this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2025
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280
Priced out of traditional housing, more Americans are living in RVs (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Moving into an RV may seem like a way to save money, but it can come with unexpected costs and trap families in a cycle of debt.

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[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 53 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I do all the maintenance on my travel trailer, but I have a garage full of tools and a different place to sleep when there's problems. And if I screw it up, I'm not homeless.

I imagine if you're living in an RV, even if you know exactly how to fix a problem, you still have to pay someone else to do it because you don't have a good way to get parts, or equipment to do the work. How do you get Amazon to ship a head gasket to a random spot in the woods on federal lands?

There are tool libraries, and a lot of auto parts places have loaner tools, but you still have to get there to do it, and you can't just sit there for a week working on the problem.

Just another time that it's way more expensive to be poor.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If it's a travel trailer, that's probably easy enough for most people to repair as necessary, and if you can't, at least you can disconnect your tow vehicle. A proper driving Breaking Bad RV is a whole other story; many more complicated ways that can leave you stranded, and having to get an RV towed is gonna cost you. And if you have an RV that's reliable enough to not have to worry about that so much ... you already have plenty of money and don't need to live in it.

[–] SillyDude@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you can fix a truck, you can fix anything on a rv that'll have you stranded. You don't need any of the extra stuff from an rv to make it drive. And just like trucks, there are old ones that are more sought after because they're more reliable and easier to fix than newer ones with computers and efi and emissions and theft protections etc.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 10 points 1 week ago

If.

I can diagnose and fix a whole lot of things, probably better than most people. Working on the drivetrain of an RV is an order of magnitude more a pain in the ass than a regular car or truck. Certain parts can be hard to come by on older vehicles. Having the additional pressure of "You have to get this working so you can move before the RV park gets pissed off" makes it worse. And an old RV is likely to have horrible livability without having been recently rehabbed. Brakes - arguably the easiest thing to work on - are even going to more difficult, because they're going to be big truck brakes.

Older vehicles are not more reliable than newer ones. Don't get me wrong; I love carburetors and points and drum brakes, but for not having to put a wrench on anything, give me electronic ignition and fuel injection all day long. All those sensors and variable valve timing bits pay you back in fuel economy.

[–] ellen.kimble@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

The way that I have it setup is my truck bed is my tool shed. I have those long drawers to store everything in. Amazon deliveries can be planned around travel or lockers, usually worst (because most expensive) case scenario is getting someone out ($150/min) to fix whatever the problem is. Frankly my plumbing has a lot of bandaids because I can’t just rip it out and replace everything. Although I might when I upgrade to a tankless water heater.

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Our homelessness numbers are vastly under counted. They guess the amount by going outside and counting the number of people they can see. A better way to judge this would be by number of people with no active address. (I'm sure it's not that simple and some safe guards would need to be put in place. But we know the number is magnitudes greater than the publicly stated amount.) We say it 800k individuals are homeless but id bet if we actually tried to find every known American to see if they have a permanent address it's two or three million people under counted.

[–] ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I wouldnt be surprised if they count homeless figures the same way the count jobless numbers: by only counting the people who dont have it but are actively looking. So once people give up looking and stop utilizing services to help connect them then they are no longer in the figures

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

They are way lazier than that. Starting to wonder if the government not knowing where ~2% to ~3% of its population is actually might be a good thing. Lol

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

its worse than that. folks are actively looking but no longer filling out the forms to tell them they are looking.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

tried to find every known American

This is gonna be the hardest part. Some people don't pay taxes, nor own a TV, can't afford crushing medical costs, and don't have a car parked in front of their tent. They simply don't exist.

And an American ID card - like the gov ID and separate health card I have - would still be a non-starter for them if the gov paid for it. They simply get nothing but trouble from it.

What subset of people living that lifestyle are classed as homeless? What's one-third of "no idea"?

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Right! I think our government is the only one that actively pushes its own people to drop off the grid.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm so homeless that the US Census didn't even contact me in 2020 😆

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

But they still want you to pay taxes lol.

[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (3 children)

So Ready Player One is the dystopia we're headed for. Wonderful.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

It's a fairly realistic scenario, work too much, tiny living spaces, escape through a screen to something better...

[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

Except we don't have the cheap and ubiquitous game interface.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And my dad getting rich off of this scenario. And doesn't even see how successful he is with his business that it truly a bad thing.

[–] krunklom@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Your dad killed my parents

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wouldn't go that far, he just runs an RV park. My dad an asshole but Wouldn't call him a murder.

[–] krunklom@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Your dad's rv park killed my parents

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How? And you don't even know what park my dad owns.

[–] krunklom@lemmy.zip -2 points 1 week ago

Not knowing what park your dad owns killed my parents.

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I feel the article may have actually meant trailers or campers. RVs are expensive and become a pain to maintain and fix especially if it's a shitbox already.

[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 week ago

No, most of the people listed in the article have RVs. One of them ended up with a blown engine and needed $10k to fix it, but still owed $500/mo for payments.

[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Looking at our local RV camps, I don't think maintenance is a priority. Just had to move far enough when the city pushes them around.

I'll note (I haven't read the article yet; going to do) lots here live in RV's but have a second car for travel/work. Many of those second cars are better than my daily driver.

[–] ellen.kimble@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Yes there was one place I stayed they had two cars. One was a newer looking corvette.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's so bad even some supreme court justices are living in them!

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 8 points 1 week ago

Yeah, the article lumps together a lot of things in the RV category. Mobile homes/trailers, luxury to minimal viability

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Nomadland

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I hope they know they’re going to trump’s concentration camps to magically disappear