Very interesting video. This reminds me so much of the economy over the years in Oklahoma City before we diversified away from an oil dependent economy. We had an oil bust in the mid 80s and it took most of fifteen years to get back. A few years ago, oil prices went up well north of a hundred bucks a barrel and we were rolling in the dough and then it fell into the twenties. That roller coaster took us from unemployment of 4% to up to 6.4% in Oklahoma City but we quickly recovered and now it is less than four and reliably stays there. We learned our lesson two or three times and spent twenty years expanding corporate HQs, aviation, tech and so on and now the oil business is still very important but not a killer to us when it goes south.
That is much easier to do in an MSA this size (1,400,000) than a smaller area like Elkhart. I wish them luck. Been there and experienced that boom bust fear.
With low interest rates and 10,000 Baby Boomers arriving daily no wonder RV demand is so high. Campgrounds we used to just drive to and get our favorite site now require real planning and reservations and that includes the state parks and COE lakes and streams. In high demand season, we just enjoy our home and air conditioning and consider that flexibility to be the true prize of retirement.
Reading several RV forums and looking at the production/sales graph in the video gives me a really valid explanation of why so many buyers seem to have so many problems with new rigs compared to a few years ago when manufacturers were hanging on and just keeping their best employees and turning out a lot fewer rigs. It seems supply and demand always have control of quality.
Paul
