Rory O’Neill, WOR National correspondent Interview

Mendte in the Morning talks to Rory O'Neill about what people are doing to house themselves with the prices of homes increasing at a rate too fast to keep up with.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, as you've probably heard, there's a housing crisis in
the country and interest rates have gone up too high.
There's not available, but there's not enough available houses those
that are available or just too darn expensive. But there
are alternatives and here to talk about that, as Rory
O'Neill wor National correspondent. So what are people doing these

(00:22):
days to find a place to live.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, they're actually in many ways turning to renting, which
when you run the numbers, might make more sense for you,
and that really depends where you are in life as well.
And we're also seeing a surge in the popularity of
manufactured homes. You might call them a trailer even but
between twenty fourteen and twenty twenty four the number of
new manufactured homes shipped across the US actually increased by

(00:48):
more than sixty six zero percent in that timeframe, as
more and more people think that either that's their entry
level home or it's their last home, as a lot
of these communities are fifty five and up.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, I've never heard the term manufactured homes because in
a way, all homes are manufactured in some way. What
are they specifically, are they really mobile homes or is
there a wider category.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, right, we say mobile homes, but they never move right,
so they're not really mobile. But what happens is, in
most cases you imagine a trailer park as you might
call it, that the homes don't. They're usually installed on property.
They're manufactured in its essence, though at one location, shipped
out to usually some sort of a trailer park or
manufactured home community, and then sort of made permanent there.

(01:38):
People like them because they're affordable. You essentially buy it
like you would a car, but you rent the property
that it sits on and what it has been, you know,
mom and pop places that have been these locations for years.
They can be a real deal. But what we're seeing
is big business. Those private equity firms. They're all starting
to sweep in now and buy up these properties and

(02:00):
jack up the rents that people are being forced to pay,
or the fees or you know, doing what those private
equity firms do. So while this is seen as a
much more attractive option for as I said, either that
entry level or that last home, even that now is
starting to feel a lot of the pricing pressure.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
And is that specifically the fact that they there's an
increase in these mobile homes and there's an increase in rentals.
Is that specifically related to the housing crisis.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yes, it is. And as part of this, people are
looking for alternatives, right, I mean, you can buy some
of these manufactured homes for fifteen twenty forty thousand dollars.
Some get really nice, by the way, and can top
over one hundred thousand dollars. But you know, they're seen
as a sensible alternative or maybe a way to enter

(02:49):
the housing market. And look, and that's a big issue
as to whether or not you're going to keep on
renting or buying. In some places, renting can make sense.
I'm looking at the New York, Jersey City, Pennsylvania area
for average rents right now, averaging about thirty two hundred
dollars a month, But your average mortgage payment in that
same area is just under five thousand dollars a month.

(03:12):
And yeah, I get it. That's investing in you though,
that's going to be long term. Maybe that works for you,
but trying to you know, when you're twenty five and
coming out and struggling, you know, rent seems to make
a whole lot more sense these days than buying.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Hey, real quick. I know there's another story you're covering,
and that's the air quality out there. Just if we
can cut that a chase. What's the best, what's the worst,
and how are we doing in the New York City area.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, most of the worst places are out west. A
lot of California cities are on the American Lung Association
of the worst. The New York Metropolitan area worked sixteenth
out of two hundred and twenty eight places. When it
comes to that smoggy ozone pollution, a lot of the
numbers went down because of the Canadian wildfires from twenty
twenty three kicked up a lot of stuff. We were
all breathing in. About half the country breeds bad air

(04:00):
sometime of the year.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Wow, we do pretty good at sixteen. That's not bad
at all. Thank you for thankfully.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, you'd rather be closer to that two twenty eight.
Number sixteen is bad. You don't want to be.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Oh, I thought sixteen was usually good. They flipped the
list on me. Thanks for the bad.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
News yet Steam as good of your the jets, But otherwise.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
We're Rory O'Neil wr National correspondent. Thanks a lot