VRBO Touts Mid-Atlantic Seaboard

Summertime, and the living is easy along the Mid-Atlantic shore, says vacation-rental giant VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner). Its headliners: Ocean City, Maryland, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Virginia Beach, Virginia.

A virtual hopscotch through VRBO listings in Rehoboth Beach indicate that demand is strong for big houses that sleep 10 or more, with many properties already rented for all of July and August. But there are available weeks and weekends for smaller properties and the price can be as little as $175 per night.

In Ocean City, there seems to be greater availability. But with so many families staying closer to home because of the tough economy, homes from New York's Hamptons to the Jersey Shore all the way south to virginia are looking mighty appetizing.

For example, the house shown above, in Rehoboth Beach, sleeps 8 to 10 and has prime weeks available for up to $4,200. Sounds like a lot of money? Not divided up among 4 couples.

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.

Canyon Ranch Condos -- Healthy Trend

Dr. Kenneth "Aerobics" Cooper is not the only wellness/spa housing entrepreneur. Canyon Ranch, the pricey spa based in Tucson and elsewhere, beckons with condos in Miami Beach, Bethesda, Maryland and Chicago. Thinking of a pied-a-terre ? As I indicated in my previous post, I think this wholesome trend could possibly be profitable too. The Miami Beach facility is scheduled to open this fall. Prices in this overheated market for a 1-BR are already below the original floor of $695,000.

Glut by the Seashore

A Maryland man has not only dropped the price for his weekend condo but has added two WaveRunners and a pier into a package deal to anyone who will take the place off his hands. It's typical, says a Baltimore Sun article, of what's happening in Western Maryland resort areas -- a glut of condos and townhouses flooding the market.


At Ocean City and at Western Maryland's Deep Creek Lake, "the market is cooling as inventory has climbed and properties sit on the market longer. Nationally, the market for condos slowed significantly during the first half of the year, with more for sale now than at any time since the early 1990s, according to statistics from Moody's Economy.com."