The RV Industry is Falling FAST!
The RV Industry went through the largest growth spurt in its history from 2020 to 2021. Most say that this was due to the Covid pandemic and people's desire to isolate.
In 2022, that growth spurt ended and the industry went into freefall.
Although March of 2022 looked like the upward swing was continuing, by August of 2022, sales & profits had dropped 46%! That downward spiral is expected to continue throughout 2023 and, by most estimates, well into 2024. This is a mixed good/bad news issue for the full-time RVer.
The Bad News - If you bought an RV in 2020 or 2021, you paid inflated prices for it. As anyone in the RV world knows, nothing depreciates faster than an RV. During this period, your "ROI" will quickly drop and, if you're considering selling now, you're going to probably take a huge loss. Even used RV's were being sold during 20-21 at greatly inflated prices! Sometimes twice what the actual NADA market value was! Unless you were dead serious about full-time RVing for the long term, you definitely won't be getting your money back.
The Good News - If you already were a full-timer before 2020, you'll be just fine if you've stuck with the rig you already had. Even if, like us, you bought a new rig in 2021 you're probably still fine. We have no plans to sell our home anytime soon.
Further good news is that the lack of availability of RV Sites in parks that we've all had to put up with over the last 2 years should ease considerably. Also, new RV prices should start dropping. I suspect that the RV manufacturers will be slow to allow their prices to go down but there should be price decreases coming.
My one hope, and I'm sure it's shared by many, is that these manufacturers will not allow their units to slip further in quality than they already have to try and make up for lessening sales.
For further information, check out our video below: