Forbes Picks Posh Deep Creek

From Forbes magazine comes a list of new "hot spots" for second homes being bought by affluent buyers, even in this down market. Author Lauren Sherman features One Bal Harbour in Bal Harbour, Florida, where prices for condos started at $1-million.... Deep Creek, Maryland, a four-season resort in the western part of the state that includes lakes and Wisp ski resort... South Lake Tahoe, California, where Vail Resorts is building the Chateau at Heavenly Village, a new condo hotel... and Roxbury, Connecticut, a celebrity-studded community with multi-million dollar properties. Click here for article.

Canada Shops U.S. For 2nd Home Bargains

Orlando, Las Vegas and other vacation home spots suffering fromt the burst housing bubble have newly interested buyers in Canada. "The combination of the strong Canadian dollar and plummeting real estate prices in the U.S. due to the sub-prime mortgage disaster has made buying property feasible again, especially in Florida and California where home prices had risen dramatically in recent years," says a column in today's National Post. Note to sellers: these are not just potential investors but snowbirds who have always wanted a warm getaway. For oil-rich buyers in Alberta, golf and gated communities in Arizona are a big draw.

"Big White" Buyers Are Brits, Aussies

Brokers know that with the dollar so weak, overseas visitors to the US are buying second homes and vacation homes in Florida and pieds-a-terre in New York like they are, well, tee shirts. Same thing up North. At Big White, a wonderful ski area above Kelowna, British Columbia in Canada, Gary Turner of Royal LePage told me Tuesday that his biggest new market for buyers is Britain. With Australia not far behind. Why not? It's almost as easy to fly to Big White from London or Sydney as it is to go the Alps, except the Canadian snow is soooo much better. And their kids love the idea of ski/snowboard instruction in English. Handsome two-BR strata (condo) at Sundance can be had for under $465,000. Budget 2-BRs? Under $200,000. No wonder the slogan is "Tired of Tee Shirts? Come home with the ultimate souvenir!"

Why Not Rent Villa in Spain Rather Than Hotel?

Americans unhesitatingly rent vacation condos and private homes in stateside resorts so why not do the same in Europe? Marta Staples, Italian Specialist for Doorways, Ltd. says nothing compares with a luxury farmhouse in Tuscany or an exquisite apartment in Rome and its easy when you deal with an American experienced in handling these arrangements. Her firm has an inventory of sweet homes in France and Spain (like Mas Talaia near Barcelona, shown) as well. Another company I met at a recent European travel expo, the Zurich-based Interhome, has sumptuous properties for rent in 19 countries-- from Florida to the Swiss Alps. It's worth comparing these services with villas offered for rent by owners.

No Debt: BelleHavens' Smart Club Pitch

The destination club BelleHavens, which is in the same deluxe class as Exclusive Resorts and Quintess, has a unique selling point that should appeal to mortgage-wary travelers: the homes in its portfolio are owned by members rather than the club's overseers, and are debt-free. BelleHavens thus calls itself the first "equity membership" club with asset protection as a key factor. That doesn't mean that visits to properties such as those at La Quinta, CA (shown); Palm Coast, FL; Kohala Coast, Hawaii; Hilton Head, SC; Los Cabos, Mexico; and midtown Manhattan come cheaply. The current price of a BelleHavens Equity Membership is a one-time deposit of $225,000 and annual dues of $18,500. Still, that means a reasonable average price of about $615 per night based on 30 nights annual usage. And peace of mind? Priceless.

Better Value For Destination Club Members

The 5,000 rich people who hold "destination club" memberships will be thrilled to hear they will soon have a bigger choice of destination vacation homes to visit. Two of the largest clubs -- Private Escapes, based in Colorado, and Ultimate Resorts, based in Florida, are merging. Together, they will create a company that becomes No. 2 in this field. The biggest is Esclusive Resorts, based in Denver, with 3,000 members. The combined new entity will have with $200 million in assets, 1,200 members and about 120 employees.

Author Says Now's Time to Buy

Christine Hrib Karpinski, author of How to Rent Vacation Properties By Owner, says you don't need to dig deep right now for a vacation home. Last year saw "a definite shift away from more expensive markets (Florida, Nevada, Arizona) and into more affordable locations (Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas). Obviously, houses will cost less in these areas, which means more buying opportunities for less affluent individuals." Karpinski also finds a silver lining for those who don't think they need rental income. While less than 20% of those responding to a Realtors' survey said they would not rent out their vacation getaway, "when people do decide to start renting it out, they are delighted to discover how easy it is and how profitable it can be."

Rich May Catch Break on Florida Insurance

Florida's home-insurance relief bill is not meeting with univeral approval. The state has OKed a plan that lawmakers say will lower rates across the state by an average of more than 20 percent. But according to the Orlando Sentinel, savings "will vary wildly from household to household."And columnist Scott Maxwell says rich second-home owners with beach houses will catch a break while costs will go up for millions of fulltime Sunshine State residents.

'Wealth Gap' Hits Florida West Coast

Naples, Florida is typical of second-home communities suffering from the "wealth gap." Says an article in USA Today, "investors and vacation-home buyers helped drive up the median home price to $446,900, second-highest in Florida after the Keys." Prices are dropping but not enough for people who work in the region. More than 80% of the workforce is employed in the four lowest-paying industries: construction, retail, agriculture and services (pool cleaners, for instance, and golf instructors). Median income for a family of four: $66,100. That would qualify you for only about a $350,000 house, nearly $100,000 below the median.

Dissed By Your Home Insurance Company?

