39.0°

"Why don't you go back to your trailer and fry something?" one of her friends tells her.

Enge, a writing tutor at the University of Alaska Southeast, defends her home with pride.

"I live in the gated community of Switzer Village," says Enge, who bought a 30-year-old mobile home at Switzer Village for $30,000 in December.

Before moving to Juneau in September to be closer to her daughters, Enge lived in a three-bedroom house in a middle-class neighborhood in Petersburg.

In a town where the average sales price for a single-family home is $310,000, it costs only about $48,000 to buy a mobile home and an average of $400 a month for the mobile-home-park dues. The fee covers water and sewer.

Mobile homes' relative affordability and Switzer Village's central location have attracted teachers, Mexican immigrants, retirees and young families to live in the 300 mobile homes. Every evening, Tlingit, Mexican, Caucasian and Filipino children play together in the playground.

"We have a little bit of everything," said Robert Scott, who built the mobile home park with Charlie Schneider 32 years ago. Scott said they built Switzer Village because they saw a shortage of mobile home parks in Juneau.

"The vacancy rate has been low since we opened it," Scott says. "The mobile homes fill up very fast."

Scott and Schneider did find a niche in the market. Demand for mobile homes has been steady. In 2004, the vacancy rate of mobile homes was 1.66 percent in Juneau.

Many young families live in Switzer Village to save money to buy a house one day.

Before moving to Switzer Village, Lorena and Tom Johnson rented a two-bedroom apartment for $1,100 a month. They bought a three-bedroom mobile home a year ago because they were tired of renting and wanted to own a place of their own.

"It's a place to get started," said Lorena Johnson, who runs a day-care business at her mobile home on Daisy Street. "It's our steppingstone."

The Johnsons plan to buy a house in Washington state, where Tom grew up and the housing costs are much cheaper.

Marina Austin has lived in her mother's mobile home on Hummingbird Street with her mother and two sons since 1991. She said she doesn't like living at Switzer Village.

"It's stressful to live here," Austin said. "People come and go a lot. You can hear people yell and play loud music."

Austin, who used to work in canneries in Ketchikan, Sitka, Taku and Petersburg, said she wants to move to a real house in a better neighborhood.

"Paying $400 a month for the space is still too expensive," Austin said.

While many families plan to live at Switzer Village only temporarily, others find it the best option and aren't going anywhere.

"It's very comfortable," Enge, 56, said. "I have a little yard. I can do a little gardening but it's not overwhelming. I have a sewing room and an extra bedroom. It is so much more flexible than a tiny apartment."