Depending on how one set of parents' next few months go, we may see them facing a housing crisis. At that point, my husband and I are the family members with the means to step in and help. We'd want to do that, but we're starting to talk over a couple of options.
One is to buy a newer trailer than the one we moved out of in the spring (it's falling down and is unsafe) and have that pulled in to our land, using the existing water, septic, and power hookups. The current trailer would have to be removed, and that's probably going to mean a tear down. It won't stay intact if it's towed. The removal is something we have to do eventually, anyway, but we wouldn't have to do it on any particular timetable absent the inlaws. At a guess, all this would cost $15-20K all in, and it would have the advantage of having them right here on the property if they begin to need care that we can provide. On the downside, we probably won't want to rent a trailer on our property to someone else when the inevitable time comes, so it would all be sunk cost, and later we'd remove that trailer, too.
The other option is to buy a house in town for them. "Town" is about eight miles away, and while houses there can be had for $10K, we'd be looking at $25-35K for one I'd be willing to move elderly relatives into. The upside is that someday it could be a rental; we'd been thinking of buying rentals in town anyway. The downside is increased cost and increased distance if they need us to be caregivers in a few years.
In either scenario, they would insist on paying some rent, and we'd charge something fairly nominal. But there would be something coming in to help offset expenses.
I'm leaving out the most emotional considerations here and trying to think through the logistics. Given that we would choose to help in this way if it's needed, which of the two options seems to be the best financial choice? Let's assume we would probably be able to rent out the house at a profit later on; that's the case now, though of course the future is unpredictable.