Joe DownsCEO & Co-Founder, Belrose Storage Group. Founder, Storage Moguls.

Is This Just a Covid Boom

24 Mar 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:39

Joe Downs argues that boat and RV ownership growth started around 2005, not during COVID. The pandemic accelerated sales and participation, but demand dipped after the initial spike before climbing back above the pre-COVID trend line.

Chapters

Here's the question I get from every investor who looks into this data for the first time. Is this a COVID thing? It is not. Boat and RV ownership was growing steadily from 2005 onward. COVID accelerated it for sure. Millions of new participants got into outdoor recreation for the first time, but the trend line was already there before COVID It spiked the sale of— the sales of new vehicles. It drops slightly below the next year and a half, and it's right back after the COVID peak. Demand dipped like I just said and then returned to the trend line, actually above it, and continued upwards.