Not having a second / vacation home makes me feel poor & depressed. Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With seemingly everyone who has one gone from their main residence right now, anyone else feel this way? Be honest.

Because honestly, this week I can't stop feeling "poor" (not literally, relatively) because we don't have a place to escape to. Relying on whimsical invites to friends' and family vacation homes at this point in our life just feels so low and desperate. I don't care how much or how little financial sense it makes, we need a second home. I'm so over being trapped at home all year, fishing for invitations, or even renting for a week at a time. Perhaps this is the precise feeling that motivates so many to buy a second home?

OP it's not all it's cracked up to be.

A lot of work. Lot's of added expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With seemingly everyone who has one gone from their main residence right now, anyone else feel this way? Be honest.

Because honestly, this week I can't stop feeling "poor" (not literally, relatively) because we don't have a place to escape to. Relying on whimsical invites to friends' and family vacation homes at this point in our life just feels so low and desperate. I don't care how much or how little financial sense it makes, we need a second home. I'm so over being trapped at home all year, fishing for invitations, or even renting for a week at a time. Perhaps this is the precise feeling that motivates so many to buy a second home?

OP it's not all it's cracked up to be.

A lot of work. Lot's of added expenses.

This. I mean, I am absolutely certain it is wonderful for some, but not having a second/vacation home makes me feel more relaxed, less stressed, and more financially solvent.

Honestly, I'd rather rent something amazing when I want to, but not pay for the upkeep or worry about the hassle of maintenance.

[Anonymous]

I'm dreaming of vacation home in Florida, a place I could escape to during the cold season. I constantly am checking online houses listed for sale in Sarasota, Venice, Naples, Boca Raton. But I only have $250K for downpayment and ideally would like to buy second home for cash. I'm waiting for some real estate crash in Florida; currently, everything is too expensive. The problem is, that I would either have to drive or fly to Florida from here and I cannot telework at my work. It would only be about 5 weeks spent total for a year down there, and I'm not sure if that would be worth it financially.

[Anonymous]

I'm 50 years old and I know ONE person who has a vacation home. ONE person, in all my 50 years. I can't roll my eyes hard enough at the OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I own three homes. A 2500 sqft house in NoVa, a 2000 sqft house in Florida, and a 7000 sqft house in the Colorado mountains (inherited). It is killing me and I want to sell them. Don’t do this.

Hopefully you sold them in the past year and made a mint?

[Anonymous]

That's enough for me today thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With seemingly everyone who has one gone from their main residence right now, anyone else feel this way? Be honest.

Because honestly, this week I can't stop feeling "poor" (not literally, relatively) because we don't have a place to escape to. Relying on whimsical invites to friends' and family vacation homes at this point in our life just feels so low and desperate. I don't care how much or how little financial sense it makes, we need a second home. I'm so over being trapped at home all year, fishing for invitations, or even renting for a week at a time. Perhaps this is the precise feeling that motivates so many to buy a second home?

When Covid hit we immediately saw people flocking to their second homes...As soon as summer camps were canceled, we freaked out and started looking for a 2nd home as our primary home is tiny and we have 3 kids so thought we would lose it at home. We got lucky and bought a place 2 months into the pandemic for a relatively low price near the beach right before the 2nd home market exploded. Yes we have to drive there, clean it, maintain it... but we honestly feel it’s worth every penny and we still get excited every time we travel there. It’s not for everyone, but it was 100% the right decision for us and could not be happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 50 years old and I know ONE person who has a vacation home. ONE person, in all my 50 years. I can't roll my eyes hard enough at the OP.

Yeah, I'm 54 and have only known 3 people, ever, who have had second homes. One owned an expensive beach cottage nearby the first house, and loved it. The other basically had a shack in the mountains, and the third inherited a beach cottage further away that was always a headache and eventually sold.

Only one of the three really enjoyed it, and also eventually made a profit for his kids when it sold.

I am not jealous at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No second home for me. I’d rather take that mortgage and time and travel the world!

I'd rather build equity in a second home than leave photos to my children and grandchildren (which they'll just put in boxes in storage) from travel "experiences".

This is how we feel about it too, with our second home, where we will spend the summer because we can't travel anywhere. Traveling holds less appeal to me than it used to because there are fewer and fewer places that aren't overtouristed. I will admit that I don't like people well enough to have to deal with too many of them on my vacation.

I was going to post the same thing. We have our second home and will spend almost all the summer here (and have been here for all the pandemic) except for one summer camp in DC. Our place is on the water and less than 2 hours from DC. And a nicer house than our DC house for less money bc is is a LCOL area. Our combined mortgages are what we would have to pay in total to upgrade our DC house. So now I build equity in two homes.

And we can still travel. But travel doesn’t interest me as much anymore bc as you say, everything is overtouristed and air travel exhausts me. And I don’t like crowds. But I don’t feel like I can’t vacation anywhere bc of my second home. I don’t feel like I have to come here. Pre-pandemic, we came when we wanted to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No second home for me. I’d rather take that mortgage and time and travel the world!

I'd rather build equity in a second home than leave photos to my children and grandchildren (which they'll just put in boxes in storage) from travel "experiences".

This is how we feel about it too, with our second home, where we will spend the summer because we can't travel anywhere. Traveling holds less appeal to me than it used to because there are fewer and fewer places that aren't overtouristed. I will admit that I don't like people well enough to have to deal with too many of them on my vacation.

I was going to post the same thing. We have our second home and will spend almost all the summer here (and have been here for all the pandemic) except for one summer camp in DC. Our place is on the water and less than 2 hours from DC. And a nicer house than our DC house for less money bc is is a LCOL area. Our combined mortgages are what we would have to pay in total to upgrade our DC house. So now I build equity in two homes.

And we can still travel. But travel doesn’t interest me as much anymore bc as you say, everything is overtouristed and air travel exhausts me. And I don’t like crowds. But I don’t feel like I can’t vacation anywhere bc of my second home. I don’t feel like I have to come here. Pre-pandemic, we came when we wanted to.

PP here - I see this thread is a year old. I may have commented earlier. I wonder if I feel the same way now as I did then and just repeated myself!

[Anonymous]

Single mom here with a beach house. Wasn’t hard. If I can do it so can you.

[Anonymous]

Sitting at my second home now. Just sank ~$8k into it to fix the rotting deck. House needs about ~$20k more in maintenance issues alone (and I haven’t been deferring maintenance, house is just getting older and needs work). I love my second home but sometimes it’s a financial and time burden I really don’t need. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

That being said I’ve never considered selling it. The pros outweighs the cons but it’s not all rainbows and butterflies.

[Anonymous]

Beach house only makes sense if you have a SAHM who summers there or you work WAH jobs so can work from the beach. We WAH now, but the future is cloudy. Heading back once or twice a week with a 3 hr beach drive would get old.

[Anonymous]

Generations of multiple homes in my family and private air travel has finally really made it easy. 54 years old and remember the tough slogs getting to and from back when. Now it’s a 45 minute direct flight from DC to the beach house and about 3 hours to the mountain house. Considering adding a third along the southern Atlantic coast now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generations of multiple homes in my family and private air travel has finally really made it easy. 54 years old and remember the tough slogs getting to and from back when. Now it’s a 45 minute direct flight from DC to the beach house and about 3 hours to the mountain house. Considering adding a third along the southern Atlantic coast now.