Priced out of traditional housing, more Americans are living in RVs

www.nbcnews.com

As housing costs rise beyond what many families can afford, more people are looking for shelter outside the traditional housing market. About 486,000 people live full time in an RV, which appears to be more than twice as many as in 2021, according to survey data from the RV Industry Association. About a third have children, and a vast majority earn less than $75,000 a year. A separate survey by the Census Bureau found a similar trend: In 2023, the most recent data available, it estimated 342,000 people were living in an RV, boat or van, an increase of 41% from 2019.

It would be interesting to know what percentage consider their RV live voluntary vs involuntary (ie, no other option).

I planned my retirement this way, but I don't think I could afford traditional housing now even if I wanted to.

5 comments

The American dream
I'm living in a trailer voluntarily and have been for a bit over a year. I've met some people who are living in their vehicle/trailer/rv/tent because it was their last option, and while it was more than I expected when I left its a fairly small percentage. But I also try not to pry into people's lives out here so there's definitely the possibility I've met people who I'm assuming are living this way voluntarily when they are not. I'm also mostly staying in free dispersed camping areas wheres people have to move on after a few days/weeks so I don't have a lot of interaction with people in long term spaces
Funny to read as someone from a country where having a vehicle is far more expensive than having a place to live.
Anyway. I suppose if one can afford transportation (have a vehicle and can afford gasoline), then homesteading\buying a piece of land really far away from good places, making a basic living box on small foundation, with orgalite, polycarbonate and some heat isolation, and vinyl siding, a well (the hardest part) and a potbelly stove for heating, with lots of aspen around (really doesn't take effort to grow LOL) to have firewood, and a place to grow potatoes (maybe a greenhouse to grow something nicer), - can be more affordable than "normal" housing. While you are making the thing, you don't even have to live there.
I mean, OK, it's stupid.
- Unfortunately, it's common for U.S. municipalities to regulate how one lives on one's own property. Must have city water and electricity, for example. Can only camp on it for so long, etc. My family owns ~35 acres of rural property that I might try to build a tiny house on someday but I assume there will be much hoop-jumping, even outside a tiny town of ~600 people.
  
  Ah, yes. It sucks when such bottlenecks are legally enforced.
  I mean, in case of the USA it's a clear legacy of racism, not just zoning laws, but also laws made to make spontaneous (I don't mean squatting and undocumented slums by that, just populated areas growing more naturally) development hard. Also how trains are perceived, it seems, there.
  Say, if I can bear 2+hr long commute (would be like 1.2hr on the train, 0.8hr on the subway, and some waiting and walking in between) in case I need something in Moscow, buying a crumbling house in a literal village (with a train station nearby) is the cheapest thing (but not cheap) one can do. It's just - with such a property you need to think, because if you run out of firewood or diesel or whatever you use, you may literally freeze (or at least crush the pipes). You also need to fix stuff yourself. And you need to get to know your neighbors and be on good terms with them.