That's the way some folks in southwest Florida feel. Citizens Insurance Company has sent out thousands of letters to policy holders with coastal property demanding that they prove their home is their primary residence.

It's because of a change in the law, says an article in news-press.com of Fort Myers. The background:

"In the spring, the Legislature passed new laws that treat second-home owners different from Citizens policyholders who insure their primary residences through the state-run insurer of last resort.

"Starting with new policies and renewal notices that go out after March 1, owners of vacation homes, rentals and other non-homestead property will be kicked out of Citizens and forced to try to buy their insurance again on the private market."

Economy.com Forecasts Major Florida Price Plunges

For those who own vacation homes or investment property in Cape Coral, Sarasota and Naples, Florida, fasten your seat belts -- you're in for a bumpy ride. Moody's economy.com projects more than an 18 percent decline in prices by February in Cape Coral, 14 percent in Sarasota by March and almost 13 percent in Naples by March. Note: numbers based on media existing home prices.

Bias in Second Home Sales?

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a disturbing article about minority second-home buyers who were either blackballed or otherwise discriminated against when they tried to buy a vacation home. Where? In "Palm Beach County, Fla., there were 144 race-based housing complaints made to the local chapter of the nonprofit National Fair Housing Alliance in 2005, a 30 percent increase over the previous year, with many of them being filed by first-time second-home buyers. Bias claims are also up in Naples, Fla., and San Diego County, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development." The article included a tale of an African-American doctor who had a deal on a house in Sedona, AZ that was suddenly cancelled. Do you know of a bias case? Let me know.

High Winds Blow NYC, DC No Good, Sez Expert

Thinking about buying a pied-a-terre in New York City or Washington, DC? Or a second home in Naples, Fla.? Keep your checkbook in your pocket, says real estate consultant John Burns. His "barometer" of housing affordability blows these cities off the charts in terms of bubbledom. "Nine markets have even worse affordability levels than when mortgage rates were 18%+ in the early 1980s: New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), Baltimore, Edison (New Jersey), Nassau (Long Island, NY) and Naples," says Burns's latest newsletter.

Flagler Ain't Flagging

Okay, so Flagler County, on Florida's Atlantic Coast south of St. Augustine, had the highest rate of growth in the number of housing units of any county in the nation for the second year in a row, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates. I'm not sure how significant this is, except that it might be the last secret swatch of sand in the Sunshine State. The trouble with counts by county is that Flagler shoots to the top of the list with only 5,000 new housing units -- a nearly 15 percent jump over 2005. Also on the list: Maricopa County, the Arizona sprawl that includes Phoenix, with 52,000 homes added.

Hot Spots Could Be Ripe for a Cooldown

These areas saw some of the biggest gains in vacation home sales between early 2001 and 2005. Now many of these markets are beginning to cool, says Fiserv Lending Solutions.

               Av Gain (2001 - 2005) Gain (2005 - 2006)
Cape May, N.J.                 16%               9%
Cape Cod, Mass.                12%               3%
Florida Keys                   24%               13%
Lake Tahoe, CA                 13%                7%

Is The Party Over?

Be worried. Be very, very worried, if you're a second-home seller. It may be time to declare officially that the bubble has burst. A front-page New York Times article today says: "The once-bustling deal making in a wide variety of popular locations for second homes -- areas like Florida, the Jersey Shore and Lake Tahoe, as well as the high-price playground on the East End of Long Island -- has slowed markedly in recent months. As the overall housing market weakens, the interest in buying vacation homes, from the most modest condominiums on up, appears to be falling faster."

Wanted: Killington Development Partner

A branch of Centex, the big home builder, will not partner up with Killington, the Vermont ski resort, on a new village. With resorts in several states including California and Florida, Centex Destination Properties came aboard one year ago as the partner Killington and S.P. Land needed to revive plans to build 1400 units in a new ski village, according to an article in the Rutland Herald. At the time of last year's announcement, a spokesman indicated that the company's involvement was in the kicking-the-tires phase."

Categories: Vermont, Killington

Chic Sheikh: Aspen Palace for Sale

For a sum that equals the GNP of a small country, you can spend weekends trying out one of the 16 bathrooms in an Aspen suburban cabin. As the Wall Street Journal reports today, "Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S., listed his Aspen-area mansion for $135 million. The price is thought to be the highest ever for a single-family home in the U.S., surpassing the $125 million asking price for an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. Built in 1990, the prince's 95-acre estate includes a main residence that measures 56,000 square feet with 15 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, an indoor swimming pool, an elevator and dumbwaiters." For those who know Aspen, you also probably know that this bulbous retreat on the mesa overlooking the Aspen Airport has been the target of endless jokes. Luxury B&B, anyone?

Battle Mountain May Drive Real Estate near Vail

"Local real estate experts suspect the development of a private ski resort on Battle Mountain" not far from Vail, Colorado, "might drive up property values in Minturn," the town at the base of the proposed resort, according to a story in the Vail Daily. But the paper notes that earlier resorts developed by the same Ginn Company did not do much for real estate prices Florida and North Carolina.

You Paid Too Much

If you just bought a second home in Naples, Fla. you probably paid nearly double what the property is really worth.

A Barron's study based on info from National City, a Cleveland banking and mortgage outfit, says homes there are overvalued by 96 %. Second on the list is Port St. Lucie/Fort Pierce, Fla. Top 10 overvalued cities include Tucson, Prescott and Phoenix in Arizona; Bend, Ore.; Napa, Calif.; Barnstable, Mass.; and Ocean City and Atlantic City, N.J.