Buying The Beach

I can't count the number of conversations I've had with friends over the years about going in together to buy a condo on the coast. Certainly it happened every time during the last 10 or 15 years when I drove down for a holiday of sun and sand. "We can each take three weekends a year and then rent it out the rest of the time," we'd excitedly plan. Interest rates were low...hadn't many of us refinanced our home mortgages recently to take advantage? I've had rental property inland for years...what could go wrong? Today's Press-Register has a story that may provide cold comfort if you actually purchased a condo for investment purposes...especially in the last decade (No, I didn't). Turns out some folks who should have been a lot more savvy were also left holding the sand filled bag, like the investment banker who only "glanced at" the paperwork when he bought a $759,900 unit. Some of this may be a case of people with too much money and not enough common sense, no? Over the weekend, the NY Times published a piece about an other beach area in trouble..Ft. Meyers, where all was well till 2007 when the bottom fell out.

Despite all that the lure of owning property at or near the beach is strong--God shut down the beach-making factory a long time ago-- and I suspect the next time I head that way I'll still be tempted to look at some furnished models..."we'll use it for two or three weekends a year, and then......"

UPDATE: read this piece in the Register about bidders falling all over themselves to buy condos.