Knot 4 Me

Yup. My son who will turn 24 this summer is finally looking to move out of the house but can only afford to do it with 2 other room mates from work. This is with a full-time job and no debt. At 24 I had been out of the house for years and bought my first house.

Nate5.0

Hard for them.

I live in a nice area but would say COL is on the low side for a lot of states.

Starter townhome/condo is going to run you $150k + and a single family home average is $206,500 in Pinellas county.

Rent is up HUGE too. The average 2/2 place is $1,373


With your average starting pay usually in the low/mid $40k area for young people out of school. It makes it to were you can barely afford to get by without the help of others.

Wildman_grafix

Coming from the mid west I am stunned at the COL in Florida and low wages.

jtbooten

iTrader: (1)

Why buy new? You can get nice used boats well taken care of for whatever price range you want to be in. Same way with vehicles. I never have and never will buy new anything. Wife bought a car in 2012 new and paid $30k. Tried to sell in 2016 and couldn't even get $10k out of it. It's paid for so it's staying.

When I shop, I buy when the price is basically bottomed out. Paid cash for a clean and in great condition 04 duramax 2 years ago. Haven't had a problem out of it and it's my daily driver.

Donzi Dude

This

Nate5.0

Cause this is a thread about new boat prices.....not used.

mallatt442

The COL is cheap in the Midwest--by comparison. Several years ago, I rented a house in Fl and wanted to move down. Looked at house prices and suffered from sticker shock. Stayed put and now I can afford to visit anytime I want......

Wildman_grafix

And make more for the same job, now my friends from the populated NE region think is peanuts.

blckkat

I am with you but you got to remember some people don't know which end of a screwdriver to use, wouldn't have a clue what to look for when looking at condition, need the security of a warranty, or frankly have the cash to blow and just love the idea of that new boat smell and want to treat themselves. lets be real if we were rolling in cash I think we'd all be buying new.

sailtexas186548

I think it's more of an issue with moderation than anything. New boats are tricked out to the max and no one is really willing to run or show the smaller stuff anymore, especially with "performance" boats. Big screen GPS, anything less than 400rs or 525s is just not acceptable anymore, and they've gotta be BIG.

Look at a FPC video from the last 5 years, you rarely see a boat less than 38 or 40 foot, and it's either triple+ egg beaters or 750+ IOs. Not saying they aren't out there but you don't see or hear about them, so nobody really seeks them to buy and you end up with a dead market.

I'm 27 this month, been out of school for 5 years (mechanical engineer), and I'm going to be in the market for a new boat soon. I intend to buy a new or dam close to it, performance boat before I'm 30. I could buy a used one today but I've already played that game three times and I'm ready for exactly what I want, not what I can find that's not ragged out. A new Lavy or Checkmate or Tuff is totally reasonable for me to buy, I just have to convince myself that it's a starter boat until I can step up to the next level in the future.

I also have a paid off basic truck, a moderate house note. I don't have cable/videogames, don't spend much on clothes and other frivolous things, cut.my own grass, maintain my house/boats/truck, and work my ass off. It's just I'm in the extreme minority of younger people who spend more for things they don't need or for services they aren't willing to do, so not many are buying new smaller performance boats and the market is dieing/dead. Also no one posts real pricing anywhere so shopping is a pain in the ass