It’s no surprise that the listing for 247 Paradise Cove Road, a three-bedroom property currently on the market for $5.85 million, opens with a description of the views. “This open-concept home is located on one of Paradise Coves’ most desirable streets, offering stunning ocean views and ultraclose proximity to direct beach access,” the Zillow page reads. Of course, this makes sense given the home itself isn’t a mansion, a villa, or even an architectural gem—it’s a trailer.
Located within Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park, the Malibu house’s neighborhood is widely considered the priciest trailer park in the country. The home at 247 Paradise Cove Road is only one of many multimillion-dollar mobile and trailer homes listed or sold in the neighborhood within the past few years, and another property, 97 Paradise Cove Road, is also on the market for $3.9 million. Still, this wasn’t always the case. The area started as a humble residential area for fishermen and blue-collar workers in the 1950s—so how did it get so expensive?
The answer, according to The Wall Street Journal, is wealthy buyers. The most affluent of the country quickly saw the appeal of the bluff-side community—sweeping views, a built-in sense of privacy and seclusion, and direct access to a cove popular among surfers—and began moving in. Celebrity residents, people like Matthew McConaughey, Stevie Nicks, and Minnie Driver, also upped the enclave’s growing cachet. Soon, prices were skyrocketing. According to The Wall Street Journal, some longtime residents blame real estate brokers, who they say used these selling points to artificially increase the cost of the area, and the influx of wealth has ruined the park’s original appeal. Of course, it’s not the only time something like this has happened. A few years back, East Coast billionaires began flocking to a similar trailer park community in the Hamptons.
The neighborhood’s economic makeup has changed, but many things still remain the same. All houses on the land are required by law to be movable, meaning all are still trailers or mobile homes. However, though the residences technically satisfy these requirements, many of the newer trailers aren’t realistically mobile. “They just put the wheels underneath and call it a mobile home even though they would never be able to be moved,” Brian Merrick, an agent at Coldwell Banker Realty, told The Wall Street Journal. The homeowners also don’t own the land and are required to pay monthly rent to a local family, the Kissels, who have owned the park since the 1960s. Though the homes within the priciest trailer park are at the mercy of the market, the land is rent-controlled, and each parcel runs between $1,500–$4,000 per month.
Still, Malibu is no stranger to expensive real estate. The Case, a nearby community, will soon become the most expensive neighborhood in the country. Here, residents experience similar amenities—endless ocean views, bluff-side living, and serene privacy—only on a much larger, and even costlier, scale.
