RV Sales Up 9% This Year

Sales of recreational vehicles in the U.S. through October grew 9% to 303,700 units, the highest volume for the month in 38 years, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Assn.

The trade group expects full-year demand to top year-earlier levels for the fifth consecutive year. The association predicts sales in 2015 will grow 4% to 361,400 units, surpassing the 353,400 units shipped in 2007 the year before the Great Recession began.

RV shipments in America reached 390,500 units in 2006. But by 2009 they had skidded to only 165,700 units. The collapse caused the industry to contract by about one-third.

But industry leaders at the industry's annual conference in Louisville, Ky., this week say pent-up demand, low interest rates, consumer optimism and falling fuel prices portend boom times ahead.