$5,100 A Month For A Trailer? Inside One Couple's California Dream

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — A California writer recently detailed for CNBC how she and her husband made their dream of living in Laguna Beach come true by purchasing a 940-square-foot trailer to the tune of about $5,100 per month.

“Deciding we wanted to stay in Laguna Beach wasn't hard — I mean, it's beautiful, sunny, laid back, and has a thriving art scene,” Jaclyn Westlake wrote for CNBC, noting the median home price is roughly $3 million in Laguna Beach and the median rent is more than $8,000. “But figuring out a long-term living situation in such a pricey area required us to get creative.”

The couple bought the beach-adjacent aluminum-sided trailer for $212,500 plus a $150,000 home equity loan for upgrades and furnishing, according to Westlake. Of their $5,148 in monthly housing expenses, about $3,424 goes to leasing the land on which the trailer sits, Westlake wrote.

“Living in a house on wheels doesn't exempt us from the typical homeowner headaches,” she wrote. “Since moving in, we've dealt with an ant infestation, tented for termites, and evicted a family of mice, and we're currently grappling with a gopher problem.

“But keeping our monthly housing costs low (for the area) makes tackling these issues less stressful.”

Read more from CNBC.