When buyers are looking for a second home at a reasonable price, they’re likely to be looking in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida and Maryland.
Those states dominate the top 10 of a list of 100 cities identified Monday by ATTOM Data Solutions as the best vacation home markets with median home prices below $275,000 and at least one-in-12 buyers are seeking a second home. The Los Angeles data analytics company’s other rankings criteria were “good air quality, comfortable summertime temperatures, low crime, and appreciating home values.”
Like any index-based ranking, the results are imperfect. More than half the residents in “best places to buy a summer vacation home without breaking the bank” were in Florida, where summertime temperatures are rarely comfortable outside the range of air conditioning. The same goes for California and Arizona cities where average June-August temperatures top 90 degrees. And ditto for the cities along the southern coast from Galveston, Texas, to Charleston, S.C., where beaches are as pretty and as the afternoon heat is ugly.
With those caveats, here is a view of ATTOM’s top 10 from the view of an east Tennessee-bred writer:
No. 1: Crossville, Tenn. (population 51,879). The median sales price is $87,500 with average 5-year appreciation of 34% and average summer temperatures are 75. But beware the outlier. Searching house prices in the $85,000 to $95,000 price range seems likely to put the buyer in a gussied up double-wide. But in a city atop the Cumberland Plateau that bills itself as the “Golf Capital of Tennessee,” the house might just overlook some greens.
No. 2: Waynesville, N.C. (population 27,937). The median sales price is $195,000 with average 5-year appreciation of 30% and average summer temperatures are 74. Those with kinfolk in Carolina might know that Waynesville is a little bit east of east Tennessee. That is, it’s nearly geographically perfect: 30 miles from either the Cataloochee entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or Asheville, N.C.
No. 3: Port Charlotte, Fla. (population 82,587). The median sales price is $150,500 with average 5-year appreciation of 115% and average summer temperatures are 84. The average temperature range from June to August is more brutal: Residents of this Gulf Coast community, 100 miles south of Tampa, might awake to 72 degrees, but they’ll end the afternoon around 92 degrees. As its Wikipedia page says, “The summers are long, hot and humid.”
No. 4: Asheville (population 125,161). The median sales price is $259,500 with average 5-year appreciation of 40% and average summer temperatures are 74. Asheville native Thomas Wolfe’s posthumous 1940 novel “You Can’t Go Home Again” includes descriptions of the thinly disguised city’s real estate bubble of the 1920s that set back progress for decades. This proved to be a blessing that allowed Asheville to avoid the kind of progress that allowed nearby Charlotte to raze itself into an architectural Sahara that only a banker could love. Asheville was left with mere charm and mountains. Now its attraction for retirees is making the area hard to afford for Carolina natives, except perhaps Charlotte bankers seeking a summer home.
No. 5: Weaverville, N.C. (population 19,780). The median sales price is $265,000 with average 5-year appreciation of 33% and average summer temperatures are 74. The town is 10 miles north of Asheville and further from Charlotte.
No. 6: Deerfield Beach, Fla. (population 56,408). The median sales price is $140,000 with average 5-year appreciation of 109% and average summer temperatures are 84.
No. 7: Delray Beach, Fla. (population 111,631). The median sales price is $175,000 with average 5-year appreciation of 123% and average summer temperatures are 84.
No. 8: Ocean City, Maryland (population 11,326). The median sales price is $230,000 with average 5-year appreciation of 0% and average summer temperatures are 76.
No. 9: Beverly Hills, Fla. (population 17,491). The median sales price is $80,900 with average 5-year appreciation of 50% and average summer temperatures are 82.
No. 10: Cape Coral, Fla. (population 167,934). The median sales price is $205,000 with average 5-year appreciation of 82% and average summer temperatures are 84.
