Should I buy a beach vacation home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

No one called anyone a name.

I'm glad you're enjoying your beach house, but you've made a disastrous financial decision. Humans, as you're showing us, are terrible at evaluating risk. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, it matters what will happen in the future. The beach—any beach—is only going to get MORE risky, the question is how quickly. All evidence points to it accelerating in the near future. Insurance rates going up but still affordable is a sign that your investment is going the wrong way—get out before you're uninusrable. Don't think it can happen? Look at Florida, look at California. Hawaii.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

ONe takes two hours and one takes 30 minutes, so, your personal opinion aside, it's massively different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve always wanted a place at the beach, but it never made sense because of working in an office and busy kid sports schedules. Now I’m in my 50’s and have savings for retirement. I’m not going into the office as often and will probably retire in a couple years. I could afford to pull out $1 million for a place. We would not rent it out. We’d use it more once I stop working. Our kids and siblings could also use it some. We’d have a view.

Downsides are distance - 3 hour drive, cost - $1 million plus pretty high HOA fees (cheaper to rent but hard to find places last minute), crowds and traffic during the summer, potential maintenance hassles, potential climate change, and is it a pain to actually go to your vacation home often?

Do you love having your place?

OP, curious, is there a reason you would not rent it out?

We're owned a beach house about an 8 hour drive away (SC) for 10+ years. We love it and are looking forward to spending more time there when kids go to college. I actually preferred having a house a significant distance away because there was never the thought that we should be there every few weekends. When we go, we go for weeks at a time, such as during school breaks.

Yes, maintenance issues are a PITA and can be costly. That is why renting it when we are not here has been so helpful. When we decide to use it on a more permanent basis, we will redo the entire place. I'm not worried about annual upkeep so much now.

We have a relatively high NW and would like the flexibility. Not out of the question to rent but I think we’d rather be able to leave all our stuff there and not worry about renter issues. Our kids are in college now, I’m sorry we didn’t buy before Covid.

Well, that's a good point and I certainly get it. Not trying to convince you, but I will say that we keep tons of personal stuff at our beach house, locked up in multiple owners' closets. We've never had an issue with anything important broken or stolen. It does take a good day to pack it all up before we leave, and a day to unpack and set up the house when we arrive, but like another poster said, when we're here, we're here. The lengthier stays (at least 2-3 weeks) are the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

No one called anyone a name.

I'm glad you're enjoying your beach house, but you've made a disastrous financial decision. Humans, as you're showing us, are terrible at evaluating risk. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, it matters what will happen in the future. The beach—any beach—is only going to get MORE risky, the question is how quickly. All evidence points to it accelerating in the near future. Insurance rates going up but still affordable is a sign that your investment is going the wrong way—get out before you're uninusrable. Don't think it can happen? Look at Florida, look at California. Hawaii.

NP. Sorry, but you're completely wrong about this. We bought in 2012, cash, for $900,000. House is worth well over $3 million now.

I know you think the sky is falling, but that's not the realty of the beach market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Actually, what we've established here is that a lot of people are envious of OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

No one called anyone a name.

I'm glad you're enjoying your beach house, but you've made a disastrous financial decision. Humans, as you're showing us, are terrible at evaluating risk. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, it matters what will happen in the future. The beach—any beach—is only going to get MORE risky, the question is how quickly. All evidence points to it accelerating in the near future. Insurance rates going up but still affordable is a sign that your investment is going the wrong way—get out before you're uninusrable. Don't think it can happen? Look at Florida, look at California. Hawaii.

Are you unable to read? Calling someone a “sucker”, “loser”, or a “moron” doesn’t count as calling someone names?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Actually, what we've established here is that a lot of people are envious of OP.

Seriously! As bad as dcum usual is, this thread seems to have attracted some especially nasty people.

[Anonymous]

DCUM posters can be counted on to uniformly underestimate their commute times and the cost of maintaining their beach houses. But some of us know better.

[Anonymous]

We bought during COVID, and have the low interest rate and bought at a relatively low point. We bought just outside of rehoboth (no walking to the beach), and it's a townhouse. HOA fees are a little high.

We rent during the summer but that's only clearing us about 50% of the cost.

Kids are in high school. We went a lot in covid years, but now it's harder and harder to get there (spent a grand total of 2 nights there between Jan 5 and May 30 of this year). It does impact our ability to take other vacations (financially limits our choices). It's stressful when things go wrong.

But, it's so peaceful when we are there. There's so much space. It's the only place large enough to hold my extended family (my parents, siblings, and their families) so it's a gathering place. My office has RTO, so my dream of wfh there and the kids having summer jobs there is not going to happen (and we make more renting than kids would pull in working).

I don't regret it. And I love it when there. but there are pros and cons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

No one called anyone a name.

I'm glad you're enjoying your beach house, but you've made a disastrous financial decision. Humans, as you're showing us, are terrible at evaluating risk. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, it matters what will happen in the future. The beach—any beach—is only going to get MORE risky, the question is how quickly. All evidence points to it accelerating in the near future. Insurance rates going up but still affordable is a sign that your investment is going the wrong way—get out before you're uninusrable. Don't think it can happen? Look at Florida, look at California. Hawaii.

NP. Sorry, but you're completely wrong about this. We bought in 2012, cash, for $900,000. House is worth well over $3 million now.

I know you think the sky is falling, but that's not the realty of the beach market.

If you invested the same amount in the S&P 500 for the same time period it would be worth $3.3 million today.

