SIC 5271 Mobile Home Dealers

SIC 5271

This industry consists of establishments primarily engaged in the retail sale of new and used mobile homes and their parts and equipment. This classification excludes companies selling travel trailers or campers; these companies are discussed in SIC 5561: Recreational Vehicle Dealers.

NAICS CODE(S)

453930

Manufactured (Mobile) Home Dealers

Since the 1950s, the demand for mobile homes had increased approximately 2,700 percent, and by 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 8.8 million mobile homes. 2003 found approximately 8,785 establishments primarily engaged in the retail sale of new and used mobile homes and their parts and equipment. Mobile home dealers represented the largest sector with 8,260 establishments, or 94 percent of the overall market. Their combined annual sales were about $11.1 billion. Together, they employed some 45,534 people. Mobile offices and commercial units number 22 businesses, and generate $10.9 million.

As reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 1,449,754 new units manufactured from 1995 to March of 2000. Florida represented the highest number of mobile homes, with 849,000, Texas with 732,000, and North Carolina had 557,000. More than half of the mobile homes in the United States are located in the South, or 56.1 of the housing market. The Western states numbered 1.7 million mobile homes. Mobile homes in the South were about 11.6 percent of the housing structures, and mobile homes in the West made up 7.1 percent. The one state that contributed more than 20 percent of mobile homes to the housing structure was South Carolina. That was followed by New Mexico with 18.6 percent. Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and West Virginia shared about 15 percent. There were about eleven states that added up to more than one—quarter million mobile homes located in the United States.

The mobile home retail industry originated in the United States following World War II. The growth of suburbs coupled with increased demand for low-cost housing enabled mobile home dealerships to establish a foothold in the housing market. Sometimes referred to as "trailer homes," mobile homes became immediately popular because they allowed families to own homes at a relatively inexpensive price. Moving was also made easier by these "houses on wheels." As mobile home sales rose, mobile home parks, which leased plots of land to mobile home owners, began to offer more conveniences to their...

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