WA Coast Economist - Recreational Boat Sales

Introduction

Washington Sea Grant has been tracking boat sales using the Department of Licensing (DoL) titling data since 2002. The data include information about the characteristics of all powered vessels and sailboats whose titles have been recently issued or transferred. State officials use this information to:

more authoritatively site pump-out stations for boaters’ waste,
target prevention program strategies for small oil spills, and
validate demand for new in-water moorage or dry-stack storage.

In 2017, the Department of Licensing updated to a new data processing system. Consequently, the vessel characteristics reported to DoL are not directly comparable with those reported under their legacy system. A comparison of legacy and DRIVES vessel descriptors (pdf) is available for download. For data older than 2017, please see the Washington Boat Sales Data Archive page.

A word about how we classify vessel transactions

The data provided from DoL can be unambiguous, such as model year, boat length, hull material, etc. Some values are entered into the database when the vessel was first registered and revised when the current transaction occurred. From these data, we derive further information about the kind of sale that appears in the Boat Sales Activity table. For the most part, these derived data are also unambiguous. However, whether a vessel being registered for the first time in Washington State and sold by a dealer is classified as a New Vessel sale or an Imported Used sale is very sensitive to the cut-off year chosen to define a “new” vessel. The decision rule uses the prior model year; vessels older than that are considered used, and must, therefore, have been imported from out-of-state by the dealer. However, there may be boats in dealers’ showrooms and yacht brokers' moorages built earlier than the prior year but have not sold. When they do sell, they will have been misclassified as an Imported Used sale. We have no way of ascertaining, a priori, which classification is correct. The results include data obtained from the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL). DOL did not verify the accuracy of the data or how it is used.

Definitions

New Import: a new boat purchased from an out-of-state dealer.

New Dealer: a new boat purchased from a WA dealer.

Used Dealer Import: a used boat purchased from an out-of-state dealer.

Used Import: a used boat purchased from an out-of-state private seller.

Used Dealer: a used boat purchased from a WA dealer.

Used Private: a used boat purchased from a WA private seller.

In-Migrant: a new WA resident registers a boat brought into WA.

Monthly Boat Sales Performance Dashboard

This interactive tool allows you to select any month and year to explore boat sales data, compare performance with the same period from the previous year, and assess changes in sales volume and value over time. Use the date selector to tailor the data to your desired time frame and gain insights into how sales trends are evolving in volume and value. This comparison helps track market growth, seasonality, and the impact of external factors on boat sales.

Boat Sales and Value Over Time

This tool allows you to filter data by the sale source and a custom date range to explore boat sales and value over time. Use the filters to customize your view by specific sales channels and transaction dates, allowing you to analyze sales performance across different sources and time frames. This dashboard helps track trends in boat sales volume and revenue, providing insights into how each sales channel contributes to overall performance.

Units Sold

This tool is designed to provide a tailored view of boat sales by allowing you to filter data by various key attributes, including Source of Sale, Boat Type, Length, Hull Material, Engine Drive, Propulsion, Maximum Price, and Transaction Date Range. Based on your selections, this dashboard provides insights into the most popular combination of boat characteristics within the selected period and the total units sold for that combination. Use the filters to gain a clear view of sales performance and trends across various characteristics and channels, helping you make data-driven decisions and track key sales metrics over time.

Sales Value and Price

Similar to the Units Sold Tool, this tool is designed to provide a tailored view of boat sales value and price by allowing you to filter data by various key attributes, including Source of Sale, Boat Type, Length, Hull Material, Engine Drive, Propulsion, Maximum Price, and Transaction Date Range. Based on your selections, this dashboard provides insights into the Average Price, Median Price and Total Sales Value within the selected period. Use the filters to gain a clear view of value and pricing trends across various characteristics and channels, helping you make data-driven decisions and track key pricing metrics over time.

Boat Characteristic Combinations

This interactive tool visualizes the most frequent combinations of boat features, enabling in-depth exploration of popular configurations across multiple attributes. The bubble chart represents combinations based on boat type, cost class, hull material, length class, engine drive, propulsion, and transaction date range. Each characteristic can be used as a filter to tailor your view to specific configurations. The size of each bubble indicates the frequency of each combination, with boat type determining the color scheme, allowing for clear differentiation across types.

Key features of this dashboard include:

Filterable Attributes: Adjust the display using any attribute (e.g., cost class, hull material) to see how certain configurations stand out over the selected date range.
Visual Insights: Larger bubbles highlight the most common combinations, making it easy to spot trends in popular boat features.
Color-coded by Boat Type: The color scheme adds visual clarity by categorizing combinations according to boat type, helping you quickly distinguish among different types.

Use this dashboard to explore how often specific combinations of characteristics occur, helping you understand customer preferences and optimize inventory based on popular boat configurations.

Moorage Location

This tool is designed to provide insights into boat sales based on moorage location, allowing you to filter by counties of interest and transaction date range to track sales trends in specific areas over time. Choose one or more counties to focus on boat sales specific to those moorage locations. Select a custom transaction period to view the number of boats sold within that timeframe. A bar chart displays the total number of boats sold for moorage in the selected counties, providing a clear view of sales distribution across your areas of interest. Use this dashboard to explore regional sales patterns and assess which counties are most active in boat moorage sales over selected periods.

Residence Location

This dashboard provides insights into the residence locations of boat purchasers. It allows you to filter by counties of interest and transaction date range to understand where buyers live, which may differ from their moorage locations. It helps identify purchasing trends by residence, giving you insights into which regions drive demand for boat sales, regardless of moorage location.

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