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.

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."

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.