The city of Sequim, Washington wants to penalize new home buyers that can’t afford the big luxury homes currently being built in the city. If you want to retire in Sequim and want a new home delivered and set in one of the manufactured home communities located there, you will pay an exorbitant impact fee compared to the fee imposed on a much larger site built home.
The city’s basic fee for the new mobile home is established
by state law at $250. But then there are the other fees, including a “general
facility sewer” fee of $8,050, a “general facility water” fee of $6,100, a
“park impact fee” of $2,210 and and a “transportation impact fee” of $1,178.
Add those up, toss in the smaller permit fees, and the total comes to $20,357
for a 1,512-square-foot modular home, plus a 434-square-foot garage.
The city’s fees for so-called stick built homes are slightly
higher because they’re based in small measure on the cost of the construction.
For example, a single family home now under construction on
Morgison Loop, which is located off
Sequim Bay Road
Farm. The 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath home, has 1,863 square feet of living space and a
576-square-foot garage.
The city fees on the home, which is valued in the permit application
at $248,450, are $22,983.
The real problem here is that a manufactured home is going
to pay about a 20% impact fee while the site built home’s fee is 9%.
Appraisers cannot bury that 20% fee into the appraisal so
the manufactured home community has just about stopped selling new homes.
I realize that this has no real impact on a true modular or prefab home but it is so unfair to someone that can only afford one of the manufactured homes and to the community owner that has put all their money into developing the park.
