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It seems like potential vacation homes (that could be lived in year round as decent homes 2-3 br- 1 bath) in the Sunapee region (Sunapee, Goshen, Newbury etc.) are selling in the $150k-$200k range.
I currently work in Manchester and am looking to move out that way but logic tells me that anything less than 10 mins to decent skiing (I realize Sunapee isn't Killington) and walking distance to some sort of swimming shouldn't be that affordable.
Also- in the back of my mind I'm also thinking at a $200k mortgage you can rent that place out $1,500/wk the 3 most popular weeks in the summer and 4 most popular weeks in the winter and pay your mortgage for the whole year. Now I know I'm not on the cutting edge of real estate speculation, the economy is decent- please City-Data- what am I missing?!
I don't have an explanation for you but I do tend to agree.
There is a perfectly fine 3 BR, 1.5 BA year-round house in Newbury that I have been following on realtor.com for the past 2+ years. It's a 10 minute walk to Lake Sunapee and a 12 minute drive to Mount Sunapee. It sold in 2011 for $206,000, was listed in June 2014 for $239,000, and is still on the market, now down to $199,000.
You have to figure the sellers would bite at an offer of $190,000. A vacation home or investment property typically requires 30% down, so you would need to come up with $57,000, but at today's interest rates you're looking at a mortgage and property tax bill of only $900 per month. There is definitely money to be made there!
One thing that you really need to do before you jump into buying an investment property is knowing the numbers. Find out what the weekly rents are and the peak seasons where you can maximize the return by having the property rented 100% of the time. The most successful real estate investors always know their numbers down to the last penny - every expense with home ownership and management.
For a lot of the "vacation" areas, short term renters or vacationers are going to be concerned with the number of bedrooms and the kitchen. I know for the price range in Sunapee a lot of those homes are 2 bedroom and one bath. A lot of families do these rentals and 2 bedrooms is hard to work with.
Take a look at the rentals in the area (AirBNB for example) and see what extra amenities the competition is providing. I know an investor in the North Conway area who will only buy investment properties that he can easily install an outdoor whirlpool tub in because he knows this is one of those things that draws in vacationers and helps to ensure his units are in high demand.
The schools in that area aren't the greatest, and there are affordable homes in better school districts with shorter commutes to both Concord and Lebanon. So there's not a lot of attraction for year-round residents. Most of those cheap homes the OP mentioned aren't on the lakes, so the only real seasonal draw is proximity to a smaller ski area, and as Marcus discussed those 2 BR homes aren't big enough to be successful rentals.
I'm looking in the Newbury area for property. I think it might partially be a matter of buyers getting pickier about what they will buy and how much they will pay. Also have in the back of my mind what happens to property values once interest rates start to rise. We have been living in an altered state of reality since Obama has been in office and with trillions in new debt we don't have anything to show for it - except trillions in debt. That eventually will have to be addressed and I remember the late 80's when housing crashed big-time and interest rates jumped to 16%+ to repair the financial system.
Last edited by illtaketwoplease; 08-30-2016 at 10:22 AM..
The schools in that area aren't the greatest, and there are affordable homes in better school districts with shorter commutes to both Concord and Lebanon. So there's not a lot of attraction for year-round residents. Most of those cheap homes the OP mentioned aren't on the lakes, so the only real seasonal draw is proximity to a smaller ski area, and as Marcus discussed those 2 BR homes aren't big enough to be successful rentals.
I disagree. There is hardly a better place in this entire state to raise a family than the New London area.
Total amenities
Quality of life (cost of living, median home price, median rent, median household income, and student-to-teacher ratio)
Total crimes
Tax rates (sales tax and income tax)
Unemployment
Commute time
Weather (temperature and air quality)
Total amenities
Quality of life (cost of living, median home price, median rent, median household income, and student-to-teacher ratio)
Total crimes
Tax rates (sales tax and income tax)
Unemployment
Commute time
Weather (temperature and air quality)
Why these? How weighted.
I find ratings like these to be worthless.
Well my friend, would you like to live in a state, county or city that has:
* High cost of living?
* High crime?
* Poor schools but they throw lotsa money towards them?
* High unemployment?
* Higher than normal taxes?
* Poor weather?
Most houses in the area are not priced that low, so I don't think it is so much a regional trend as it is issues with specific houses.
We were house hunting in Newbury and the houses in that price range were either:
- 2 bedrooms (which has less value as both a rental and for families)
- on postage stamp lots in an area where having at least a little bit of land is standard
- part of the Chalk Pond HOA in an area where HOAs are rare (so you would need to pay association dues, follow whatever rules the HOA has, plus they are also usually on postage stamp lots and in that price range they are pretty small cottages that don't look to be in great shape)
- or the properties need a significant amount of work and might actually be overpriced even at that price range
For example we looked at a property in Newbury that could not go FHA or USDA because of the condition of the property, had been listed several years in a row, needed a new roof immediately, had major wiring problems, signs of rot all over but especially on the main support beam and the heating system was hooked up completely wrong (you couldn't run the furnace and use the wood stove at the same time) as well as a host of other small issues. The seller refused to go below $190,000 and we were told that she was basically waiting for a cash buyer to come along from Boston who wanted the vacation property. So just because it looks good online doesn't necessarily make it a good deal.
The properties that I have seen in Sunapee in that price range also seem to fit into those categories.
Goshen sends their students to Newport schools which are pretty abysmal, and school quality seems to strongly correlate with property values in this area. So you could probably get a great deal there if you don't ever plan to use the schools.
Additionally all of these towns are pretty far from job centers, which drives down the demand for the properties a bit.
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