<p>In a warmer climate sounds appealing.</p>
<p>So? Who is thinking about this? Or already has a second home in a warm weather winter place?</p>
<p>A friend of mine has a place in Indian Ridge in Palm Desert and he loves it there. I am not into golf these days though…</p>
<p>[Home</a> Page - Indian Ridge Country Club](<a href=“http://www.indianridgecc.com/]Home”>http://www.indianridgecc.com/)</p>
<p>I don’t know…</p>
<p>I have enough trouble taking care of one place…</p>
<p>quite a few of my co-workers have second homes in florida - not sure if you’d want to be there or not. Depending where you are looking you can buy a place very cheap. Last time I checked I could pay cash for a condo down there in the orlando area… they were dirt cheap. Maybe their market has recovered. A buddy of mine bought a townhouse a few years ago in orlando for about 200k and other townhouses in his area have been going for 30-60k. One nice thing with that is there is less for you to maintain.</p>
<p>Fendergirl, I am exploring right now. </p>
<p>I have no idea what I am going to do.</p>
<p>So, I just want to read what other people are doing. What they are thinking.</p>
<p>Prices have really crashed in Fla. What you wrote is a huge price drop.</p>
<p>dstark, we have a second home in Hilton Head, SC and love it there. We had no interest in Florida so didn’t even look there. I think there’s been a discussion here previously about second homes. I’m not very good searching but maybe you or someone else might be able to find it. :)</p>
<p>Found it!</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1362545-second-home-experience.html?highlight=vacation+homes[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1362545-second-home-experience.html?highlight=vacation+homes</a></p>
<p>dstark, My friend and his wife are looking to buy a new house - a detached home - and have decided to rent out their current townhouse instead of selling it in hopes that the market recovers and they don’t take a huge loss on it when they decide to sell it. </p>
<p>My house has actually gained in value over the past few years so I definitely bought at a good time!</p>
<p>My retirement goal will be to be able to travel the entire month of February every year.</p>
<p>Some place where it is warm enough so there is no snow.</p>
<p>Neither H nor I want a second home. I find one house enough of a handful and we like to go to different places. Frankly, I’m sick of traveling lately and like to stay home, even if it is cold outside. I wouldn’t buy anything in a coastal area.</p>
<p>Fendergirl, I am pretty optimistic about real estate. I like what your friend is doing.</p>
<p>Alwaysamom, thanks for the link. I just went thru it, and thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>If I bought something, it would have to be low maintenance. Probably a condo or a townhouse.</p>
<p>A part of me would like to buy a condo in Hawaii. But Hawaii is not the most practical place and it is expensive as hell to live there. Maybe,
I should just go vacation there. I don’t want to pay Hawaii prices…which leads me to Tom1944’s comment.</p>
<p>That is another way to go. Probably more practical.</p>
<p>I realized as I was typing this…my wife loves it here. That might be a
problem. She is not
as stir crazy as I am which is a complete role reversal. :)</p>
<p>Edit: my wife just walked in and said, “What a great place we live …”.</p>
<p>I guess this is going to be a short thread. Lol</p>
<p>dstark - you could look into month long rentals during the winter months. My ex boyfriends parents used to rent out their 2nd home at the beach for month long periods of time during the offseason for very reasonable prices.</p>
<p>fendergirl, that is good advice. Much better than where I was going.</p>
<p>I can’t even bring up the second home idea with my wife right now. She is so happy. I don’t want to screw that up. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know what I was thinking. I think the cold got to me.</p>
<p>We actually don’t want a second home…but we DO want to go someplace warm for part of the winter. It is very easy to rent for a couple of months…and we aren’t locked into one place. Of course when we do this, if we fall in love with one of the destinations, we would consider buying.</p>
<p>I hate winter weather so have been working on DH for several years to move from the Chicago area to somewhere warm, which we’ve narrowed down after extensive research and much criteria to San Diego. Finally last winter I convinced him to spend some time there to see what it was really like living vs vacationing. We rented via VRBO, one month in San Diego (Sunset Cliffs) and one month in Del Mar. IIRC, it cost in the range of $3500-$4000/month. I loved it out there and DH enjoyed himself too. He doesn’t really feel a need to stay in our current home, just moves at the speed of molasses. Not to mention inertia (the part where a body at rest etc.).</p>
