"I was ashamed to tell people I lived in a mobile home,” says Craddock.  “I would avoid the topic at work.  Most people didn’t know I lived in a mobile home.”

How times have changed.  Now Craddock is the envy of almost all of her friends and neighbors.  And even some of those people who drive fancy cars.

As she hears stories of families losing their houses to foreclosure, she has managed to upgrade her home life.  She knocked down that old mobile home and she and her husband built their dream home.  And, not only that, they just finished construction on an in-law suite for her family.

She is one of the many mobile home owners who are driving the construction market, says All State Homes, a Tampa homebuilder.

“They saved on paying an expensive mortgage and they managed to sock away money and build equity in the property,” says Ivy Norwood of All State Homes.  “They’re the ones who have the money to build right now.  Mobile home owners are some of our biggest and best customers.”

Contrast what’s going on in rural Florida with the scene in subdivisions like Tampa Palms where it seems every third house is either for sale or at some stage of foreclosure.  You may still see the fancy cars revving about, but the drivers may be losing their homes.

 “For years the very people who pitied the mobile home owners are now envious of them,” says Norwood.

Norwood says, despite the downturn in the housing market, All State Homes has seen a steady stream of mobile home owners who are ‘movin on up’ by knocking down their single, double and triple-wide mobile homes and opting for new concrete block construction.

“It’s really amazing to watch,” says Norwood.  “There are some families who are even paying with cash!”

Contact:  Glenn Selig, ThePublicityAgency.com
Email:  glenn@thepublicityagency.com
Phone:  (813) 300-5454
Web site:  www.allstatehomes.com