Now, how much do you think you’ve spent over the last 13 years on your beach house for taxes, maintenance, insurance and utilities.

The dividends alone that you’d earn from the stock market would pay for very very nice vacations every year without the hassle of a beach house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

No one called anyone a name.

I'm glad you're enjoying your beach house, but you've made a disastrous financial decision. Humans, as you're showing us, are terrible at evaluating risk. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, it matters what will happen in the future. The beach—any beach—is only going to get MORE risky, the question is how quickly. All evidence points to it accelerating in the near future. Insurance rates going up but still affordable is a sign that your investment is going the wrong way—get out before you're uninusrable. Don't think it can happen? Look at Florida, look at California. Hawaii.

NP. Sorry, but you're completely wrong about this. We bought in 2012, cash, for $900,000. House is worth well over $3 million now.

I know you think the sky is falling, but that's not the realty of the beach market.

I didn't say it wasn't previously a good investment, but as I said, it's not getting any more secure. It's only getting more risky. The question is how quickly. 20 years ago, you could say "not in my lifetime", nowadays, you can say "8-10 years".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought during COVID, and have the low interest rate and bought at a relatively low point. We bought just outside of rehoboth (no walking to the beach), and it's a townhouse. HOA fees are a little high.

We rent during the summer but that's only clearing us about 50% of the cost.

Kids are in high school. We went a lot in covid years, but now it's harder and harder to get there (spent a grand total of 2 nights there between Jan 5 and May 30 of this year). It does impact our ability to take other vacations (financially limits our choices). It's stressful when things go wrong.

But, it's so peaceful when we are there. There's so much space. It's the only place large enough to hold my extended family (my parents, siblings, and their families) so it's a gathering place. My office has RTO, so my dream of wfh there and the kids having summer jobs there is not going to happen (and we make more renting than kids would pull in working).

I don't regret it. And I love it when there. but there are pros and cons.

It's too bad all that is going to be uninsurable or blown away by a catastrophic weather event.

Sell it now and invest in something that will actually be a generational asset.

[Anonymous]

So you have a million dollars to buy it, but how much do you have to maintain 2 households (at least for a few years until you retire)?

Even with a turn-key beachouse (good luck finding that unicorn) the startup of a beach house (furniture, windows treatments, room essentials, etc) are costly .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

No one called anyone a name.

I'm glad you're enjoying your beach house, but you've made a disastrous financial decision. Humans, as you're showing us, are terrible at evaluating risk. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, it matters what will happen in the future. The beach—any beach—is only going to get MORE risky, the question is how quickly. All evidence points to it accelerating in the near future. Insurance rates going up but still affordable is a sign that your investment is going the wrong way—get out before you're uninusrable. Don't think it can happen? Look at Florida, look at California. Hawaii.

NP. Sorry, but you're completely wrong about this. We bought in 2012, cash, for $900,000. House is worth well over $3 million now.

I know you think the sky is falling, but that's not the realty of the beach market.

If you invested the same amount in the S&P 500 for the same time period it would be worth $3.3 million today.

Now, how much do you think you’ve spent over the last 13 years on your beach house for taxes, maintenance, insurance and utilities.

The dividends alone that you’d earn from the stock market would pay for very very nice vacations every year without the hassle of a beach house.

Actually it would be worth $4.1MM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, have fun with climate change.

Only a sucker would be investing in anything near the water these days.

Seriously—insurance is only going up, and that's your best case scenario. Most places you're probably consider are extremely vulnerable to catastrophic storm damage.

Get a mountain house.

Op - also a consideration, but we aren’t sure we are boat people.

Maybe something mid Delmarva peninsula—easy drive to the beach with much less risk. We stayed at some airbnbs—beautiful large old houses on open fields, only like 30 minutes from Rehoboth.

That's not really a beach house.

Yes, we've established that only a literal moron would consider buying a beach house in a day and age when they're shortly all going to be uninsurable and/or severely damaged on a regular basis. The idea is a nice family home that can be an escape and a retreat that also has easy/close access to the beach so, while it's all still there, the OP can enjoy what the beach has to offer.

Why all the aggression and name-calling, PP? We have a beach house, and yes, our insurance premiums are increasing. We've also experienced several hurricanes. But we can afford the insurance as I suspect OP can. We didn't buy ocean front (we're deliberately four houses from the ocean) and we looked carefully at the flood zones, so we've never experience even a dollar's worth of damage due to storms or floods. This "literal moron" has seen her beach house value rise by $500K in the 3 1/2 years since we bought with a 3% mortgage. My personal opinion is that, if you have to get in your car and drive 30 minutes to a beach, you might as well drive 2 hours to the beach from DC. It's the same amount of effort to pack everything up and get in traffic. We walk down the lane to a beautiful uncrowded beach.

No one called anyone a name.

I'm glad you're enjoying your beach house, but you've made a disastrous financial decision. Humans, as you're showing us, are terrible at evaluating risk. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, it matters what will happen in the future. The beach—any beach—is only going to get MORE risky, the question is how quickly. All evidence points to it accelerating in the near future. Insurance rates going up but still affordable is a sign that your investment is going the wrong way—get out before you're uninusrable. Don't think it can happen? Look at Florida, look at California. Hawaii.

Are you unable to read? Calling someone a “sucker”, “loser”, or a “moron” doesn’t count as calling someone names?

No one was called that. Saying "only suckers would buy" is not the same as saying "you're a sucker".