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Where are vacation homes located in the US?

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Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#51

Post by ghaff »

snowwrestler wrote: post #33

The article cites the availability of air conditioning as a major factor in vacation home trends. Prior to AC, escaping heat was the main purpose to have a vacation home. That’s why so many vacation homes are near old major cities like Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, etc. In the summer, families with money escaped to the mountains or the beach, where it was much more pleasant during the hot months. I would g…

I came to that conclusion years ago. I guess that for a family or group of friends, a ski condo could maybe make sense--or for literal snowbirds that migrated with the season.

But the conclusion I came to years ago was that who wanted to be tied down to a particular location or urban location for vacation. Yeah, it's not cheap but more-so than owning and having to deal with a second home.

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#52

Post by radpanda »

fragmede wrote: post #34
fn-mote wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hawaii is also interesting. It has twice the population of Alaska, but only slightly more vacation homes (31.6k vs 29.2k). Common sense reasoning: people cannot afford to have their vacation home in Hawaii. High prices, long and expensive flights.

Yes but it's Hawaii . Common sense reasoning only lets you conclude that rich people have vacation homes in Hawaii, not some specific percentage relative to the rest of the states. I bet it if the math was done based on vacation land area, Hawaii would come up near the top, given Lanai. Probably places like Montana too.

> I bet it if the math was done based on vacation land area, Hawaii would come up near the top, given Lanai

I’d be shocked if the parcels that Larry Ellison owns on Lanai are classified in a way that would show up as a vacation home. Typically rich large landowners in Hawaii are “gentleman farmers” who (ab)use agricultural tax loopholes.

https://jacobin.com/2023/06/agriculture-property-tax-break-u...

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#53

Post by ghaff »

righthand wrote: post #19
cpursley wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not even logical, retired people don't have incomes. Anyways, they get them with insane property taxes.

Depends on what you mean by retired. In the traditional sense you’re correct, retired people don’t have income. In the legal sense retirement just means the person is of age to collect benefits. But there is also the question of type of income. If a retired person owns property and sells it, that is income subject to capital gains tax. If a person is retired but still owns the business or is even still a board member…

Or at least not much income. But they still probably have dividends/interest. May well have annuities of various kinds. Probably not much W-2 income but probably some material cash-flow, especially if they have a vacation home.

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#54

Post by garciasn »

PopAlongKid wrote: post #23
42772827 wrote: post #4

The largest generation in US history is retiring and buying property in the state with no income tax.

This explains very little. State income tax is based on your state of residence, not where you have a vacation home, in which by definition you do not live most of the year. Further, it makes no sense to refer to "the state with no income tax", as there are many of those. Granted, there are some working-age people who buy a vacation home with the thought of moving into it permanently a decade or two into the future,…

> as there are many of those.

Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming do not have income taxes. Less than 20% isn't 'many' to me but I realize YMMV.

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#55

Post by ghaff »

apwell23 wrote: post #39
snowwrestler wrote: post #33

The article cites the availability of air conditioning as a major factor in vacation home trends. Prior to AC, escaping heat was the main purpose to have a vacation home. That’s why so many vacation homes are near old major cities like Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, etc. In the summer, families with money escaped to the mountains or the beach, where it was much more pleasant during the hot months. I would g…

> You don’t need a condo near the local ski resort if you can fly to a different one every winter. lodging at a ski resort is still very expensive though. I think i makes sense to buy one if you ski ~100 days/year and airbnb out rest of the time. Lots of ski resorts now have summer activities like mtb and hiking too. and ski resorts usually are sentimental purchases.

100 days/year is a huge amount. I don't really downhill any longer but I'd have very little interest in getting a place for a lot less than that for the purposes of stashing my gear.

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#56

Post by toast0 »

terminalshort wrote: post #29
cpursley wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not even logical, retired people don't have incomes. Anyways, they get them with insane property taxes.

Depends how much money you retired with. When the ratio of your net worth to the cost of a house is high enough, property taxes are trivial. Let's say you have $50 million and you earn 7% a year on that. That's $3.5 million a year. Well worth it to live in FL to save the $350K you would lose every year in NY / CA.

Anything that involves living in FL isn't really worth it :P

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#57

Post by toast0 »

tayo42 wrote: post #37

If I got a vacation home it would probably be in Puerto Rico. Not part of the analysis. Then figure out a way to get out of income tax.

If you are a bone fide resident of Puerto Rico, you generally aren't subject to federal income tax. The commonwealth has an income tax though... depending on your income, it might be more or less than the federal tax; the top rate is lower, but the brackets are smaller so you get to the top rate sooner.

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#59

Post by cpursley »

toast0 wrote: post #56
terminalshort wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends how much money you retired with. When the ratio of your net worth to the cost of a house is high enough, property taxes are trivial. Let's say you have $50 million and you earn 7% a year on that. That's $3.5 million a year. Well worth it to live in FL to save the $350K you would lose every year in NY / CA.

Anything that involves living in FL isn't really worth it :P

Yes, yes - terrible place. Horrible beaches, rivers, etc. Too many snakes, gators and mosquitoes. And we're all full.

Re: Where are vacation homes located in the US?

#60

Post by owenversteeg »

The most interesting part of this is the map of census tracts that shows how most vacation homes are tightly grouped.

For example, Florida has a lot of vacation homes (8% of the state's housing vs 3% nationwide), but the vast majority of Florida census tracts have a tiny proportion and vacation homes are the majority in a few small areas. In some areas, the proportion of vacation homes seems to follow population density (gulf coast of Florida), and in other areas it follows the _inverse_ of population density (northern Maine.)

What I think would be really interesting is a map of distance to primary home by census tract. Obviously Florida vacation homeowners are mostly from far away and in New England they live closer, but what about all the other areas?

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