Why Young Full-time RVers Love The Lifestyle

Senior citizens still comprise the majority of RVers, but the times are changing. According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry of America, RV owners aged 35-to-54 make up the fastest growing segment of the entire marketplace. These buyers aren’t just taking vacations in them either. Many of them are young full-time RVers who can travel on a whim and take their job wherever they please.

Young full-time RVers like Ching and Jerud, hit the road two years ago and never looked back. The couple were also the subject of a recent RV Life article, Winter RVing Can Be Fun (If You Do it Right

Three Reasons Why You’re Probably Parked Next to Young Full-time RVers

The Great American Road Trip has always been a fascination. But until recently, the classic epic journey remained the exclusive domain of the rich, the retired or misfits with nothing left to lose. This is no longer the case. Today, the vagabond life is for everyone from young full-time RVers and families to solos, working or not.

Do it while you’re young!” cheer their supportive friends and family members. “Are you nuts?!” scold those who don’t understand the insatiable sense of wanderlust younger RVers possess. As more working people decide that home ownership and suburbia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, they’re peering beyond the white picket fence for a more satisfying existence. Here are three reasons why each year more fall in love with full-time RVing.

Today’s U.S. financial institutions have stricter guidelines when it comes to approving home loans.

Banks are Tougher About Home Loans

Millenials came of age in the last recession, when banks pulled back on granting home loans by tightening lending standards. “Today’s lenders are simply not originating loans for borrowers with less than perfect credit,” says a 2015 Urban Institute Report. Instead of leaping into this milestone of adulthood from years gone by, most can’t buy a home even if they wanted to.

“. . . this Jan will be my first as a fulltimer! No more crazy rent prices for sub-par apartments!” says iRV2 member JBurg in response to a popular RV forum topic, “Late 20’s to early 40’s full timers?”

RV Manufacturers Respond to Younger RVers

RVs are selling faster than ever according to CNBC News. RV manufacturers know who’s buying and are responding in droves. Thor Industries is one of the most responsive manufacturers to younger RVers. In the last couple of years Thor has created features like smart phone enabled house systems and built-in computer work stations. “Younger buyers these days are looking for technology integrated into the RV experience,” Thor Industries CEO Bob Martin told CNBC.

Kerensa Durr & Brandon Hatcher have been full-timing for three years and operate their website www.drivedivedevour.com from the road.

Portable Internet Takes Work Anywhere

Internet technology lets people carry the Internet in their pockets, but according to Time Magazine, it also means they’re checking in on their jobs even when they’re supposed to be relaxing on vacation. An entire segment of working-age RVers aren’t playing that game. Many echo what computer developer Kyle Ries said in a RV Life interview about working remotely:

“My fiancée and I both have the travel bug and knew the traditional 15 PTO (paid time off) days for most businesses wouldn’t satisfy our travel appetite.”

Instead of looking for another job, he began to earn a RV living with TeamSnap, a software company rated by Outside Magazine as one of the 100 Best Places to Work for two years in a row. As long as he gets the job done, his boss doesn’t care where he lives. Co-founder Andrew Berkowitz shares the same thoughts about remote workers that many of today’s business owners have. “We can hire the best people no matter where they are,” he explains.

Younger RVers run the gamut, from solos in their 20s to empty-nest couples just into their late 40s. Although many non-full-time RVers don’t see a positive side to the housing crisis and technology’s impact on jobs, these extraordinary travelers clearly see the changes in another way and embracing every minute of it.

Rene Agredano

Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.