Do you think a vacation home is a good investment?

[Anonymous]

With hurricanes and rising tides beach property seems really risky to me. I think people also often buy when they have little kids and then find with other kids that they can’t really use it due to sports and other commitments. The people I know who use them regularly have kids who are kind of introverts and/or don’t do sports or theater or dance or anything like that.

[Anonymous]

A second home is a luxury item not an investment. It’s better than a boat, because it’s unlikely to lose value, but it’s still a money pit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With hurricanes and rising tides beach property seems really risky to me. I think people also often buy when they have little kids and then find with other kids that they can’t really use it due to sports and other commitments. The people I know who use them regularly have kids who are kind of introverts and/or don’t do sports or theater or dance or anything like that.

I’ve always found it odd that people list climate change as a reason not to buy a beach house while ignoring that such a huge portion of our GDP and infrastructure are based in coastal cities.

If climate change disaster happens, we’ll all have a lot bigger problems than just a beach cottage being wrecked.

Live your best life now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With hurricanes and rising tides beach property seems really risky to me. I think people also often buy when they have little kids and then find with other kids that they can’t really use it due to sports and other commitments. The people I know who use them regularly have kids who are kind of introverts and/or don’t do sports or theater or dance or anything like that.

I’ve always found it odd that people list climate change as a reason not to buy a beach house while ignoring that such a huge portion of our GDP and infrastructure are based in coastal cities.

If climate change disaster happens, we’ll all have a lot bigger problems than just a beach cottage being wrecked.

Live your best life now.

But you can "live your best life now" by just choosing to rent when you want to go to a beach cottage/vacation. Plenty of excellent choices to rent and then you don't have to spend the other 50 weeks of the year stressing about maintaining the home. And you can invest your savings, since you don't have a money pit to maintain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With hurricanes and rising tides beach property seems really risky to me. I think people also often buy when they have little kids and then find with other kids that they can’t really use it due to sports and other commitments. The people I know who use them regularly have kids who are kind of introverts and/or don’t do sports or theater or dance or anything like that.

I’ve always found it odd that people list climate change as a reason not to buy a beach house while ignoring that such a huge portion of our GDP and infrastructure are based in coastal cities.

If climate change disaster happens, we’ll all have a lot bigger problems than just a beach cottage being wrecked.

Live your best life now.

But you can "live your best life now" by just choosing to rent when you want to go to a beach cottage/vacation. Plenty of excellent choices to rent and then you don't have to spend the other 50 weeks of the year stressing about maintaining the home. And you can invest your savings, since you don't have a money pit to maintain.

Did you read the full post you replied to? I think not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on location, and a host of other factors, OP. To me, it is not worth the investment of my mental energy.

+1. For me its the mental energy specifically. Maintaining our primary home is work enough. I don't need more work. I'll stick to hotels and rentals. If I were uber wealthy and a personal assistant could manage all the property maintenance and contractors maybe, but I'm not.

+1 We sold ours. There's also a huge glut of vacation homes right now since everyone and their brother started doing airbnb/vrbo etc AND insurance market is rapidly changing for areas with climate issues. Insurance for a rental property is always a lot higher. I feel we got out when we should, but I could be wrong. It was nice for about 2 years and then a hassle.

Rehoboth inventory is tighter than northern va and prices are insane. Glad we bought 18 yrs ago. House tripled in value. Will retire here and also work remote here in Rehoboth. 🍷 🏖️

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With hurricanes and rising tides beach property seems really risky to me. I think people also often buy when they have little kids and then find with other kids that they can’t really use it due to sports and other commitments. The people I know who use them regularly have kids who are kind of introverts and/or don’t do sports or theater or dance or anything like that.

I’ve always found it odd that people list climate change as a reason not to buy a beach house while ignoring that such a huge portion of our GDP and infrastructure are based in coastal cities.

If climate change disaster happens, we’ll all have a lot bigger problems than just a beach cottage being wrecked.

Live your best life now.

