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My husband and I are considering buying a small lake front vacation home in New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine. We have 3 children (15, 9, 7) who are all good swimmers. When I was growing up, we spent summers renting a place on Lake Winnepasauke (sp?) for the month of August. I have such fond memories of this, that we are hoping top create that for our children as well. We live in the Boston area and wouldn't want more than a 2 1/2 hour drive. We would spend approx. 400K on a home. Is this just a pipe dream, or does this sound like a reasonable request for a vacation home? Does anybody out there have any recommendations for areas within that price range, distance, etc? We would be forever grateful for any advice... Thank you all in advance. BTW, we are looking to buy in 2009...
Something right on Lake Winnipesaukee? I would think that would be hard for $400,000. The price of being right on the water is $$$. However-you may be able to get something nearby the lake perhaps with some type of beach rights or access to shared dock. Maybe Valerie C will chime in-she would know more than I do.
That being said, with the downturn in the market you may be able to find a motivated seller-someone who really needs to sell.
I also thought about the smaller lakes, and bays. IMHO, the ones that aren't as known like Lake Winnipesaukee or are off the beaten track may be more affordable. I just did a search on Lady of the Lake Reality and found a house on Rattlesnake Island on the water for 385,000. It however is not winterized-no heating. Maybe try looking on their site and others to get an idea:
Well i know it might be a little further distance than you wanted but here's a camp for sale in Berlin. It's on Success Pond. You have to drive 14 miles on an old logging road to get to it which isn't bad and you can see the moose crossing during the drive but there's a lot of nice camps up there. There's no electricity as the logging road is still owned by the logger himself but he will eventually sell off all the surrounding land and electric will possibly be put in. Most camps run off Propane and generators but this one is next door to my sisters camp up there that's how i knew about it. There are no taxes on camps as of now because it's not owned or run by the city/town yet. The lake is very nice, crisp and clean. I've got some more pictures of the lake if you want. I was up there last August for vacation at camp and it was great. Oh and did i mention the 4 wheeler trails? Oh you can drive forever around there just leaving from camp and because it's so far up in the woods, you won't run into the town folk 4 wheeling too often but only your neighbors at camp so to me that makes the trails safer and the state forestry does keep them well groomed.
Ossippee is pretty affordable and is about 2.5 hours from Boston and 1/2 hour from Wolfeboro. It can be noisy though. A lot of the smaller, "no wake" lakes (ie no loud motors) in the Lakes region are pretty expensive and the zoning is pretty tight. You might do better in western NH - still lovely, closer to Boston, but less touristy than the Lakes Region. I have heard Hancock is beautiful but I don't know anything about real estate prices on the water there.
A great lake to look into for more reasonable home prices is Milton Three Ponds in Milton, NH which would be 1 1/2-2 hours from the Boston area depending where you are starting from and non-weekend travel hours. The lake is on the NH/Maine border and consists of three connecting very large ponds which make up a good-sized lake for boating, tubing, skiing, fishing, etc. We trailer our boat there often and sure wish we had the $$$ to purchase a vacation home. There are many old-style cottages as well as some newer homes but not many lake McMansions. If you Google Milton Three Ponds or any of the three ponds by name "Northeast Pond", "Milton Pond" or "Town House" Pond" you'll find some waterfront homes on the market for the price range you are looking for. I have some nice photos of the lake as well. If you're interested and I'll email them to you.
Annabelle
Last edited by Suzet2262; 04-22-2008 at 08:15 PM..
Reason: No Posting personal emails...
I just did a quick check, trionetriathlon, and there are some wonderful waterfront homes out there (wiping the drool off my keyboard!) Waterfront property is of course priced very high, but if you'd be considering lakes other than Winnipesaukee/Winnesquam there certainly is property available in your price range.
You'll want to start considering exactly what you are looking for. A rustic camp or a home that could be lived in year round. A non-lake front home, but with deeded beachrights within walking distance? A lake that you can put a loud cigarette boat on, or are you more into canoes and kayaks? Then, besides the 400K budget you're setting, take a look at the yearly taxes...
We were not thinking of renting it out as we would be up there as much as we could. Curious why you ask?
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Renting?
