Quote:
Originally Posted by rigamarole
Well, the stock market in the US has tanked since this thread started and the ecomomy is definately down. Have you all seen the prices of boats drop? I'm not really in the market now but if prices fall low enough it may be worth buying a boat and drydocking it until I need it.
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This is what I've noticed: There are pockets of value just as there have always been. I was recently speaking with a guy who bought a great
boat in fair condition but with a ton of extras for a song. He'll need to do a fair amount of
work to the decks, repaint the bottom and a bit more. But got it for about 90k less than it would have two years ago. Just before I went on holiday, I read here about a
boat in
Mexico that went very quickly -- I think it was for 10k or so. There was also a 38' or so foot
monohull in the ChesBay area. It also went quickly. There was that
trimaran project boat that went for 5k a month ago. The reason for the sales?
Health of the previous owner in two of the three cases; unknown for the third. There are tons of examples of cases like these.
Here's the trick: You have little selection (other than good value or not), they tend to sell quickly (others also know a good deal when they see it) and it may require significant
repair work to realize the value.
I guess a good hypothetical is this: if you could buy a 80k or 210k boat for 10% of that
price but had to ship it cross country for say 20k (totaling 28 to 41k, excluding
repairs and refits), could you? If the answer is yes, you're qualified to be in the market but may not have found the boat yet. If the answer is no but you could swing the boat but not the moving costs, you may be ... if you can find a good buy locally and are able to swing the repair/refit/storage costs.
But if you truly aren't in the market for reasons of lifestyle, don't worry about it. The market will be there in the future.