Gimme Shelter: FEMA Trailers Auctioned at Fire-Sale Prices

Planned sales raises ire of mobile home dealers

To update a story we brought you last month, the trailers purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as temporary housing for Gulf Coast victims of the storm-ravaged fall of 2005 are set to be sold at auction. The Associated Press is reporting that thousands of trailers intended to house victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita are now being sold at "fire sale" prices because of a glut of such trailers that is a result of the government purchasing too many in the immediate aftermath of these storms in 2005.

The AP story notes that this sale is emblematic in the minds of some, who see the need for such a sale as yet another example of the government's "botched" response to the devastation of the storms. Many of these trailers up for sale were left in the open, exposed to elements and not maintained - meaning units purchased for a bulk rate of $19,000 each are receiving bids ranging between $5,000 and $12,000.

These discounts have mobile home sellers worried. "Mobile home dealers are finding that some potential customers would rather wait to make a deal on a used FEMA trailer than drop $25,000 to $40,000 for a brand-new one," the AP reports.

At first it looked like 69 trailers would be put up for sale. Now it looks like that number has grown to several hundred or more. See these auctions at the General Services Administration's website.

(Pictured: 2005 Skyline Layton Trailer up for auction by the GSA)