But you can "live your best life now" by just choosing to rent when you want to go to a beach cottage/vacation. Plenty of excellent choices to rent and then you don't have to spend the other 50 weeks of the year stressing about maintaining the home. And you can invest your savings, since you don't have a money pit to maintain.

Did you read the full post you replied to? I think not.

DP but it seems silly to say if I put $300k into coastal RE I am no more exposed to climate risk than if I put $300k into a total market index.

Yes climate change is bad for the economy (that is the whole reason institutional investors support ESG as a tool) but it’s clearly worse for someone who might lose their vacation home than for the average person.

[Anonymous]

It was a great investment in 2020. My beachouse immediately doubled if not tripled in value. Today might be harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With hurricanes and rising tides beach property seems really risky to me. I think people also often buy when they have little kids and then find with other kids that they can’t really use it due to sports and other commitments. The people I know who use them regularly have kids who are kind of introverts and/or don’t do sports or theater or dance or anything like that.

I’ve always found it odd that people list climate change as a reason not to buy a beach house while ignoring that such a huge portion of our GDP and infrastructure are based in coastal cities.

If climate change disaster happens, we’ll all have a lot bigger problems than just a beach cottage being wrecked.

Live your best life now.

You do know the issues are happening now. Along with the insurance costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With hurricanes and rising tides beach property seems really risky to me. I think people also often buy when they have little kids and then find with other kids that they can’t really use it due to sports and other commitments. The people I know who use them regularly have kids who are kind of introverts and/or don’t do sports or theater or dance or anything like that.

I’ve always found it odd that people list climate change as a reason not to buy a beach house while ignoring that such a huge portion of our GDP and infrastructure are based in coastal cities.

If climate change disaster happens, we’ll all have a lot bigger problems than just a beach cottage being wrecked.

Live your best life now.

But you can "live your best life now" by just choosing to rent when you want to go to a beach cottage/vacation. Plenty of excellent choices to rent and then you don't have to spend the other 50 weeks of the year stressing about maintaining the home. And you can invest your savings, since you don't have a money pit to maintain.

Did you read the full post you replied to? I think not.

DP but it seems silly to say if I put $300k into coastal RE I am no more exposed to climate risk than if I put $300k into a total market index.

Yes climate change is bad for the economy (that is the whole reason institutional investors support ESG as a tool) but it’s clearly worse for someone who might lose their vacation home than for the average person.

+1 The immediate/short term risk of climate change is highly concentrated. See the insurance rates and insurers pulling out of parts of Florida. Long term it's a risk to the overall economy (though also a potential source for economic growth in mitigation/new energies etc.)

[Anonymous]

I would never get a vacation home with the express objective of profiting from it - I would get it in order to have a space my family and I can enjoy.

[Anonymous]

We put a contract on our Bald Head Island house in October 2021, when prices had already shot up. Even so, less than 2 years later, we could sell it today for $250K more judging from recent sales.

That more than covers any negative cash flow on the monthly mortgage from not renting out the house as much as we thought we would -- because we prefer to use it during the peak weeks. And we no longer spent $30K on vacations per year (because we were taking big trips for a long time with the kids), so there's that.

I agree that owning a vacation home shouldn't be considered only from the financial point of view. There are better ways to invest. But we'll definitely see a return financially and we've been getting a lot more from this purchase than ROI. We've never regretted it for a moment!

[Anonymous]

Everyone genuinely wealthy we know has at least one vacation home. Literally all of them. It's always the people without a pot to piss in who act like they're financial planning experts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone genuinely wealthy we know has at least one vacation home. Literally all of them. It's always the people without a pot to piss in who act like they're financial planning experts.

I’m in a corporate job with people making north of $500k and most that I know don’t. However, they do travel extensively.

[Anonymous]

The negative naysayers who jump on here making vacation homes seem like such a drag to own are transparent airbnb vrbo grifters. Or poor people who hate that they know owning a second home is a signal you've made it. And lacking one makes you feel poor.