On Real Estate

Tuesday, September 26, 2000

Manufactured-home parks add space

Misty Winds doubled its capacity this month with room for 311 more units

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Keri Zach (left), assistant manager of Misty Winds, a local manufactured-home park, Jan Patterson, community director, and Art Trevino, maintenance supervisor, stand on the front porch of the park's future offices. The park recently opened 44 additional acres of space for manufactured homes.

Since one out of every three Texas homes sold is a manufactured home, the places where their owners can live has tightened.
   Now developers are investing in expanding existing parks to accommodate the demand.
   Last year, Heritage West in Calallen opened a gated community for manufactured homes with 350 spaces. This month, Misty Winds welcomed its first residents to a 44-acre expansion that will more than double the amount of space available.
   No wonder, since Misty Winds has been at capacity for the past two and a half years.
   The additional space will add 311 new home sites to the 357 already at 5902 Ayers St. The additional space will also include a community center where as many as 100 people can meet for a party or a meeting, and a business center with computers and a fax machine. The additional space will give more room for the development's third pool and a playground.
   Manufactured housing addresses a need in Corpus Christi among people who are tired of renting, but can't afford the price of available homes for sale, said Jan Patterson, community director at Misty Winds. Residents there work at grocery stores and hospitals; they are in the military or work at the refineries; they teach or are retired.
   The manufactured housing market has grown significantly in the past few years, said Gordon Anderson of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which has a branch that oversees the manufacture of this type of housing. He attributes it to an improvement in housing standards that have made them more sturdy and house-like.
   The housing has seen growth particularly in cities where the median price of a home has outpaced what people can pay, Anderson said. The median price of a house in Corpus Christi in August was $86,100. Suitable manufactured homes are available for $35,000 to $75,000.
   "These are extremely affordable houses," Patterson said. "Corpus Christi is not well known for its pay scale."
   Misty Winds, owned by Dallas-based CWS Communities Trust, started out in 1984 with land-leased spaces for 130 manufactured homes. Patterson said she expects the expansion to fill up in three years.
   New firm
   Cristina Lara and Dalia "Dee Dee" Cortez recently opened Star Realtors Realty LLC at 11014 Leopard St. in Annaville.
   Lara, a former custom home builder from Houston, worked with Cortez at a Laredo real estate company. Cortez has been a real estate agent in Corpus Christi for five years. Lara recently moved here to open the company.
   They said they chose Corpus Christi because they saw a need for real estate agents with Spanish language skills, Lara said.
   "We feel there's a need for bilingual agents," she said. "I'm seeing that already."
   The number for Star Realtors Realty is 242-0550.
  

---

Business writer Andrea Jares can be reached at 886-3678 or by email at jaresa@caller.com. On Real Estate is published every other Tuesday in the Business section.

| Stock look up | Business Calendar | Talk about this story | Home |

---

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

---

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

---

  © 2000, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.