Mobile homes are usually mounted on grade-level wooden or concrete blocks, with the trailer wheels removed. They are typically skirted with vinyl or aluminum siding, or painted plywood sheathing. arizona mobile home community are sometimes installed on concrete block foundations, and it can be difficult to determine whether the foundations are mounted below the frost level, because the crawl spaces are normally back-filled to grade level. We've seen the odd mobile installed on a full-depth, finished basement.

LAURA SLATTERY

MORTGAGE DEFAULTS continued to increase in November. But the Government’s proposed extension to the moratorium on legal proceedings may undermine the ability of banks to source capital from mortgage-backed bond investors, according to the ratings agency Moody’s.

The data shows that among the prime lenders that have parcelled residential mortgages into mortgage-backed funds for the securities market, EBS has experienced the sharpest rise in its loan delinquency and default ratios.

By Yvonne Hogan

LARGE detached family homes in the capital have halved in value in the downturn.

Estate agents admit four- and five-bedroom detached properties in Dublin are now only fetching 50pc of their 2007 prices.

The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI), which represents auctioneers around the country, says that houses nationally are now worth 40pc less than at the peak.

BUSINESS OPINION: Unlike our island neighbours we seem to have lost our sense of outrage, writes JOHN McMANUS

IT’S A simple question: if the people of Iceland can apparently refuse to be made pick up the tab for the incompetence and greed of their banks and people who did business with them, why do we have to?

The Labour Party is to table a Private Members Motion in the Dáil calling for a 'comprehensive parliamentary inquiry' into the banking crisis.

Party leader Eamon Gilmore said the party would also next week publish a Bill designed to address what he called 'defects' in current legislation governing the powers of the Dáil and Seanad to conduct inquiries into important issues.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of people signing on rose again last month.

The seasonally adjusted Live Register figure rose by 3,300 in December to stand at 426,700 from November's total of 423,400. The figure had fallen in October for the first time since March 2007, but has now risen again in the past two months. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 12.5%.

During 2009, the number of men signing on increased by 45.4%, while the number of women rose by 47.5%.