Lol at the "once they are paid off..." It's getting to the paid off part that's the issue. Most people I know don't have vacation homes handed down by parents and grandparents and the few that do have needed to sell them to pay for elder care.

I own a home in Mexico and love it. There are no property taxes with a management company, upkeep is easy. It's an easy flight to Cancun and a couple hour drive. I can work from the home so it's nice to go for the dreaded DC school February break.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

They have at the DE beaches. So many use it as a weekend getaway, not vacation home. They also don’t rent it out. That is why rental prices inventory in town or near the water has decreased and has gotten way more competitive.

Typo rental inventory not prices.

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

They have at the DE beaches. So many use it as a weekend getaway, not vacation home. They also don’t rent it out. That is why rental prices inventory in town or near the water has decreased and has gotten way more competitive.

I’m sitting in my second home about 100 minutes NW of DC as we speak. It’s awesome, we use it all the time, AND we still take all kinds of other trips. It’s easy because I’m early retired and the whole family (kids and grandkids) all live in the DMV.

I'm surprised weekend places haven't taken off more here considering the high number of midwest transplants in the DMV. Plenty of people without DCUM $$ have 2nd "cabins" in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are great ways to ensure regular family time and outdoor activity. Are they the best possible investment for your money from a strictly financial perspective? Maybe not. But they are usually at least a positive investment too. Comparing a 2nd home where you'll spend a lot of time together to a couple of vacations just isn't valid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see the appeal for some but we don't want to visit the same place every summer. We do annual trips with my parents, siblings and our families but we pick a different vrbo house or resort so that we can visit different places. It also lets us siblings who are spread across the country each get a turn at a shorter flight.

We visit monthly or whenever we feel like it, plus take vacations further away.

+1. For many it’s a weekend home or getaway. It’s not a vacation home.

I guess if it's a lifestyle you are used to it seems a normal thing. But when I think of where I might want to enjoy a weekend away (mountains, lakeside, beach), those all are 2+ hours drive and the last thing I want to do after work on a Friday is sit in traffic for a couple hours+. The only way I can see wanting this is if I was opting to live someplace really small/not nice location to be close to work but really wanted to live in the country so the couple hours of traffic would be worthwhile to avoid spending the weekend in a day-to-day home I didn't actually enjoy. Or, as a transition to retirement if I wanted to move to that area and was willing to put up with the hassle to use it occasionally until then.

I don't think there's anything wrong with buying a 2nd home if that's the lifestyle you want. It just doesn't interest me at all.

More coping. Driving for a couple hours to a second home is such a drag! What's amazing is driving an hour to the airport, getting groped by TSA, sitting next to smelly weirdos, couple hour flight, sleeping in a bed you're not sure is actually clean, in a room which may have secret cameras in it (airbnb, vrbo). And I guess we're pretending the beach doesn't have high-speed internet and can't access Zoom? It's 2023, you can obviously leave early or stay late and get work done from the second home.

Anonymous wrote:People here often write that second homes are a waste of money and pointless, and that people should rather invest the money and go on vacations. My thoughts about this are different - they are really a financial commitment for the people who buy them, but they offer so much more once they’re paid off. They’re basically a free place to spend extended holidays/vacations, an anchor to explore and travel to other places from, a place where families build memories. Most people I know have vacation homes (1 or 2), where they go every summer with their kids, or spend summer weekends. No one ever complains, everyone really likes and enjoys them. In all instances though, they were bought by their parents or grandparents.

No, BROKE people say this. It's a cope. This forum is full of cash-strapped wannabes who circle jerk each other with copes like this. Everyone knows smart upper middle class and rich people own MULTIPLE homes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see the appeal for some but we don't want to visit the same place every summer. We do annual trips with my parents, siblings and our families but we pick a different vrbo house or resort so that we can visit different places. It also lets us siblings who are spread across the country each get a turn at a shorter flight.

We visit monthly or whenever we feel like it, plus take vacations further away.

+1. For many it’s a weekend home or getaway. It’s not a vacation home.

