TBH , I would n’t be surprised if more new people started move into RVs .
POV: You’re a young adult and tired of paying a skyrocketing rent bill every month that has no return.
You want to own something and not pay rent anymore, but withhigh mortgage ratesandthe median US home price at $431,00, owning a home feels entirely out of reach.
How about a camper? For Ana, 23, and her boyfriend, Jake, 25, they traded in a $2,000+ monthly rent payment to own and live in a camper for nearly half the cost.
In aviral video, which has now been viewed over six million times, Ana, aka@camperparkprincess, takes us on a tour of her new home. “For my age, it just made so much sense to buy this,” she said. “I mean the payment is literally $373 a month and that’s my boyfriend and I [splitting] that… It’s like $170 a person, so we’re thriving.”
A fullllll tour of our camper!#camperlife#fulltimerv#livinginacamper#fulltimecamperliving
It’s honestly super nice.
The camper is complete with a living space, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and a “bunk-bed” room.
There’s a surprising amount of storage space, too.
Others were pretty impressed with the idea:
One person even said that they’re surprised “more campgrounds for millennials aren’t popping up everywhere.”
Living in a camper probably wouldn’t be most people’s first choice, but being able to have a roof over your head at an affordable rate, and own it at that, feels increasingly hard to come by and incredibly enticing, especially for a young adult. So, I, like many others, had many questions about how Ana makes this work, how much she’s saving, and what led her to choose a camper.
First, Ana explained that she’s located near Virginia Beach and previously paid over $2,000/month for a one-bedroom apartment, not including utilities, whichaccording to Zillow, is about the median rent for the area right now. Now, she and her boyfriend share the $373 monthly loan payment for the camper. Since they are stationary, they also pay to park their camper on a lot at an RV resort, which runs between $800–1100/month depending on the season.
Ana explained that even in the summer busy season, they’re still saving more than when they lived in the apartment nearby. “All in all, we have been saving about $1,000+ more a month compared to what we were spending in apartment rent,” Ana said.
Of course $1,173–1,473 a month is still a hefty bill to come by, but considering the location, it is still cheaper than nearby apartment rent.Ana also explainedthat if they parked outside the city, or didn’t park at an RV resort, costs would drop significantly.
Ina separate video, Ana said that everyone’s experience with full-time camper living is different. Despite the higher costs of her RV resort, based on her location and the resort’s perks, she finds camper living the best option for her.
Ana told me one of the biggest perks of camper living, aside from the financial savings, is having access to the all the added perks at their RV resort at no extra cost.
“We constantly feel like we are on vacation. We wake up everyday and can just sit outside in nature, enjoying our coffee or eating our breakfast. My dog has so much space to play outside as well,” she said.
When it came to deciding on buying a camper, Ana said she took a lot of time to research and weigh out all the pros and cons.She said, “We did not just randomly pick up one day and do this. We thought this through thoroughly and strategically for almost a year… We weighed out every possible cost, like I’m talking freak accident costs, to see if it was worth the money. And it totally, 100%, was.”
For those looking into camper living, she told BuzzFeed, “I recommend planning out everything very far ahead. My boyfriend and I planned for about six months. We weighed out every wild problem that could occur, and even weighed in the most [unlikely] expenses to make sure this was the correct choice for us.”
Since going viral, Anasaidshe’s excited she can help others who are considering camper living, especially since she couldn’t find much advice on stationary camper living when she was researching.
So there you have it! While it’s cool to see young people finding solutions to the housing crisis, I do yearn for a future with more affordable housing. In the meantime, a camper’s not looking too bad of an option.
