Costs of things

This "cost" thing really depends on how you use your RV. To some it's a few weekends a year and for that the cost of the RV amortized over the time you use it is pretty high. But the reward could be priceless. On the other end of the spectrum there are those who full time and for those people the cost amortized over use is pretty low. And depending on what sort of RV you have vs the kind of house you might own it could be a much better deal in an RV. It also depends a lot on where you go, how much you drive, where you stay etc. Too many variables to generalize RV'ing to be classified loosely as cost effective or not. There is an opposing scenario for every one you can mention to try and prove your perspective. Everything costs money. Houses, cars, vacations, RV's, boats etc. Pick your poison. Live within your means and do what makes you happy. When we first started Rv'ing we bought a class A. Our son was still young then and we enjoyed trips immensely despite knowing it cost us a lot of money and we used it less than we wanted. Fast forward, our son is about to graduate and we've always talked of touring the US so we are considering selling the house and full timing. Two very different scenarios and budgets and I would argue that living full time in an RV will be much less expensive than the beach house we live in now - all things considered.

Most people tout houses as a good investment, but are they? We sold our house in MD a few years ago. We lived in it for 12 years. We sold for $100k more than we built it for and thus made $100k profit . Or did we? When you account for taxes, improvements, interest etc, turns out we didn't make any money at all. Never mind the cost of utilities and everything involved into running a household. Cost of ownership for a house can often exceed the equity gained. Heck, you'd be better off renting in a lot cases. Everything is relative. RV's are no exception.