Just taking an informal Rv sales poll
Currently ... are recreational vehicles sales cooling off, heating up or leveling off? What do you think / What do you see ...
Forum Discussion
If you don't travel the interstates and drive through small towns like we do, it is easy to spot a new RV park on bare gravel.
Of course a lot of signs that say "No overnight stays" "Monthly RVs only" "No stay less than 30 days" "Two weeks minimum stay" are a hint.
Sitting outside Dallas today for our yearly round of doctors appts, I've seen fourteen new RV parks in the last two year between north Dallas, Gainesville, Bonham, Greenville rectangle. None of them are on the RVParky or AllStays app, and the park owners do not want to be listed.
I even saw two other parks last week, parks that have been in business at least ten years that I know of who have moved from normal RV parks to monthly only. Both of those are on RV Parky and AllStays. Stopped and talked to one owner. He said the long term market is just too good now. My Good Sam group has stopped camping at two other parks we have visited for years, because they no longer take less than monthly rentals.
Do you remember a thread a year or two ago by a guy whose friends were wanting to build such a park in the hills west of San Antonio? I think I found it last March. Up and running, near exactly as he described it on this forum.
Though there were about four new ones in that area about 100 miles square, so that one might not have been him. You told him over and over his economic model would not work. But he kept insisting it would. I bet he's got it up and running with 10-15 spaces to start.
Jobs are growing, but what kind of jobs. In Texas and the south jobs in construction, welders, small manufacturing are going to illegals. More jobs are being transitioned from employed by a company to being employed by a sub-contractor. That way the subcontractor is responsible for I-9/EVerify and not the manufacturing company. If ICE raids the place, many of the picked up illegal workers are back at work a couple days later. Working for a new subcontracting company under a new name.
Also, the jobs move from full-time with health and retirement contributions to about 2/3 to 3/4 old pay rates with no benefits.
Toyota new major office building in the DFW area is a huge story. Less than 20% of the 'new jobs' the company will bring to the area are new hires in the 60-100K range. Almost all the 'good jobs' are people being brought in. The vast majority of 'new jobs' for local people are under 35K per year pay.
But what is the most sought after new 'business' in Texas - Buc-ee's. It's a super gas station with all sorts of food products and souvenir type items. About 80-100 temp employees, 10-15 FTE at each new location. IMHO those type jobs don't build a strong economy and train people for a future of full employment. However, they do bring in a lot of sales taxes for the community they settle in. Not much school taxes though with a 10 or 15 year property tax abatement normal.
The 'poverty belt' has always been there. But what is occurring is that people who used to have the lower end jobs are being squeezed out of affordable housing. I'm just saying that I'm seeing many people who used to have to live in poor apartments moving to RVs. Which is helping drive RV sales. That is all.
Of course a lot of signs that say "No overnight stays" "Monthly RVs only" "No stay less than 30 days" "Two weeks minimum stay" are a hint.
Sitting outside Dallas today for our yearly round of doctors appts, I've seen fourteen new RV parks in the last two year between north Dallas, Gainesville, Bonham, Greenville rectangle. None of them are on the RVParky or AllStays app, and the park owners do not want to be listed.
I even saw two other parks last week, parks that have been in business at least ten years that I know of who have moved from normal RV parks to monthly only. Both of those are on RV Parky and AllStays. Stopped and talked to one owner. He said the long term market is just too good now. My Good Sam group has stopped camping at two other parks we have visited for years, because they no longer take less than monthly rentals.
Do you remember a thread a year or two ago by a guy whose friends were wanting to build such a park in the hills west of San Antonio? I think I found it last March. Up and running, near exactly as he described it on this forum.
Though there were about four new ones in that area about 100 miles square, so that one might not have been him. You told him over and over his economic model would not work. But he kept insisting it would. I bet he's got it up and running with 10-15 spaces to start.
Jobs are growing, but what kind of jobs. In Texas and the south jobs in construction, welders, small manufacturing are going to illegals. More jobs are being transitioned from employed by a company to being employed by a sub-contractor. That way the subcontractor is responsible for I-9/EVerify and not the manufacturing company. If ICE raids the place, many of the picked up illegal workers are back at work a couple days later. Working for a new subcontracting company under a new name.
Also, the jobs move from full-time with health and retirement contributions to about 2/3 to 3/4 old pay rates with no benefits.
Toyota new major office building in the DFW area is a huge story. Less than 20% of the 'new jobs' the company will bring to the area are new hires in the 60-100K range. Almost all the 'good jobs' are people being brought in. The vast majority of 'new jobs' for local people are under 35K per year pay.
But what is the most sought after new 'business' in Texas - Buc-ee's. It's a super gas station with all sorts of food products and souvenir type items. About 80-100 temp employees, 10-15 FTE at each new location. IMHO those type jobs don't build a strong economy and train people for a future of full employment. However, they do bring in a lot of sales taxes for the community they settle in. Not much school taxes though with a 10 or 15 year property tax abatement normal.
The 'poverty belt' has always been there. But what is occurring is that people who used to have the lower end jobs are being squeezed out of affordable housing. I'm just saying that I'm seeing many people who used to have to live in poor apartments moving to RVs. Which is helping drive RV sales. That is all.
