July 22, 2024

Kamala Harris used the phrase “retiring with dignity” in a speech to her supporters on July 22, 2024—the day after Joe Biden stepped aside from his candidacy. Retiring with dignity. It’s a lovely phrase, one of those political bromides that rolls off the tongue of politicians and their pundits, but, in practice, has all the staying power of a sandcastle in a hurricane. Regardless of the political party, it will always turn out the same!

What does Retiring With Dignity actually mean?

The Dream vs. The Reality

Once upon a time, when I was young and full of ideals (and had hair), I swore I’d never retire to a trailer park, and certainly not in Florida. It seemed back then like the very antithesis of dignity. I mean, seriously! Living in a trailer park! How low can you go?

Well, fast-forward a few decades, and here I am—living in a 55+ mobile home community on Florida’s east coast, in a modular home that is more expensive than some, but cheaper than many. We bought it cheap, put $90,000 into it, and now we’re stuck here!

The Price of “Dignity” is paying a mortgage and rent at the same time…

Aberdeen at Ormond Beach, FL

We live in a community called Aberdeen in Ormond Beach. It’s nice, it’s comfortable, and like all mobile/modular home communities, it comes with a catch: LOT RENT. You don’t park your manufactured home here, it’s here when you arrive. You purchase it, and you pay a monthly rent on top of mortgage and all other expenses.

Example for 2025 @ Aberdeen: $1000 / monthly lot rent + mortgage payment + utilities + avg maint cost+HO Ins = $2600/month. This does not include Cable TV, your car, food, insurances, medical exps, entertainment, meals out, travel, etc. (What size is your pension?) You’re looking at $4000/month, per couple.

Why is it like this?

When you buy a home here, you own the structure but not the land it sits on. That land belongs to the community property owner, and you rent it from them. In our case it is North Western Mutual Real Estate, managed by Murex Properties. They own dozens (maybe hundreds) of these, all designed to secure as much of your retirement money as possible!

At the time of this writing, our particular plot of dirt and grass costs us nearly $1,000 per month, and it increases at an average rate of 5% + per year. The rent also includes our share of the property taxes. Current rates start at $1,150 per month or more with the same 5% or more, year over year increase.

Trailer Estates – Bradenton, FL. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

In Aberdeen, (image above), you have the pleasure of living ten to fifteen feet apart from you neighbors, but many places are not nearly as spacious and well cared for, such as these Trailer Estates in Bradenton, FL. There are many more like this even here in our local community, jammed together for greater profit.

…

As it turns out, trailer parks are exactly what I imagined. An atrocity of living, but a necessity of the times in which we live. Most people simply have to make the best of it.

The Villages

The Villages: Another example—Florida’s golf-cart-riding, pickleball-playing, retiree wonderland—offers manufactured, modular, and standard homes in the area of $100,000 to well over a million dollars. Not exactly pocket change, but it’s comfortable living. The question is, can you afford it? (Other offerings of The Villages.)

“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!”

In the Aberdeen community, on the other hand, the homes range from about $60,000 – $190,000. Much cheaper, but with a catch!

So, let’s say, like us, you don’t like it here and you want to leave. Can you move your home to another location whenever you wish? NO! It’s not permitted! But, you can sell it and move!

That is the tricky part! To leave, you have to sell your home. and if it is destroyed by fire or natural disaster, you have to replace it! You cannot leave an empty lot.

You must continue to pay rent on the lot until another occupant takes your place, and the contract is no assumable. The new tenant will begin residency at the current rental rate. So it’s either sell, or stay.

Consequently, you could be stuck with it, or worse, you may essentially have to “give it away” if you want to move.

As of today’s date (Feb 20, 2025) we have many neighbors whose homes are now on the market for more than a year. They are gone, but they (or their families) are still liable for the rent.

An “Undignified” Trap?

Buying a manufactured home and the land to put it on can be nearly the cost of a regular home. The only real advantage? Well, there is no real advantage. The alternative, you simply need a place to live until you die, so you are forced to by a used or new manufactured home in one of these “Corporately Owned Rental Farms,” like ours, or one of the thousands of others.

Consequently, for many retirees, what was sold as an affordably dignified retirement plan, becomes an undignified financial trap; i.e., you die, your family is stuck with selling and paying rent until they do. Is your family ready to take on another $1200 payment until they can sell your property?

Large corporations buying the land make it impossible for you to purchase individual lots, so you have to RENT from them where, during and after your mortgage is paid, you endlessly feed the corporations.

One final point:

It is implied that you pay the rent, and the grounds are taken care of by the property owner. Well, yes, but not exactly true!

If there are drainage issues, water pipes break, sprinklers quit working, grass is dying and overrun with weeds, insects or other blights, electrical issues, sewage problems: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL UPKEEP AND REPAIRS. In other words, THEY CUT THE GRASS. Your home and anything connected to it, is yours.

Each year tens of millions more are retiring, and the peak Baby Boomer retirement is yet to come. Corporate America is working diligently to ensure that they get as much of your retirement money as possible. Consequently, many of those new retirees who were unable to save enough will find very little dignity in retiring.

In fact, according to AARP and other sources, your future will not be very bright unless you plan early. So if you have passed your 30th birthday and haven’t started planning, you’re already late.

Retiring With Dignity isn’t a promise. It’s not even a dream. It’s nothing other than a possibility, and in today’s economy it’s an elusive one.