Ultimate Escapes - higher dues for some, no dues for newcomers

Ultimate Escapes, the luxury destination club formed by the merger of Private Escapes and Ultimate Resort, is raising dues for 2010 for some current members while offering a "no dues for one year" pledge to new enrollees.

The club, the second largest in terms of members, has a full page ad in the Saturday Wall Street Journal of Dec. 5, 2009 promising no dues for the first year to lure rich folks into becoming members.

Meanwhile, current members seem to be on a bumpy flight. On the Destinations Club forum, some members say they've been hit with an 11% increase in dues for 2010, in line with a rise in the consumer price index (CPI). Yet in the same thread, another member says: "We pre-paid our dues last year, would not pay the assessment, were suspended and then reinstated and have no intention of paying the dues this year. Good luck to everyone else."

On a brighter note, the club is adding three new "Elite Club" residences at See Forever Village at the Peaks in Telluride, CO.(Typical cabin pictured above.) Elite is its top level of 3 tiers of membership (Elite, Signature, Premiere) but within each of these there are 5 sublevels.

Tax Tip -- Don't Collect Any More $ from Second Home Rental

Here's a tip from Julian Block of CBS MoneyWatch for those who use their second homes to generate extra income through rentals:

Owners are permitted to rent their vacation homes and to bank the rent checks without declaring the rental income in certain circumstances.

First, you must have had a tenant in that second home for fewer than 15 days in order to collect the rent tax-free. If you have rented it for more days, all the rental income becomes taxable. Thus, if you have the option of renting or not renting for the rest of this year, or collecting rents due, and the income is not worth paying taxes on, skip the rentals and money until Jan. 1.

I'm not a tax advisor or accountant, so doublelcheck this info with your tax guru and/or read the IRS’s Publication 527, which has all the details.

Super Bowl bound -- HomeAway online rental network to buy ad spot

The competition for second-home and vacation home rental listing must be getting ferocious. One of the largest web conglomerates, HomeAway.com, announced today it's going to kick off its most extensive national advertising campaign yet with a spot on the Super Bowl 2010 telecast Feb. 7th.

HomeAway (that's its logo, above) has consolidated a number of popular vacation home rental sites under its wing -- including VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) and VacationRentals.com -- to become, according to its own literature, "the worldwide leader of online vacation rentals, representing more than 425,000 vacation rental home listings across more than 120 countries."

No matter what other TV spots it might buy, this surely will be its most expensive entry ever into national markets. In recent years, a 30-second spot on the Super Bowl has cost in the neighborhood of $2.5-million to $3-million. One Website that has made a Super Bowl appearance for the past five years is the domain name host and Internet registrar GoDaddy.com.

For mom-and-pop outfits that buy into the HomeAway.com network in hopes of getting better visibility for their services, the Super Bowl spot may or may not translate into more, or more easily convertible, clicks by consumers. However, the HomeAway announcement sure raises the stakes for all Web-based vacation home market sites.

Less than a year ago, HomeAway made a splash with the announcement of an infusion of $250 million in private financing. The Austin-based outfit says that private home and condo rentals is the travel industry's fastest-growing segment.

FlipKey rates vacation homes as TripAdvisor does hotels - almost

Many vacationers rely on TripAdvisor for reviews of hotels written by authentic travelers just like themselves. Now, as more tourists choose vacation homes as their accommodations rather than hotels, FlipKey, a TripAdvisor-owned service, welcomes the same type of peer reviews of thousands of properties.

"We have over 100,000 authentic guest reviews on our site," a spokesman for FlipKey wrote me in an email, but he added that "coverage can vary quite a bit depending on the area."

What makes TripAdvisor so valuable is, in part, its sheer quantity of hotels and reviews. It has 450,000 hotels from around the world in its listings, according to its press material, with millions upon millions of reviews. (TripAdvisor also lists and ranks restaurants and attractions. It is owned, as is FlipKey, by Expedia.)

