Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our vacation home is also our investment strategy. We bought several years ago in Rehoboth, with the view that we'll eventually retire there. In the meantime, we're enjoying the house and building equity.

How much time have you actually spent in Rehoboth in the off season, particularly the dead of winter? Genuinely curious. I grew up in and still have family is a very similar beach town, and I'm not sure you understand just how desolate the winter season can be. There is virtually nothing to do. Not to mention that the year-round residents are mostly older, white Trumpsters.

I would never in a million years want to retire in a Rehoboth-type beach town.

We go there once a month during the off season for long weekends, with more days around Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have families there too. The restaurants are open, we hike and bike, and catch up with family.

Fall and spring are the best. No crowds. We especially enjoy spending fall weekends there.

Nothing is open in the dead of winter, and it's a lonely and desolate place. You haven't experienced that yet. Good luck.

Why are you so insistent on arguing this point? I have visited plenty of times during the dead of winter. What you find lonely and desolate does not affect me the same.

Rehoboth's year-round population declined by 16.5 percent from 2010 to 2020 and by another 11.2 percent the decade before. Half of local residents are over 65. And they're virtually all white.

Year round living in a Mid-Atlantic beach is a far cry from visiting in the summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our vacation home is also our investment strategy. We bought several years ago in Rehoboth, with the view that we'll eventually retire there. In the meantime, we're enjoying the house and building equity.

How much time have you actually spent in Rehoboth in the off season, particularly the dead of winter? Genuinely curious. I grew up in and still have family is a very similar beach town, and I'm not sure you understand just how desolate the winter season can be. There is virtually nothing to do. Not to mention that the year-round residents are mostly older, white Trumpsters.

I would never in a million years want to retire in a Rehoboth-type beach town.

We go there once a month during the off season for long weekends, with more days around Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have families there too. The restaurants are open, we hike and bike, and catch up with family.

Fall and spring are the best. No crowds. We especially enjoy spending fall weekends there.

Nothing is open in the dead of winter, and it's a lonely and desolate place. You haven't experienced that yet. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our vacation home is also our investment strategy. We bought several years ago in Rehoboth, with the view that we'll eventually retire there. In the meantime, we're enjoying the house and building equity.

How much time have you actually spent in Rehoboth in the off season, particularly the dead of winter? Genuinely curious. I grew up in and still have family is a very similar beach town, and I'm not sure you understand just how desolate the winter season can be. There is virtually nothing to do. Not to mention that the year-round residents are mostly older, white Trumpsters.

I would never in a million years want to retire in a Rehoboth-type beach town.

We go there once a month during the off season for long weekends, with more days around Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have families there too. The restaurants are open, we hike and bike, and catch up with family.

Fall and spring are the best. No crowds. We especially enjoy spending fall weekends there.

Anonymous wrote:Our vacation home is also our investment strategy. We bought several years ago in Rehoboth, with the view that we'll eventually retire there. In the meantime, we're enjoying the house and building equity.

How much time have you actually spent in Rehoboth in the off season, particularly the dead of winter? Genuinely curious. I grew up in and still have family is a very similar beach town, and I'm not sure you understand just how desolate the winter season can be. There is virtually nothing to do. Not to mention that the year-round residents are mostly older, white Trumpsters.

I would never in a million years want to retire in a Rehoboth-type beach town.

Anonymous wrote:Can the PP who said they had a country home and city home in the DMV say where the country place is that they bought pre pandemic and is their favorite second home? Thank you!

Hi, I'm that poster and I'd really rather not say exactly where. To give you an idea, it's about 70 miles northwest of the inner DMV.

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked how many of you are willing to take care of a second or third home. It’s all I can do to take care of the one I live in. I could afford a vacation home, but the S&P 500 doesn’t need cleaning and maintenance.

I have a second home, and yes it does take time and money, but you have to be willing to outsource most things so it doesn't become a burden.

