RV Park Feasibility Study in Ossipee, New Hampshire: Expanding a Seasonal Campground on a USDA B&I Loan

Two signals matter for a seasonal park. First, the county's housing stock is 41% seasonal and its median resident is 54.6 years old. That is the profile of an older, asset-holding market where a seasonal pad competes with a second home, and where campers return year after year. Second, the national camping base is stable but the flow of new rigs is not. RVIA counted 23,599 wholesale shipments in August 2026, down 16.4% and the lowest August since 2015. Year-to-date shipments of 207,191 were down 14.2%, with towables down 16.2% [7]. Seasonal campers are an installed base of existing rigs, which cushions a seasonal park, but fewer new owners will be shopping for a first seasonal site. One product signal runs the other way: park model RV shipments rose 21.8% year to date, so some of the new pads should be sized and permitted for park models.

Metered electricity is the regional norm, and none of these parks bundles unlimited power into the seasonal fee. The subject should meter every site. Water, sewer and Wi-Fi are typically included, and on-site winter storage is a common retention tool. On this evidence, $4,200 for a full hook-up 30/50-amp inland pad sits inside the independent cluster, about $300 below its top.

Unsold seasonal pads run as transient sites until the seasonal roster fills, so transient revenue is highest in year 1 and falls as seasonal contracts replace it.

The downside row prices every seasonal site at $3,000, the floor of the independent cluster, and trims transient occupancy six points. Operating expenses are built at arm's length, as a B&I lender will underwrite them: on-site managers and seasonal staff at $67,850 with burden, a 5% management charge, property tax of $27,189 on about $1.9 million of assessed value at Ossipee's 2025 rate including the fire precinct ($14.31 per $1,000) [25], insurance $19,000, septic and water testing $9,000, a $75-per-site replacement reserve, and the USDA annual retention fee of 0.55% on the guaranteed balance. Groundskeeping and housekeeping wages in the Northern New Hampshire nonmetropolitan area ran at medians of $18.35 and $16.46 an hour in May 2023 [26], so the payroll line is trended above those figures.

1. NHDES subdivision and subsurface approvals for all 80 sites. Under Env-Wq 1005.11, every site with a pressurized water hook-up used by the same RV for more than three consecutive weeks needs on-site sewage collection, so septic capacity is the critical path [29]. Local site plan approval as well.
2. A title and land-use search on the 2016 Westward Shores approval, to establish whether the 246-site entitlement is built, vested or lapsed.
3. The seller's three-season seasonal rent roll, renewal history and any written waitlist. Without them, waitlist claims are anecdotal.
4. A licensed 1-, 2- and 3-hour drive-time demographic pull covering the Boston and Portland markets, and current NHDOT station counts for NH 16, NH 25 and NH 28.
5. A dated USDA Eligibility Map result for the parcel. Ossipee's population is about 4,372 (2020 Census), far below the 50,000 threshold in 7 CFR 5001.3 [30].
6. Electric meters on every site, and some of the 32 new pads designed and permitted for park models.