<p>I highly recommend renting somewhere for a month or more rather than buying to get a feel for the area. Try out a few different parts of the country. See what the everyday lifestyle is like, where you could meet people, where to shop, what there is to do, etc.</p>
<p>D Stark…I am in your general part of the world, and while it’s not cold by most of the world’s standards it is cold here today for us wimpy Californians. I feel your pain and your urge for a warm winter escape.</p>
<p>This thread is right up my alley. Whenever it gets cold, I think of a second home. I’ve checked out Orlando real estate too, and the prices are incredibly low - we could almost buy a condo out of our checking account (kidding). Geez, it’s amazing.</p>
<p>Then I think about how I’d feel if I want to take a nice trip, and my husband saying that’s fine, but how about the condo? </p>
<p>Where our thinking is now, is either renting a place for 3 weeks every year in a warm place, perhaps different ever year. Or alternatively, since I am not interested in cooking, we could do a deal with a B&B for a minimum length of stay. My personal preference is the B&B. Like dstark, my H’s goal is to make me happy (I sometimes reciprocate !), so a nice homey place with no housework, cleaning or cooking sounds pretty good.</p>
<p>My parents, until my father lost his eyesight, traveled every January and February staying for a few weeks at a time in different places. They had their favorites, Lido Key in Florida being one of them. This “suited” my dad’s reluctance to buy a second place and my mom’s desire to escape most of the snow and cold. Unless you know exactly where you might want to land it might be fun to try different areas, perhaps your wife will fall in love with one of the spots. H and I…we are going to find a spot with snow and “bigger” mountains than Michigan…as soon as we write that last tuition check in 5 years…but I also like San Clemente, CA, Lido Key, Florida, the Outer Banks, South Padre Island, Santa Barbara…and the list goes on. We have older friends in Del Mar, Hawaii and Belize these days in the winter months. A fun dilemma to have indeed.</p>
<p>We lived at place where there was sunshine almost everyday with temp around 75 for 2 years. I got very tired of that weather. Now that I am back in the NE, I am already tired of winter dreary, so I just booked a beach vacation for few weeks from now. I think I would prefer to go on vacation to warm weather and stay at different places rather than owning a second home. It’s less maintenance and probably costs less.</p>
<p>DStark- I think many Ccers who live in places it really does get “cold” would gladly take your present home location in a heartbeat. Though I have also found myself complaining that it is freezing outside.
I agree with Oldfort and would prefer to see different places. H and I go over this when he has talked about owning a boat. It is much cheaper to charter a boat once a year versus owning your own. Plus you get to see and enjoy different locales.</p>
<p>Oldfort, I could not live in a place that was always warm…but I keep kicking myself for moving to Michigan from Minnesota way back…at least the the sun shines in Minnesota. The sun does not shine ever it feels in Michigan in the winter. It’s gray black and white monochrome from December to April. I do love snow…but with sun. I happen to adore sunny Gunni (Gunnison) and the Crested Butte area…a cloudy day is rare there. Several of our friends have father’s who purchase huge motor sailers and “spend” their winters going from island to island…they ‘bring’ young people with them and pick up exchange young people along the way to crew. My sib did that trip when young for college winter break. Now THAT’S a life…island hopping with a crew of young people. I could so do that…say bye-bye to H and “see ya in the spring”…wonder if he’d buy into that lifestyle? 6 months together, six months apart, the only fear is some little hottie ski bunny would pick him up on the slopes!</p>
<p>Dstark: Complaining about the bay area? Wow you folks really are wusses. </p>
<p>As I’m getting older, I hate the winter more and more. I thought at one point I would add to my houses, something in Florida but a friend of ours just goes to different places for the winter. I like this idea. Instead of worrying about the upkeep of another house or condo, I could go anywhere and a different place each year. South America is relatively cheap and winter here is summer there. There’s also Australia which is expensive. Thailand is very inexpensive and warm all year long.</p>
<p>Since I live now in SE, I am use to warm weather. I cannot imagine returning to NE where half a year one fights the cold and ice, minimal sun, and treacherous driving conditions. Still, I would not want a second home, as I would like the flexibility of renting in various areas. If had more $$$, I’d be planning vacations in ski areas, etc.</p>