Why the Great Lakes Region Is an Overlooked RV Park Market

The Great Lakes region gets skipped by most RV park investors because everyone is chasing Florida, Texas, and Arizona. That focus on year-round Sunbelt markets has left states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio with lower land costs, less competition for good sites, and cap rates that often land at the higher end of the typical 7-12% range. The tradeoff is a shorter season, but the math still works if you underwrite it honestly.

Why capital ignores this region

Most RV park buyers want warm weather and long seasons. That demand has pushed prices up in Florida and Texas parks, compressing cap rates toward the low end of the 7-12% range. The Great Lakes states don't offer 12 months of camping weather, so they get passed over. But that same lack of attention means sellers here are less sophisticated, competition for acquisitions is thinner, and you can still find parks priced at a discount to replacement cost.

Land is cheaper too. An acre near a lake in northern Michigan or Wisconsin costs a fraction of comparable waterfront in Florida or the Carolinas. Lower basis means lower risk if the market softens, and it gives you more room to add sites or amenities without blowing your budget.

The seasonality tradeoff, stated plainly

Great Lakes parks run close to 100% occupancy from Memorial Day through Labor Day, especially near lakes, state parks, and boating access points. Then winter hits and occupancy can drop to near zero for parks without winterized infrastructure. This isn't a flaw unique to this region. It's the same seasonal pattern covered in a breakdown of why RV parks swing from full to empty by season. The difference in the Great Lakes is that the swing is sharper because winter is colder and the shoulder seasons are shorter than in the South.

That means your underwriting has to be honest about a five to six month strong season instead of a nine or ten month one. If you're used to Sunbelt numbers, don't paste them onto a Michigan or Minnesota park. Build your model around the actual weeks of full occupancy this market gives you.

What the numbers actually support

Industry-wide, RV park occupancy growth is forecast to stay flat at 0-1% annually through the decade. The post-pandemic surge in RV travel was a temporary spike, not a new baseline. That applies to the Great Lakes just like everywhere else. If you're underwriting a deal here, don't bake in outsized revenue growth. Instead, focus on:

• Margin improvement: tightening labor costs, renegotiating utility contracts, and cutting waste in day-to-day operations.

• Value-add work: adding full hookup sites, paving gravel lots, or building out a bathhouse to justify higher nightly rates.

• Diversified revenue: layering in private lot leases, storage fees, firewood and propane sales, and amenity charges like pool access or laundry, on top of base site rentals.

These levers matter more than market-wide occupancy growth, because that growth simply isn't there. A park bought at an 9-10% cap rate with room to add 15 sites and tighten margins can outperform a fully stabilized Sunbelt park bought at a 7% cap, even with the shorter season.

Winter is the real underwriting question

Every Great Lakes deal comes down to one question: what happens from November to April. Some operators shut down completely and eat the fixed costs. Others convert to storage, host ice fishing groups, or lease sites to seasonal workers and hunters. The parks that perform best treat winter as a separate business line rather than dead time. There's a full look at how operators handle this stretch in a post on winter occupancy strategies for RV parks, and it's worth reading before you underwrite anything north of the 40th parallel.

If a seller can't tell you their winter plan, that's a red flag. If they can show you storage revenue, propane sales, or a niche winter customer base, that's a sign the park is being run as a real business, not just a summer cash grab.

Who this market fits, and who it doesn't

The Great Lakes region works for investors who want lower entry prices, don't need immediate stabilized cash flow, and are comfortable with hands-on operational improvements. It doesn't work well for passive investors who want smooth, predictable distributions all year, because the revenue is genuinely lumpy.

It also doesn't work for anyone expecting the occupancy growth of 2020 and 2021 to repeat. That surge is gone, and flat 0-1% growth is the honest baseline going forward. The opportunity here isn't rising demand. It's buying at a lower basis, in a region fewer people are competing for, and using operational work to build NOI instead of counting on the market to hand it to you.

If you want to talk through whether a specific Great Lakes park pencils out under these assumptions, you can reach out through the contact page at Invest With Zac.