I’d like to ask some questions.
@conmama, We owned a lake house as a second home for 11 years, and just sold it in August.
I PM’d you.
I live on a lake and have friends that own one as a second property.
We were offered part ownership in a family lake home…and graciously declined.
Around here, some folks own beach homes as a 2nd home. We are not among them but D’s friends own an inherited beach home that they rent out a few times a year and use for themselves and select friends as well. Its very lovely but a lot of work and expense. Fortunately the rental from when they rent it out helps to defray costs.
If you are thinking about buying one not too far from where you live, you might want to reconsider. We had this plan to buy a second home on the water as a vacation home, about 90 min from where we currently lived. And then I thought, why go through all the hassle and expense to buy something we would just use occasionally. Who wants the upkeep of a second home as you get older? So we decided to sell our current home, and move into a lakefront property in our local area. That way we only have to take care of one place, and get to enjoy the water all the time.
We do.
I wouldn’t mind doing that. Homes on the lake in my city start in the multiple millions. Depending on where the OP lives, that might not be an option regardless of the price point.
We bought a second home on water, but not on a lake.
It’s a ferry ride plus 60 minutes drive, so close enough to get away, but far enough so the blood pressure drops as soon as we get off the boat.
H gets over there a lot, but I’m restricted at the moment by an elderly parent.
We’ll use it as vacation/weekend place until retirement and then spend half the year there.
True, some places are really expensive, though if you can find waterfront a little ways out of town, the price might be better. When we bought, we added what the price of our home was to what the price of the second home was, added some extra, and decided it would be a good way to enjoy our investment. There’s only so much waterfront property out there, and we knew it had to eventually increase in value. I think it’s gone up about 50% in the 11 years we’ve been here.
Funny, my parents bought a 10K house over 50 years ago. They said if they could have afforded the 20K house, they could have bought on the water. In Seattle. That house would have been worth more than their entire retirement portfolio 
Teardowns (lakefront or Sound-front) in prime areas around here start at about $3M (with freeway noise).
^^That’s why you gotta stay away from those prime areas! Unless you are rolling in money, it’s just not worth it.
Property taxes can sour your enjoyment. Lakefront homes are often valued at 3-5x more than homes across the street. If your state has tax caps it can be affordable through retirement, but I probably would consider if you can afford taxes on a fixed income.
True, property taxes can be a killer, but here in our neck of the woods, waterfront does not automatically triple the tax. There’s a small premium, but it is not even close to double what the neighbor across the street is paying for a similar lot and house size. It is all public info, so anyone looking for a house should research it thoroughly.
@busdriver11 …we do own one and your point should be strongly considered. We are thinking of selling ours after 12 years and just wanted to discuss indepth more about this with others who owned one, too. There is actually a reservoir that is very nice in our city that we could go to, has tons of houses on it with price points we could afford if we sold our city house and lake house. Just not sure I want to live there, it’s not a part of the city I know anyone, although very nice.
That sounds interesting, conmama. You know, as I get older, there is definitely something appealing about having to maintain and worry about less things. I just don’t really want to deal with it. My husband wants to buy more rental properties, but I dread the hassle, and the prices have gone up so much, it’s probably not worth it anyways.
Do you also not want to move from your current home? Because that reservoir sounds like a great option to me! However, it’s probably not worth it to move if you’re happy.
Selling a lake house. Hard to imagine! Do you want to sell because it’s too far to visit much? No one wants to use it? Too much upkeep? All of the above?
We have a cottage on a lake - not an inland lake, but Lake Huron. It’s a late spring to October type of place. No winters. It is so treasured in our family that I can’t imagine ever getting rid of it. We don’t do a lot of other big trips/traveling - this is our paradise. I guess that helps to make it more “affordable”.
We love to travel, so it does hinder that to a certain degree. It’s expensive and we still have several years left on it and it’s not cheap. We like it when we are there, but what a money drain 8-9 months of the year. We just wonder if we would be happier without the financial burden, and all the work to maintain and could travel more. It’s 2.5 hours from where we live, I do get tired of that drive. Maybe being on a beach type great lake is different than an inland lake…more of a vacation feel to it.
Our family lake house is roughly 900 sq feet. Direct waterfront. Value…$1 million. Because it’s waterfront.
The same size house down the road in the same town…NOT waterfront…about $150,000. I’m not making this up!
Anyway…we declined ownership with the others. It’s a 6 hour drive from here…and owning something with five other families was not our cup of tea. Oh…and the inlaws set this up as a trust…which we asked to be removed from before it was finalized.
And it was a VERY smart decision!!
we live in a 14 home community with a private beach. The beach is located on a gorgeous lake. The houses are NOT waterfront…street is actually across the road from the lake. It’s the perfect thing! Lake, but no waterfront property value and taxes!