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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]During Covid we bought a place in Hilton head and would "sneak" there during the kids schoolweek bc of online capability. We have 3 kids that were in elementary or middle school then. It was about 250k for a 3 bedroom house and a 15 minute walk to the beach.  As covid diminished and the kids got older we went less and less and now it's just used maybe for 1 week out of the year and a couple of long weekends.  My wife usually drives down on Thursday and I fly down Friday night--and we drive back together Sunday evening.  8.5 hours!  This year will be the first we rent it out--for a long term rental.   The kids had fun when they were younger but now have school activities and seem less interested in going to the same restaurants and same beaches each trip.  There was a huge,huge price jump--to over 1 million right after Covid but now the price has settled down to around 650k.  I don't think I'd buy today at 650k bc the yearly mortgage on 250k was less than a nice vacation for the 5 of us---650k would be a 5 plusstar vacation and then another 2 or three after that.  The annoying part is that the house is still your house--have to deal with fallen trees, squirrels in the attic space, hoa upset that the pine needles are in the driveway or that the paint looks too moldy due to moisture so the house has to be power washed 2x each summer... etc.  I'm kind of excited to finally just rent the place out and have a change of scenery at different beaches.   There's something nice about going to your own home but it gets kind of boring after a while too.   [/quote]

This.  Beach houses are a folly for the rich with extra money to spend on having someone look after it when you aren't using it.   People who aren't sweating all these extra expenses from natural damages and routine maintenance that requires a human to go there and take care of it are the only ones who should be looking to buy vacation homes.  Ditto increasing insurance fees, RE taxes and whatever local rules nonsense changes come about.

Airbnb allowed middle classes to "afford" much nicer vacation properties (beyond your dumpy cabin in the woods or by the lake or a small beach condo), and it's still an option as you cover a lot of these expenses I mention above with rental income.  But a lot of vacation towns started to impose limits and make it difficult to rent shorter term, which is something to consider.  [/quote]

You can mitigate alot of the above expenses and maintenance expenses if you rent out your place and have income.

Our beach house at DE beaches, we put down 200k 10 years ago, rent it out every summer which paid mortgage, maintenance, and still a little extra left over.  We use it for weekend getaways year round and maybe a week in the summer.  Lots of happy family memories together which are priceless.

We now have about 1.2-1,3 million in equity and only about 100k left on mortgage.

If you bought down at the beaches, esp before Covid. esp within tien limits, the value of your place has gone way up that 10-15k a year on maintenance is nothing compared to equity you have built up.

So it depends on location and market demand.  Market demand is not going to go down at DE beaches if you are anywhere within tien limits.  Very limited inventory and much more demand.[/quote]

typo town not tien [/quote]

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