Quote:
Originally Posted by marinewife
I recently spoke to a local realtor to ask who are the people selling their homes here to the newcomers (mostly MA 80%, then CT, NY, NJ buyers), and was surprised by the answer.
Many of the sales are from elderly people who don't want to keep up with a 2nd home and would rather cash out in a good market, feeling they can always rent for a few summer weeks if they miss the area.
Another group- the adult children of the recently deceased (or their parents have moved to a long term facility) and are unwilling or cannot come to an agreement on covering the costs of keeping the family vacation home, vacation black out days, whether to rent it out, etc.
This group is typically where the selling price seems too high or unreasonable- there's in-fighting, one sibling may want to keep it, and the others want the money instead- many price it higher, against a realtor's instincts, hoping some out of towner will jump at it.
Lastly, those that are divorcing are selling their vacation homes as well.
I just hope the new residents are friendly, adapt to NH, and don't try to change what we have here.
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Way back in the 70's, when my parents bought their vaca home at the lake, their realtor, who was also a family friend, told them that 2nd homes are mainly put up for sale because either the owners are old and can't afford it or keep it up anymore, or the kids don't want it, (or they can't afford it), or there's a life-changing event, like a divorce, major illness, spouse death, etc. So it's really no different right now, with the exception of the sudden huge spike in prices that is maybe motivating some folks to sell to take the money and run. I also believe that the majority of 2nd home owners have always been out-of-staters, so again, I don't think there is anything new going on.
Mr Think:
To your point of where to go in retirement, we are having that same discussion in our house. We envision being at the lake 1/2 the year and "somewhere more south" the other part of the year, but we don't know where. Neither of us like FL...we have some friends in SC who absolutely love it, but we've never been there. I guess the thing to do is pick a few places and do some long weekends or a week or two there to get a feel for the areas. Then we'll be the out-of-staters that the locals will hate...HA