Maybe this is semantics but to me there is a difference between a vacation home and a second home. We spend 4+ months in our second/summer home. It isn't vacation, although we do take some time off in the summer, but it is a completely different life than our life in DC. We still take vacations to other places. More people are spending extended time in other places thanks to remote work - I realize that is a privileged position, but it happens to overlap with second/third home owners.

Our vacation home is also our investment strategy. We bought several years ago in Rehoboth, with the view that we'll eventually retire there. In the meantime, we're enjoying the house and building equity.

Can the PP who said they had a country home and city home in the DMV say where the country place is that they bought pre pandemic and is their favorite second home? Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked how many of you are willing to take care of a second or third home. It’s all I can do to take care of the one I live in. I could afford a vacation home, but the S&P 500 doesn’t need cleaning and maintenance.

+1. Plus I love not having to clean or cook on vacation. I’m staying at a nice hotel where someone is refreshing my sheets and towels. Owning the place I’m vacationing in would take the fun out of a vacation for me.

There are house managers and cleaners for that, to be perfectly frank.

I hear you but, even if I had a whole team of people there, I still don’t really get the appeal of going to the same house over and over. If you have the money to fully staff a vacation home you could do so many more interesting things with your time.

It is not like you are paying the team 24/7/365. There is an app we pick what we need done, have groceries delivered and they place in pantry, fridge, etc. It really doesn't cost a lot. We don't only go there. We are going to France for 10 days in October, Germany/Netherlands for 8 days in April, Peurto Rico for 5 days in November, California for 6 days in April. Plus we will go on a couple long weekend ski trips out west this winter.

Anonymous wrote:I would love to retire (in 30 years) somewhere in the mountains that will be cooler than DC is predicted to be by then. We don't really want the expense and hassle of maintaining a second home now, and would happily keep our DC home until we're empty nesters, but I worry about real estate prices exploding over the next few decades in climate change proof areas. Has anyone JUST bought land somewhere with the plan to build later?

We did this. Love going there on the weekends and boondocking. Planting fruit trees. In a few years we'll have a thriving orchard.

Anonymous wrote:I own a vacation home. It is nice to have a place to get away to, but it is absolutely not worth the time, effort, and money we put into it. DH wanted it really badly, and I gave in. It has nearly broken our marriage.

If I were you, OP, I would find a place you like to rent at a location you like, and then just rent there as often as you want. Get all of the enjoyment with none of the hassle.

Exactly. I might be a snowbird one day, but until then, I have no plans to buy a second home.

Anonymous wrote:Queens Anne County, Maryland on the Bay. Takes about 1 hour to 1.5 hours to get there depending on traffic. Do not rent it out.

Why not?

I would not buy a vacation house. I do not want to buy any house. I hate to be stuck in one place. I can fit all of my belongings into my car, and I am free.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked how many of you are willing to take care of a second or third home. It’s all I can do to take care of the one I live in. I could afford a vacation home, but the S&P 500 doesn’t need cleaning and maintenance.

+1. Plus I love not having to clean or cook on vacation. I’m staying at a nice hotel where someone is refreshing my sheets and towels. Owning the place I’m vacationing in would take the fun out of a vacation for me.

There are house managers and cleaners for that, to be perfectly frank.

I hear you but, even if I had a whole team of people there, I still don’t really get the appeal of going to the same house over and over. If you have the money to fully staff a vacation home you could do so many more interesting things with your time.

And again, those aren’t mutually exclusive. The same people who hire house managers and cleaners for their vacation home are also doing ski trips, Europe, Caribbean etc.

Ok, but you do realize that only a tiny fraction of people can both afford all of this AND have the time to do all of these trips. Also, for me, it's not just about having the time off of work, no kids with social lives, etc, but the desire to leave your primary home so often.

I also can wrap my head around people who live such apparently fabulous lives but then... Killing time on dcum?

We are talking about people with second and third homes in this sub thread - it’s hardly indicative of the finances of regular Americans in the first place.