SacBee: Mobile homes often trade in a ‘gray market.’ Owners now have a chance to avoid back taxes.

Nearly 21,000 families in the four-county Sacramento region, and about a half-million across California, live in homes that are theoretically mobile. For many, buying a home that’s up on blocks is one of the last opportunities for single-family homeownership in a state with some of the highest housing costs in the nation. “If you can buy outright, it’s an affordable option,” said Michelle Hutson, who owns her double-wide mobile home in south Sacramento but rents the land beneath it for less than an apartment might cost. With such homeowners in mind, housing advocates and state officials are pushing a new program that waives back taxes and fees to ensure that mobile home owners really do own their homes and are able to maintain the value of what’s often their largest asset.