Will boat sales be down in 07?

I think it will slow a bit with the housing market taking a dive. There will be less refinancing activity and less cash in folks' pockets.

Just wondering what your thoughts are...

If sales are slow I think it will be because of fuel costs mainly.

a friend of mine was telling me that a lot of people are refinancing because of the fixed 3 to 5 arm loans. when their loans adj is been a huge shock to these people. these loans for a lot of people are at the end of their fixed rates. they also have used the equity loans on the house also. he says in sac a lot people will loose their houses. i hope that doesnt happen. they built too many homes too fast. theirs not enough people to fill them. that just what he told me.

I think overall boat sales will be down a little and inboard sales will be stable or up a few percent.

I wonder when the increasing prices will hurt the inboard market? I'm starting to wonder if my next boat is going to happen in a few years or if I will just stay put with what I have. The price to upgrade is getting too high.

All the sales guys that I spoke with at the Pleasanton boat show said their sales were way off. So that means they are already off to a poor start.

So far my sales this year is up 25% from this time the last two years.

Ditto what Ponte said. Here in Calif, so many people are on ARMs that are ready to adjust. Most have seconds, that exceed the value of the home because the market is so bad now.

Living with the ARMs and seconds was fine 5 - 10 years ago, but now the market is calling back the markers on all the fun we had in the early 2000s.

Whe people start loosing houses, can't draw seconds, people stop buying other stuff. It only seems natural that giving the housing/economic situation, coupled with gas prices, many will either be scared off or put off a new boat purchase

The guys at the boatworks in Taylorsville Ky. are selling them as fast as they get them in...of course they are the best.

There you go Nic. Now how about a better price on that board.

It wouldn't surprise me if the west coast boat market was down... the housing boom there seemed a little exaggerated IMO and people we taking money out of their house appreciation to buy big ticket items. At least that's what a few people that I know in CA did who made it seem like it was common there for homeowners a few years back. It would be interesting to see a regional sales graph to see what areas are growing vs. slowing in inboard sales.

Here in the Fort Worth are of Texas, boats sales are going off, our mastercraft dealer has sold more then double the amount of boats they sold last year at this time. So boat sales in Texas are good, but so is our real estate market.

ditto in Va

I'm in the housing market, and I can tell you that it hasn't slowed down AT ALL. We had our yearly slow down in Nov., Dec., and Jan. as we always do. In some of the larger markets, yes they have a surplus of inventory.... and that will hurt those markets. But In the midwest, south, and basically the central U.S. in general... there is no slow down. The media is actually the only thing that is hurting the market. All their doom and gloom reports, and talk about prices coming down delayed some buyers.

I actually had two seperate customers back out out of after they had spent around $6K on plans and bought the lots. They said they wanted to wait for prices to come down. I laughed and told them they were nuts. Home prices NEVER come down on custom houses. Those same customers both signed contracts over the last two weeks, and are now paying $2/sq ft higher than they would have if they had built just a few months ago.

Of course I am in the luxury to ultra-luxury market, so my market follows a slightly different trend. But actually these people are more concious of market trends and therefore more likely to follow them.

This same market is what gears alot of boat sales... and if what I'm seeing in home sales already then boat sales will be up as last year. 90% of my sales take place in Feb. and March.... I already have 30% more sales than last year at this time, and March is the good month. I spoke with a cobalt/tige dealer in Dallas a couple of weeks ago and they expressed the same situation.

Tanner. I wish you would send some buyers down to Fl. because nothing is moving down there. At least nothing I own.

Dallas Real Estate Proper still rising, boat sales going up. WSA just sold one more today, no more old 05

Real life here in California... My house went from over 800K to a big MAYBE at 600K in about 18 months. My inlaws are trying to sell their place for 50K less then they paid about three years ago. But like tanner said, surplus is drying up now that prices have dipped. In CA, this is mostly due to builders slowing down.

Arizona isn't doing to much better, I visit my parents alot and there is huge surplus down there.

Housing market has slowed a little in the southeast. Boat sales are way off, most of the dealers I spoke with said sales were way down at the boat shows. The only thing moving were a few moombas, but even they were down a little. Dealers seemed to think that prices would hit a ceiling soon.