One should always own rental property close to blue collar type of employment..... Vacation rental property has appeals but the downside is just what you describe....100% to vacant.... I was more referring to people who own a second home/condo...lake cottage, Aspen home, beach condo....used by them/friends/family, maybe rented out but not bought as an investment..... Do they count the large number of residence that "snowbirds" own in the South and use part of the year??? Again, a skewed number if they are using this The numbers just don't add up.....there also seems to be a very large number of investor purchases IF the price is "right"....which means that the market will correct itself in most, but not all, areas if given enough time....some locations, Detroit, are just going to cease to exist in any meaningful manner....sad but true SteveD
Taxes will crush you if you really are on the water in Florida, and I mean CRUSH you (even the intercoastal), and maintenance fees are exorbitant if you buy a condo even in a detached, gated community - 600 to 5000 per month, depending. Add to that insurance in Florida is extremely expensive IF you can find it (good luck). No, Dorothy, Florida's not in Kansas anymore. Huge carrying costs in terms of taxes and maintenance fees, and no casualty insurance (including hurricane insurance) for most.
I get the same impression. Numbers don't lie, people do. People need to live somewhere. Did they leave the country? How do you have empty houses that are for sale AND a huge amount of empty rental properties? What the hell is going on here? Counting 4.8 million seasonal properties sounds absurd to me, and the 7.8 million in the "other" category seems intentionally misleading also. Maybe most of the foreclosed houses still have occupants. They fall into the "not empty, but they should be" category.
"walks you through simple arithmetic" http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a8mdg7z0u7Dw&refer=home
Not saying you got a bad deal, but 1 mile from the beach is generally not considered a beach house. I think there may be a little confusion because you referred to it as on the beach in a previous post. Sounds like a fairly good deal though esp. if you enjoy Orlando.
No disrespect meant, but using a $1,000,000 house in Santa Barbara as an example is simply nonsense.... The press thinks the entire real estate home market is NY City and California..... SteveD
LOL, when he called it a beach house while listing the area, I knew right away he has no idea WTF he is getting into. There is a reason those houses are under 50k. Just like there is a reason you can buy a house in Detroit for $5k. Outside of South Beach, other nice parts of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Boca Raton, Floride is a shit hole.