So who will be new in the class of 2015/16

[John_Joey]

If you don't mind posting, who will be in the freshman class of 2015/16 on this forum?

With so many baby boomers coming to retirement age I would think it would be a large class. But, from what I see in the RV parks that doesn't seem to be the case in real life.

IMHO, RV snow birding takes a certain amount of effort (maybe even hardship.) The prior generation was OK with it, but not so much with the boomers is my sense.

[Sqdancecaller]

We are newbies who are going to be spending our first winter as snowbirds in Florida. It has taken us 3 yrs since retirement to take the plunge but we are doing it this year. We will be in our Class C RV for 3 months and so looking forward to it. We will be shoveling sand while everyone here will probably be shoveling snow! We are doing the RV thing for the simple reason it is more like home for us and the dog. Love traveling in it and seeing the country without having to stay in hotels.

[Community Alumni]

We're three months out from pulling the career plug and hitting the road. We need to get some skiing in first, then will roam around Florida for a few weeks, the back home for spring skiing.

Our view is we have wheels on our trailer for a reason. We get itchy feet after not moving for a week. 🙂

[rolling_rhoda]

Count me in! Looking forward to being a Winter Texan. I had planned to leave a few weeks ago and spend a month sightseeing while heading south. Maybe next week. After years of daydreaming and researching, I'm itching to get going. Our friends still have 10-15 more years to work before retiring. We are more likely to spend a week or two in one place than a few months.

[Heff560]

We will be new snowbirds this year. Have been planning for years and will be headed to the RGV area of Texas. We bought a 5th wheel a few years ago and are looking forward to being away from the cold Wisconsin winter. My bride of over 30 years and I are in our mid 50s and retired this year. Let the adventure begin......

[empty_nest]

We're not quite there....... yet. Another couple years. We bought our fiver with snowbirding in mind. We've never been diehard campers before, but since purchasing our unit 5 years ago, we love it and we wanted the flexibility of being able to go wherever we wanted. Want to try different places until we find what really suits us.

[almcc]

An interesting topic!

A couple of retiree friends who are not RVers rent places for a couple of months in Florida, they pay less than what I pay in fees for our higher end RV resort and they don't have the costs associated with owning and maintaining an RV. We enjoy the freedom associated with and RV but it would seem that renting or buying may be a better choice from a $$ perspective.

I've also noted that in the resort community close to us (double wides and purpose built homes) there are lots of sales resulting from older folks selling out or passing away, it's a buyers market, lots of good deals.

[summerhouse]

All of our newly retired friends are either renting a place or two for the winter months or buying a second home down south. I believe we are the only RVers in our circle of friends, neighbor's, co-workers. I'm not ready to be tied to just one place to go to. Not yet anyway. I can definitely seeing us doing it too in 6-7 more years

[Parrothead_Mike]

A younger fellow I golf with here in Michigan just retired this past spring and will be renting a condo near Lakeland which is in the same development as his parents. He's thinking of buying a place in FL. He's never been an RVer.

In fact, several fellows I golf with, some in their late 60s, some younger, seem to gravitate toward renting or buying a doublewide or condo. I think unless they're into the traveling RV lifestyle, whether it be as a weekend camper or into longer family trips, renting gives them some financial flexibility.

There are always doublewides, mobile homes, or condos for sale in snow bird areas. Some for very reasonable prices. In fact, last winter while in FL we were toying with the idea of trading our '01 Cardinal 5ver for something 2-3 years old. We didn't find what we were looking for, but I had this thought that purchasing a $50K +/- RV might not be as great an idea as I had once thought. Looking around Ocala, FL real estate booklets I found some reasonable condos/doublewides/mobile homes. Maybe that would be a better investment?

We traded for a new RV because we like to travel with our own bed. Our idea of flexibility won out. We're in our mid-60s, maybe in 5-10+ years our preferences may change.

[Bowti]

Most of our friends are renting a place and using it as a home base to travel out from. They are looking at it, as being a cheaper way to go, other than the expense of a large enough RV to feel comfortable in. They also have no up keep to worry about.

They always seem to find nice inexpensive places to rent.