Empty nesters Rose and Tony were forced to sell their ten-room home in Lowell, MA after their generosity created some financial difficulties. For a while they lived with their son. But for the long term, he didn’t have enough space for everyone. 

Their search for a place to live led them to a basement apartment. They enjoyed the place. They liked the family that they rented from, who lived upstairs. In fact, they think of them fondly — almost like nieces and nephews. But the place had a major downside. It was located across the street from a bark-mulching facility. 

Rose has a severe pine allergy and the dust from the mulching facility made her breathing difficult. As Rose put it, “It was a good relationship, but we had to get out of there.” So they started looking at manufactured homes.

Tony did a lot of research looking for places where they could buy a home. Because they are primarily on Social Security, traditional banks wouldn’t loan to them. They put in offers, but many homes sold before Tony and Rose’s offers were reviewed. This went on for over four years.

They found communities they liked, but couldn’t afford the HOA fees. The other challenge they faced was that the rents in many of the manufactured-home parks they looked at were very high. It began to look like they couldn't afford to move from where we were.

They were facing some tough choices. As Rose explained to us, “We were talking about Tony living with our oldest son and me living with our younger son, because neither of them had room for both of us...” They even feared they might end up homeless.