I guess if it's a lifestyle you are used to it seems a normal thing. But when I think of where I might want to enjoy a weekend away (mountains, lakeside, beach), those all are 2+ hours drive and the last thing I want to do after work on a Friday is sit in traffic for a couple hours+. The only way I can see wanting this is if I was opting to live someplace really small/not nice location to be close to work but really wanted to live in the country so the couple hours of traffic would be worthwhile to avoid spending the weekend in a day-to-day home I didn't actually enjoy. Or, as a transition to retirement if I wanted to move to that area and was willing to put up with the hassle to use it occasionally until then.

I don't think there's anything wrong with buying a 2nd home if that's the lifestyle you want. It just doesn't interest me at all.

Many people with weekend homes at the DE beaches like us don’t go Friday after work. We have flexibility. As long as we leave by 1:30pm it’s no big deal and easy. Or leave at 7pm if you can’t leave early and no big deal.

It’s also fantastic for numerous long 3 day weekends throughout the year. Leave Thursday night and back Sunday evening.

I’ve had a weekend place for almost 15 years. I go there when I can, sometimes it’s months between visits. I bought it outright for $185k so the only costs are taxes, utilities and maintenance. Averages about $5k per year all in. I just don’t use it like I’d like to, and haven’t in the past 7-8 years. But I keep it because in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t cost me much, I do enjoy using it when I can and I don’t need the value (it’s probably worth $350k today).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having the time and money to visit new places is an amazing way to create lasting memories as a family.

Returning to the same place over time to do your favorite things with people you love is also an amazing way to create lasting memories.

Neither one of these things is a wrong answer.

Many people do both. It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.

Most people have limits on their vacation time so they do have to make choices. We gave up some exploration of new places in order to spend time with family at my parents house when the kids were younger. Now we do more traveling to different places but I fit in more weekend trips to see my aging mom in CA. My family is spread across the country so if we'd bought a 2nd house in a spot easily drivable to DC I'd have felt like we'd have to use that regularly in place of spending time traveling to visit family elsewhere. I think the shared memories in the vacation home only really work when your family is at least in the same region.

The OP said people who have these vacation homes, purchased by parents or grandparents, all love them. Maybe. But they likely also have family members having arguments with their spouses about giving up a week of their limited vacation time to go on the same trip yet again. And arguments among siblings about who uses it when. And siblings who argue about selling the house vs. how to divide up costs if they keep it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see the appeal for some but we don't want to visit the same place every summer. We do annual trips with my parents, siblings and our families but we pick a different vrbo house or resort so that we can visit different places. It also lets us siblings who are spread across the country each get a turn at a shorter flight.

We visit monthly or whenever we feel like it, plus take vacations further away.

+1. For many it’s a weekend home or getaway. It’s not a vacation home.

I guess if it's a lifestyle you are used to it seems a normal thing. But when I think of where I might want to enjoy a weekend away (mountains, lakeside, beach), those all are 2+ hours drive and the last thing I want to do after work on a Friday is sit in traffic for a couple hours+. The only way I can see wanting this is if I was opting to live someplace really small/not nice location to be close to work but really wanted to live in the country so the couple hours of traffic would be worthwhile to avoid spending the weekend in a day-to-day home I didn't actually enjoy. Or, as a transition to retirement if I wanted to move to that area and was willing to put up with the hassle to use it occasionally until then.

I don't think there's anything wrong with buying a 2nd home if that's the lifestyle you want. It just doesn't interest me at all.

Anonymous wrote:Having the time and money to visit new places is an amazing way to create lasting memories as a family.

Returning to the same place over time to do your favorite things with people you love is also an amazing way to create lasting memories.

Neither one of these things is a wrong answer.

Many people do both. It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.

Having the time and money to visit new places is an amazing way to create lasting memories as a family.

Returning to the same place over time to do your favorite things with people you love is also an amazing way to create lasting memories.

Neither one of these things is a wrong answer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see the appeal for some but we don't want to visit the same place every summer. We do annual trips with my parents, siblings and our families but we pick a different vrbo house or resort so that we can visit different places. It also lets us siblings who are spread across the country each get a turn at a shorter flight.

We visit monthly or whenever we feel like it, plus take vacations further away.

+1. For many it’s a weekend home or getaway. It’s not a vacation home.

+1 we have our getaway home and travel extensively, this year will be Hawaii, Florida and Greece for vacation. Most of the summer at the getaway, where we will enjoy time with the summer home friends who cone every summer and holidays like us.