Whether you’re retired or simply planning ahead for the day you no longer have to work, one investment that’s worth looking into is a second or vacation home. After a lifetime of working, it’s worth having a getaway that you and your family can enjoy. Plus, it also serves as something you can pass down to the rest of your family after you’re gone.
Adding a second home can double as a good property investment in a desirable or up-and-coming area. Give these attractive locales consideration if you’re thinking about adding a getaway house to your assets:
Knoxville, Tennessee – The home of the University of Tennessee is much more than a college town, with new developments downtown and in the surrounding neighborhoods spurring its growth. Greater Knoxville also includes the popular tourist town of Pigeon Forge as well as the quaint smaller cities of Sevierville—home of Dollywood—and Morristown.
Nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains, this area isn’t just a blend of picturesque nature and metropolitan attractions. The Knoxville region offers some of the best possible returns on your investment in a second home, according to a recent study by Vacasa.
Northern Michigan – Many people not from the Midwest don’t realize how great the shores of northern Michigan are. Full of state and national parks, long stretches of waterfront and welcoming little towns and cities, Michigan can offer a little bit of everything and a lot of relaxation to visitors and residents alike.
On the northern coast of the “oven mitt” portion of the state, communities like Cheboygan and Harbor Springs offer very competitive home prices in attractive and historic neighborhoods. The upper peninsula is dominated by protected forest but contains many small towns and the city of Marquette, which is pleasantly located on the shores of Lake Superior and has often been ranked as one of the best places to retire in the country.
Outside of Seattle – Seattle and Bellevue, Washington’s real estate markets are notoriously pricey right now, but nearby areas can offer a solid second-home investment. Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound showed up on Mashvisor’s 2019 rankings of the best places to buy a vacation home, while the counties that flank Seattle’s King County—Pierce, home of Tacoma and Lakewood, and Snohomish, where Everett and Marysville are located—present more reasonable average home prices.
Seattle and the Pacific Northwest is a desirable place to live and visit for many, so a second home in a nearby community provides easy access to the 18th-largest city in the country, as well as popular destinations such as Vancouver, Canada and Portland, Oregon.
With all three of these regions, a second home can be a solid investment in the area’s growth, a potential source of retirement income if you decide to rent it out for parts of the year (or use it for an Airbnb property), and an asset to pass down to your children for their continued enjoyment. Family Estate Planning Law Group has many clients who keep their primary residence in Massachusetts while adding another home elsewhere. Our team can help you with the process of incorporating a second home into your estate plan and aligning its value with the rest of your assets so that your family can enjoy its own private getaway home away from home for years to come.
