exact trailer I wanted (see red arrow).
It was a 2006 Coachmen Spirit of America with slight water damage, a missing stove and battery for under $5,200. No problem, I could live with that. I was sold. But when I told them the trailer I wanted and started to write the check, FEMA said there would be an additional charge of $6,000! When I asked why, they said, "To move it out of the lot."
That's about the time I awoke with a sigh of relief. Maybe I'll wait 15 or 20 years until they've sold all the trailers surrounding my 2006 Coachmen. Maybe then it won't cost me $6,000 to get it outta there.
16 comments:
D.K. test comment
I like your FEMA trailer dreamhome! It certainly beats your previous thoughts about ending up under the fwy overpass. And just think, these trailers are like blank canvasses waiting, no screaming, for some mural art. A 2006 Coachman for $11,200 (incl transportation) would be a steal. hmmm, something doesn't sound right. Wait, are these the substandard trailers with asbestos & other toxic problems? nevermind. ~~ D.K.
Welcome back Raed, your commenting frustrations seem to be over (thankfully!).
I don't know if these are asbestos and other toxins trailers, but I wouldn't have even bothered to blog this if it hadn't come to me at the same time as another "coincidence."
Just wait til I blog about what Lowe's is selling.
you sure know how to bait the hook, dada. I can't wait to hear what Lowe's is selling!
ps, had to utilize the Sherman Way-Back Machine to get back here. so now I can truly confirm, Dada's IS a metaphysical place sometimes only accessible by traveling in time. ~~ D.K.
I sometimes hope that Lowes is having a sale on rope.....like Mussolini Rope...on special...isn't that the phrase "if we give them enuf rope they will hang themselves ? "
okay so how much is ENUF ? and how frigging long does it take..???
sigh....great post...
Raed: It's very early morning and maybe I'm not awake yet, but what the devil is a "Sherman-Way Back" machine?
Whoops, never mind. (I googled it.) You mean there's something of Dada's archived at Internet Archive Hqs on the Presidio, San Francisco??!!
Oh my, that's like time travel itself. I feel like I've just gone full circle, having worked at Presidio in the Summer of Love.
See? See? I guess that's why I get up every new day--to find out what I'll learn next.
(Thanks for today's lesson Raed, which was actually two things I learned, i.e., a bit of Dada's back at Presidio and I'd always wondered what they did with most luscious piece of real estate in The City after the military took its paws off it.)
enigma: I don't think these guys will ever hang themselves. Congress has caused huge rope shortages, what with all they've given these yahoos the past 6.5 years. And yet they continue to demand more.
But it's also got to be a big reflection on we Americans though, too, that we let these guys corner the rope market hoping they'll eventually hang themselves with it and we tolerate 'em as they continue to swing.
(NOTE: Forgive the previous comment. Obviously, I'm not very good at metaphors.)
well now YOU had ME stumped, Dada! I had only referenced The Sherman Way Back Machine as a pop culture item known to anyone who watched Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons. It's my nickname for that time-travel feature of software employed to take the computer back to when I could last make comments (since all else had failed).
So, I googled it just now. Wow, who knew? I guess I shouldn't be surprised there is an Internet Archive that utilizes the way-back machine. And it's "mirrored" in Alexandria Egypt? Very strange. But, before you get too paranoid, I tried it, entered your blog & there are *only* 5 posts from 2006 & 3 from 2007. Still, you're ahead of Scientology, which was removed from IA at their request. I wonder what their criteria for inclusion is? I don't think I like the ramifications of this usefool tool, even if it is housed in The Presidio. ~~ D.K.
E4E, Mussolini Rope at Lowes? nooooooo, or to extend dada's metaphor, as long as they don't expect US to hang ourselves with it! nooooo, maybe we already have? noooo, from now on I'm only buying the stretchy-expando rope. ~~ D.K.
