Boat spending
The two happiest days in a boat owner's life are when he buys the boat and when he sells the boat
Not many people spend money on boats every month, according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, but those that do spend quite a lot.1
The average boats-without-motor spender spent $784/month on boats, which includes upfront purchase costs as well as interests costs if for some reason you decided to finance a kayak. Buying a non-motorized boat outright cost about $2,390, whereas monthly payments were $256, 30% of which was interest.
Meanwhile motorized boats cost an average of $1,512 per month. Purchasing a boat outright cost $10,539, less than I was expecting. Maybe people only buy small boats outright. Financing cost $407 per month, while downpayments on financed boats were actually higher than outright purchase costs — $12,167.
Finally, respondents who rented boats spent an average of $282, while the sale of a boat got the respondent $6,158. People are much more likely to rent boats during the summer, slightly more likely to purchase boats during the summer, and selling boats seems roughly equal throughout the year (though the sample size is pretty small on all of these).
Unfortunately the survey doesn’t track boat maintenance spending or whatever else it costs to own a boat. They do break out the cost of outboard motors separately — $3,051 per month, though presumably boat owners are not buying new outboard motors every month.
The top states for motorized boat spending (by reports, not total amount spend) were North Carolina, Utah, Alaska, and Wisconsin.
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2022.