I am not familiar with the market at The Lake right now, but if it is anything like other "hot" markets, I'd build timing into the equation. If The Lake market seems to be crazy, you might want to wait.
Where we live, everything is going over asking price, multiple offers, gone in a day. It's about the 6th cycle (boom/bust) I've been through over the last 45 years.
I go out and talk to the neighbors right now and they say, "boy, things seem crazy right now with housing prices."
I never forget that's what everyone was saying the last 5 times the market was out-of-control.
After the boom goes bust, I go out and talk to the neighbors and someone always says, "remember when we were talking about how crazy it was (during the boom). It really WAS crazy."
Swings in markets for second homes/vacation homes are generally more violent. Your home goes down in value 14%, and you have to sell your home (assume 7% cost to sell) and your 20% DP is gone.
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