Sorry you didn't get to buy your Coachmen. The other downside of FEMA buying, and now selling, all these trailers is that the trailer market is glutted and those of us with trailers have seen our re-sale values drop a lot.
So, you were at the Presidio in 1967, eh? I was a student at SF State from 1965-1968 and watched the flower power movement from almost the beginning to the it's drug overdose end. We were just in SF last week and drove Funston Drive from the GG Park to the Marina and saw some of the Generals' home from the Parkway. Many of the Marina warehouses have been converted to Museums and shops while the City is trying to figure out how to sell off some of the property without destroying the beauty of the Presidio, which is about 20-25 percent of the land mass of SF. I used to swim at China and Baker beaches, both of which have great views of the Presidio and the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh, for the good ol' days, eh?
deke: Wow, I made the The Sherman Way Back Machine in Presidio (and Alexandria)??!!.
I guess I can quit now. It's great to know I can die tonight and my immortality for all eternity is assured! (Or civilization ends, whichever comes first.)
Thanks for that tidbit. (I'd go myself and check to see which ones "preserve me" for all time, but I don't think I really want to know.)
eprof2: I don't actually know how many of these trailers FEMA unloads per week, per month. I'm assuming they unload in various locations around the nation because the 30/wk. I cited in the blog would take far longer to purge them all than the nation's life expectancy at this point. (grin)
After my discharge from the army in 5/67, I worked at Presidio that summer. Still there remain certain triggers that will instantly transport me to the Bay Area; back to my arrival in Sausalito on a Sunday afternoon and my first encounter with hippies that left me reeling at how the world had changed in the 3 yrs. I'd been away, to a Country Joe song that can send me driving south on 101 in Marin towards The City.
That autumn I left Presidio, returning to the only school in the state of CA that would take a chance on a Fresno State flunkout 3 years earlier. (Like our military now taking felons, CSUH was in desperate need of student bodies.)
In '68, I worked as a research asst. for one of my econ profs. Gleaning statistics on post-war Japan demanded I journey to the libraries on campuses in Berkeley and SF State. It was very exciting times and still today, whenever I catch the scent of tear gas, I am instantly transported back to a van with S.I. Hiyakawa atop sporting a megaphone. (Another trigger I guess.)
Yes, truly the good old days.
eprof2: I was just musing how close our paths came back in the Sixties.
As for the Presidio, hopefully they can retain the lush greens to the side of the big orange bridge that make for such a dramatic entrance into the city from the north or the west.
I remember watching one of our big A/C carriers returning from the waters off Vietnam. We went out from our offices at Presidio to watch it slide under the Golden Gate. I was told it had to wait for low tide to clear.
Maybe it was the SF connection so many years ago now that make us kindred spirits today. At least you got into a CSU after military service. I went the community college route as no one but a cc would take a high school dropout with a service GED. Thankfully, it was the perfect route for me as I literally fell in love with community colleges and spent the rest of my life working in them as a professor once studying and books kicked in as my modus operandi several years into my academic career -- mostly, by the way, at SF State.
I missed the Hiyakawa presidency having moved to Pullman just before the shut down of SF State during the 68-69 school year. However, the 67-68 school year had plenty of exciting moments too with the president leading anti-war marches up Market Street and radical students taking over the administration building more than once. It was quite the education.
Well, now, we have another political demonstration by POTUS. Disgusting. I'll leave my remarks at your next posting, which I'm sure you're working on right now.
eprof2:
Actually, my first two years of school were at a junior college. In thinking back, it was my most pleasant and balanced college experience (socially vs. academically). Fresno State I should have withdrawn from, but was having too much fun. CSUH was more the other extreme, i.e., I had to apply myself, knowing I was on probation.
But as a result of your comments here, Sam (the dog) and I took an early 4th of July ride to include a stopover at the campus of El Paso's Community College's Transmountain campus. Nice!
I always thought teaching at a JC or CC would be about the *best* teaching job. (Sounds like you would agree.) I envy you that.
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