Housing opportunities are blooming across California with dramatic price reductions and new, well-designed loan programs, including the return of the familiar and trusted FHA loan program.

One particular loan program is designed for certain communities with characteristics that make them a standout for some homebuyers.

Fillmore, West Ventura, some pockets of Oxnard and Santa Paula are eligible for loan programs that will put people into homes after they have demonstrated the willingness and the ability to make the payments — kind of like the good old days where people were prepared to buy homes and capable of keeping them.

An over-looked and often under-esteemed home product is the manufactured home, located in either a park or in a residential neighborhood.

The traditional perception of a mobilehome is "a structure transportable in one or more sections, designed and equipped to contain not more than two dwelling units to be used with or without a foundation system."

This definition excludes recreational vehicles, commercial coaches, and factory-built housing.

The term "mobilehome" also includes a "manufactured home" which means "a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight body feet or more in width, or 40 body feet or more in length, or, when erected on site, is 320 or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities."

It includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning and electrical systems contained therein; except that such term shall include any structure which meets all the requirements of this paragraph except the size requirements and with respect to which the manufacturer voluntarily files a certification and complies with the standards established under this part.

The terms mobile home and manufactured home are, therefore, used interchangeably, however mobile home is becoming outdated.

A mobilehome or manufactured home is not the same thing as "factory-built housing." Factory-built housing means "a residential building, dwelling unit, or an individual dwelling room or combination of rooms thereof, or building component, assembly, or system manufactured in such a manner that all concealed parts or processes of manufacture cannot be inspected before installation at the building site without disassembly, damage, or destruction of the part that is either wholly manufactured or is in substantial part manufactured at an off-site location to be wholly or partially assembled on-site."

A mobilehome can be personal property or real property. Generally, it is personal property unless it has been converted into real property by complying with the regulations regarding placement upon a foundation. This qualifies it for unique financing programs.

If we really value home ownership, we need to value all types of clean and safe places where people can live.

We also need to consider the wisdom of excluding these houses from some neighborhoods with more distinctive personalities.

That will ring some bells in Planning Departments and neighborhoods with particular views of status and entitlement.

(Kay Wilson-Bolton is the owner of Century 21 Buena Vista and Century 21 Ability. She brings a regional perspective to local issues. She can be reached at 340-5025. On the Web, visit www.readysetkay.com.)