Upwardly 'mobile': as housing prices soar, a new generation of manufactured homes is...

To understand just how hot demand for housing--all housing--is now in Florida, consider the market for manufactured housing. In 2002, Ken and Joann Bowers, retirees from Ohio, paid $76,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath home in Blue Heron Pines, a manufactured home community in Punta Gorda that caters to residents over 55. Blue Heron boasts an 18-hole golf course, heated pool, clubhouse, shuffleboard courts and five private lakes. Joann says the Bowers felt they were "getting a lot for our money."

Even in communities with better amenities, however, manufactured homes trad