Rising real estate prices are prompting record numbers of consumers to purchase cabin and cottage-style “park model” trailers, which can be set up in campgrounds and RV parks and used as affordable vacation homes

National shipments of recreational park trailers were up 27.5% during the first six months of 2004, compared to a year earlier, setting an all time industry record, according to the Recreational Park Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA).

Advertisement Blue Ox   Click Ad to pop-up full view

“We’ve never seen demand like this before. It’s unprecedented,” said William Garpow, RPTIA’s executive director. “Virtually every park trailer manufacturer is reporting record orders and backlogs, and there’s no letup in sight.”

RPTIA reported 2,563 park trailer shipments during the second quarter, up 34.5% from a year earlier, and 4,687 shipments between January and June, up 27.5% from the same period in 2003. But while demand for recreational park trailers or “park models” has reached record levels, many consumers have yet to discover the product, which, until recently, was known only to campers who visited RV parks and campgrounds that sell or lease campsites for park model use.

“It’s still the best kept secret in the RV business,” Garpow said. “While condos or site-built vacation homes in resort locations typically cost $200,000 or $300,000 or more, park models generally cost less than $50,000, with the average price being in the $33,000 range. Add that to the annual campsite lease fees, which range from $1,500 to $5,000 a year, and you’ve got the most affordable vacation home option in America.”

Unlike mobile homes, which are a form of low-cost, permanent housing, recreational park trailers or “park models” are moveable resort cottages that are designed exclusively for part time recreational use. Typically upscale in appearance, they often include bay windows and lofts as well as walnut, oak or maple cabinetry.

Garpow said the increasing physical attractiveness of park model units, combined with rising real estate prices, are drawing record numbers of consumers to the park model market. Many consumers are also enticed by the safety, security and scenic beauty that many campgrounds provide for park model owners. As a result, while park models used to be the exclusive domain of retirees, 45% of today’s park model buyers have full-time jobs, according to the latest RPTIA surveys.

Today’s younger buyers include Don Voss, a 41-year-old carpenter from Hanover, Ill., a Chicago suburb, who uses a park model at the Jellystone Park Camp Resort in Ft. Atkinson, Wis. as a weekend retreat with his wife and three children. “In the park that we’re in, you’re allowed to go up anytime during the year,” he said. “We can even go up during the winter and do tobogganing and sledding. It’s just a nice place to get away.”

“I’d rather have a cottage on a lake or a river,” said Brian Williams, a 36-year-old trucking equipment company CEO who recently installed a custom-built Trophy park model at Lakeland Camping Resort in Milton, Wis. “But when you have little kids, it’s easier at a campground. You have security. You have access to the pool. You have activities for the kids. They meet new friends. Plus, at the campground where we’re at, we’re actually on a lake.”

Some park model owners even make money on their units by renting them out when they’re away. “It helps pay for the cost of having a vacation home,” said Lisa Dickenson, 44, of Eugene, Ore., adding that the Cavco park model unit with an ocean view that she and her husband own at Turtle Rock RV Resort in Gold Beach, Ore. stays rented most of the summer.