Still tons of boats, and houses, are underwater or break-even. Disposable income for many has been eaten up by inflation (perhaps the Fed should go shopping from time to time), debt paydowns, increases for tuitions and rising property taxes. Those regular people that have the money, are being pretty picky and choosey about parting with it.

Life was grand when money was free, houses were climbing like tech stocks, and jobs were plentiful due to the financial and real estate industries, government and healthcare. It's a healthy transition, but painful. The phrase "The New Normal" is abused a lot. A lot of what's going on now has to do with the Old Normal. Where many last decade chose to get the cars, the boats, the SUV's and the house plus all the toys, now they face the bills, high food and housing costs, and possibly the loss of a job.

I see a list of used boats for sale at my dealer, and it keeps getting larger. Unfortunately, the huge jump in some new boat prices from last year has not translated into higher trade ins or even private sale prices. Most are brokerage, so they may just sit in the yard another year or more. Even at low unemployment, I don't think it's a quick turnaround. Wages overall were flat for years, now wealth has declined or vanished.

It won't turn around as many think very soon, but households will be much healthier when it does.

After buying a 2008 Donzi 38ZR this week, I can relate to some of the posters here- the agony of trying to secure financing and insurance is definately hurting the marine industry. I have a 740 beacon, make $180k+ per year, had a debt to income ration of 18%, and bought the boat $50k under book value and still struggled finding a bank to approve the loan. Finally they got it approved, then the agony of insurance kicked in! It took calls to 7 different companies/brokers to find someone to insure it, and then they wouldn't offer a 2% deductible which the bank required, only 3%. It went back and forth until finally the bank said it would accept a deductible up to $5000, but their policy still states 2% and if they do an insurance audit I could get a letter stating I need to get different insurance. It was 5 days of agony trying to get everything done, until I was almost ready to give up! Until some of the financing issues loosen up it will be hard to have any recovery in the marine industry- the auto industry went through it, and has now had a small recovery since you can actually get some people on the road.

Just my .02 cents

The definition of a market bottom:

"the point of maximum pessimism"