Looking ahead at retirement, and I wanna be fairly mobile and able to move with interests and seasons. I have never owned a camping trailer and have only slept in them on rare occasion, so my knowledge is limited. Excuse me for dumb-ass questions
Buy a inexpensive camper, do a few weekend camping test runs before you dwell on the subject much longer and be sure you find living in a small space works for you.
Looking at campgrounds here and there, they are all pricey at nightly rates. Do most offer a monthly rate at a discount?
Most all have a discounted rate for extended stays. There is a broad range, the sky's the limit, It's all dependent on location and amenities offered. Rates can go from free to thousands of dollars a month.
Monthly dwellers in RV parks can be "clickie" groups. It's either Northern people escaping the winter months in southern locations or vice versa, Southern types heading to cooler mountainous regions for the summer months.
Groups that get along together will congregate in a RV park and develop a social environment where they share covered dish meals multiple times a week and participate in group activities and outings. Most RV parks will have a club house or pavilion or the like to accommodate these groups and their activities. If that's your thing, just bounce around from RV park to RV park until you find a group that suits you.
Has anyone found that purchasing property to stay in a camper works out financially? What about zoning and utility access?
I've seen property for sale that was limited to "camping only", it's rare and typically due to environmental uniqueness such as being water front or low and wet and not suitable for septic systems and no community sewer options available. Seldom will you find such property where local code will allow a electrical hook-up to be installed for RV use.
Most normal real estate that is broken down into small lots will have codes that often restrict extended use of RV's. The exception is what is commonly referred to as mobile home parks and even then there may be restrictions based on size that are designed to prohibit RV use.
Think about what you are asking there, why have a portable house on a permanent lot?
