Given the same amount of care, upkeep, abuse, etc., what makes a house, that sits in a fixed location on a firm foundation, dependent on the quality of its surroundings always seem to appreciate while a house on wheels that can choose its surroundings at will, depreciate?

When you sell your stick house, you are selling dirt, too.

Dirt does not depreciate.

Dirt does not deteriorate.

They are not making any more dirt.

The term "location, location, location" addresses the value of the dirt, not the house.

The term "tear down" references the fact that a lot of property is bought for the value of the dirt, not the house.

It's even worse than that Mike....Motorhome depreciation must be contagious....Just plunk your home down in the middle of just about any RV campground and see what happens to its value!

Motorhome depreciation is something that surprises me too, although helps me since I'll be buying used... the value of new motorhomes drops off SO fast (even faster than new cars) I can't imagine ever buying one. Whereas 5th wheel trailers maintain their value much longer. But the market declares what something is worth, and I plan on taking full advantage of a highly-depreciated gently used motorhome.

quote:

Motorhome depreciation is something that surprises me

Doesn't surprise me. Since poverty has forced me to spend most of my life owning and maintaining elderly RVs, I am intimately acquainted with the cheap design and construction of RVs. Add incompetent or delayed maintenance to that mix, and they go downhill fast. Case in point being wood rot from roof leaks.

However, there is a trend in stick houses that does not bode well. With cheap labor available in abundant supply, stick houses are being built more sloppily every day. Here in CA, tract houses have been more poorly built evey year since the sixties. And inspectors seem to be blind or brain dead. I am appalled at some of the stuff that gets by. I sat and watched a house being built a while ago, and it was scary.

If my 2 cents worth is anything of interest, after 30+ years in the building trades I recommend a builder who builds between 10 and 40 houses a year. He knows what he's doing, he knows his prices, and he should have a handle on his subcontractors. The HUGE developers build hundreds of overpriced junk piles. My nephew bought a 2 story "mansion" for over 8 hundred and it fell apart in less than 5 years. Structural leaks leading to mold intrusion and plumbing that literally fell apart, but the builder was so well protected by "contract" that little can be done about it. Well now I'm just rattling on so I'll close.

I agree with Danny; I'm not in the trades, but I insured contractors for years and years. I also refused to insure many contractors due to being familiar with the crap they built.