this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2025
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279
Priced out of traditional housing, more Americans are living in RVs (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 3 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
37 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 52 points 3 days 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 3 days 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 3 days 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 9 points 3 days 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 2 days 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.

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

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

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 days 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 3 days ago

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

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days 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 2 days ago (1 children)

Your dad killed my parents

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days 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 2 days ago (1 children)

Your dad's rv park killed my parents

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

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

Not knowing what park your dad owns killed my parents.

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 28 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days 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 10 points 3 days 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 6 points 3 days 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 4 points 3 days 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 3 days 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 3 days 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 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

But they still want you to pay taxes lol.

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days 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 6 points 3 days 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 3 points 3 days 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 2 days ago

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

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Basically i've always had a personal hatred for single-family homes. I grew up in one, and i hated it. My parents moved into the middle of freaking nowhere when i was born, the neighborhood was dull, it was somewhere in the countryside, you couldn't go anywhere without driving a car, my mother was always angry and tired and refused to drive me 90% of the time, and when she did drive me, annoyances always happened (like, i'd say to a friend i'd meet them at 3pm, and it's a 10 minute drive, and we start driving at 2:40pm, and then my mother remembers she has to go grocery shopping first, which takes 45 minutes, and she does that before dropping me off at my friend's place, stuff like that). It was frustrating.

In the countryside, you're dependent on fossil fuels. You're dependent on putting that transparent fluid in your car's tank day-after-day, which i suspect is a method of mind-controlling the people, because it makes the people feel dependent on some kind of infrastructure (gas station) that they don't understand. I mean, where does petroleum come from? have you ever seen it produced? the people can't produce it locally, so they're dependent on the government's goodwill that it continues to be provided to them.

if the people had solar panels, a whole lot of things would be less shit. people would feel somewhat more self-reliant, being able to produce their own energy and all, and i guess that would improve people's self-esteem a lot.

anyways, i've always had a very hatred of the single-family home. it has 1000 m³, of which you realistically need about 300 for 4 people, for a kitchen, a toilet, a shower, and beds. the extra room is to brag to your neighbors ("what would the neighbors think if we were poor!") and mostly to cause yourself a lot of stress while you're trying to clean that whole space, while you could instead just chill and relax. but i guess relaxing means that you have to face your inner emotions, and we can't have that! (according to the people i've met)

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Funny because I have the exact opposite experience.

Most of my life I've lived in a tiny apartment, so tiny that I literally can't keep my room cleared because have no space to store my stuff.

Yes, I can literally walk to the nearest, coffee place, or take a subway to the mall or cinema or whatever people usually like to go, but I have no interest in those places, instead I would love to live in a rural place where I can walk along nature or just rest outside without being right in the middle of people and traffic and ugly buildings.

Oh, and the worse part, my new neighbors that don't let me blast my guitar amp or listen to music past 10

[–] ysjet@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

annoyances always happened (like, i’d say to a friend i’d meet them at 3pm, and it’s a 10 minute drive, and we start driving at 2:40pm, and then my mother remembers she has to go grocery shopping first, which takes 45 minutes, and she does that before dropping me off at my friend’s place, stuff like that). It was frustrating.

Yeah, that's just absolute bullshit. What the fuck.

[–] kalpol@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sir this is a downtown Wendy's

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

No this is ~~patrick~~ Lemmy.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 8 points 3 days 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 3 days ago

Nomadland

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

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