NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane victims who can’t wait to get out of their Uncle Sam-sponsored tiny trailer, or even a comparatively spacious mobile home, might be perplexed by the latest offer of bureaucratic largesse:

Maybe they’d like to keep it.

The prices are rock-bottom: a mere $650 for a slightly used travel trailer valued new at $13,000. And just $13,000 for the mobile home that cost the government $30,000. (“As is, with no stated or implied warranties,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency says.)

In a clear milestone in the Gulf Coast’s recovery struggle, FEMA officials signaled this week that they’d rather sell flood victims their trailers than spend millions more coming to retrieve them.

Though their offer represents an eye-popping depreciation for trailers – by far the most common form of emergency housing that FEMA bought in the wake of the 2005 hurricanes – the trade-off still represents a bargain for the agency.

That’s because it won’t be further saddled with the costs of maintaining or hauling off trailers it can unload.

Indeed, the $13,000 purchase price represents just a fraction of the cost FEMA bears. Last year, FEMA estimated the total cost of delivery, maintenance, installation, cleaning and disposal of trailers at about $60,000 each. The larger mobile home cost the agency a total of nearly $77,000 for an 18-month “life cycle,” officials said.

Saving money isn’t the top consideration, however, said Sidney Melton, a ranking FEMA administrator in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“I’m not sure how much they’re looking to save,” he said during an Algiers press briefing. “They’re offering an opportunity for somebody who wants to get out from under the umbrella of FEMA.”

The agency is mailing out “notice of interest” forms that residents can fill out and return, expecting contact soon from a sales manager.

Those still living in one of the units can remain – without buying, without paying rent – until March 2008, when they will face escalating charges starting at $50 a month. The charges will increase gradually to $600 a month by March 2009, when use of the FEMA-owned units is scheduled to end.

Coming on the heels of a Florida buyout program set up for storm victims there, the new buyout program covers FEMA trailers and mobile homes stretching from Texas to Alabama, delivered in many cases after painfully long waits following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The potential sales market is huge: In Louisiana alone, more than 49,000 families continue to live in trailers and mobile homes that FEMA provided.

But officials stressed the sales offer is open only to people who currently live in the units, not to entrepreneurs wanting to buy up and resell them and not to those found to have abandoned their units.

And potential buyers must keep in mind regulatory issues: Many local governments are already trying to weed out FEMA trailers and typically restrict permanent sites for mobile homes.

Buyers must obtain local permits for use of the units, if required, and provide copies to FEMA. And in the case of mobile homes, the buyer must comply with floodplain management codes and buy flood insurance if in a flood hazard area.