RV Sales Are Heating Up And Millennials Are To Thank
by Ken Gibson
Forget every stereotype you know about people who own mobile homes. Their new owners are young, just starting families, and obsessed with how they appear through their smartphone's cameras. They're Millennials.
The 500,000 mark for RV shipments was broken for the first time last year, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association - which may have come as a shock to investors, since the motorhome sector took a huge hit during the Great Recession. RV shipments decreased by more than 50%, from 353,400 in 2007 to 165,700 in 2009.
So how come Millennials are saving the day? One reason is that RVs are a cheaper way of going on vacation with your family, in comparison to renting a hotel room or cabin. Plus, with an RV, you can decide you're going away for the weekend without having to worry, since you know you'll have a place to stay. After growing up during the Great Recession, Millennials are a bit more worried about money, and investing in an RV makes sense for them because they want to ensure that theyíll be able to vacation with their family for years to come.
Another reason that the RV lifestyle makes sense for Millennials is that work life is becoming much more mobile. Traditionally speaking, for the Baby Boomers generation, professional life was centered around one place: the office. Nowadays, though, a rising number of people are working from home, coffeeshops, or wherever they can find WiFi. Mobile millennials are adopting the RV lifestyle because, when you work from home in an RV, you never get sick of the scenery. You'd just drive someplace else.
This growing demographic of RV owners is very good news for the industry - not only are they contributing to record sales today, Millennials are going to be buying new motorhomes in the future, spending money on repairs and other services, and on top of that they'll be spreading the RV lifestyle further. If there's anything that Millennials are good at, after all, it is making their own lives into advertisements.
For when they aren't using their RVs, there is something that Millennials can do with them to make extra money: RV sharing. A few companies have created apps to facilitate this (basically Airbnb for RVs) which let motorhome owners rent their RVs out for small chunks of time. Using one of these apps is a great way for people who are interested in buying an RV to test one out.
The RV space today is a perfect picture of two generations who are completing a full circle: retiring Baby Boomers parking side-by-side with Millennials just starting their careers.
Image Source: KOA
Source: Jeff Kurowski; Economic Census Reveals Full Impact of Great Recession on RV Industry