FlipKey is not there yet. Many properties listed have just one or two reviews. It will take a while before scores of guests judge and post reviews for a single vacation home or condo. Nevertheless, it's making progress toward a critical mass. Some properties in such locations as Disney World and Gulf Shores, Alabama (where the condo pictured above is) have up to 19, when I checked today.

To make properties trustworthy, FlipKey offers a verification program for professional property managers. To make reviews trustworthy, it only allows verified previous customers to post reviews through an email invitation system. However, owners or managers pay for a property listing itself. Properties in a given area -- Disney World, Lake Tahoe etc.-- are not shown ranked by popularity as hotels are in TripAdvisor. And a huge number of reviews I looked at were super-positive (5 stars.)

Still, feature-rich FlipKey provides details of rooms, baths and amenities in each property plus photos, prices, location, availability It indicates whether homes are managed by the homeowner or by a management company.

Given time, FlipKey could develop into a must-check website for discriminating travelers, just as TripAdvisor is.

Ski Helmets Mandatory for Kids at Vail, Aspen, Tremblant, Whistler

Thinking about winter travel? For those who own or rent vacation homes in ski areas, it's time to think about ski helmets.

Aspen requires children and teens who take ski or snowboard lessons on any of its mountains -- Aspen, Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass -- to wear helmets.

For winter 2009-10, Vail Resorts, too, has made helmets mandatory for children and teens who take group lessons. (Vail Resorts operates Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly in California.) In announcing the helmet rule, Vail also said its employees would be required to wear helmets while on the job.

In Canada, Mt. Tremblant and other resorts owned by Intrawest joined the kids with lids bandwagon Oct. 1. The company announced that children and teens who take lessons at any of their mountains must wear helmets, as must its instructors in those programs.

Tremblant, of course, is the Quebec resort where actress Natasha Richardson fell while taking a lesson without a helmet last spring and later died.

The Intrawest rules applies to all its properties including Winter Park, Copper Mountain, and Steamboat Ski & Resort in Colorado; Stratton in Vermont; Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia; Mountain Creek in New Jersey; Panorama Mountain near Invermere, British Columbia; and Whistler Blackcomb, which will host alpine events for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Photo courtesy Aspen/Snowmass

Equity Estates - destination club thrives with fiscal transparency

While the economy takes its time to recover from recession, the destination club Equity Estates is thriving, with 30 new members since the start of 2009 and two more luxury properties in its portfolio -- one in La Jolla and another in midtown Manhattan near Times Square (pictured above.)

CEO Philip Mekelburg calls Equity Estates a luxury residence fund."We re typically cash buyers of homes – we leverage the minimum amount of 23 percent," he told me not long ago. As a result, the company has remained in sound financial condition while other larger, highly leveraged clubs struggled, he said.

Mekelburg points out that Equity Estates is dedicated to fiscal transparency so members know their money is safe. The company puts 80 cents of every dollar into real estate, compared to the 50 % level maintained by some other clubs. It now has 10 residences, with an average price of $3 million. Full members are entitled to 30 nights a year in any of the properties, while executive members get 15 nights.

But perhaps the most unusual thing about Equity Estates is that it has an exit strategy. Starting in 2021, says Mekelburg, the club will start selling off its properties and distribute the proceeds among its member owners. Full membership requires a capital contribution of $375,000 to join. Its properties are in typical luxury vacation areas, such as Turks and Caicos (Caribbean) Deer Valley (Utah) and Hilton Head (South Carolina).

Destination club Ultimate Escapes to be acquired by public company

In the latest news from the sometimes troubled luxury destination club market, the leading club in terms of properties -- Ultimate Escapes -- is getting a big new public partner.

Secure America Acquisition Corp. has announced it is about to invest a minimum of $20-million in Ultimate Escapes, which itself is in the process of absorbing Private Escapes, another destination club. Ultimate is the second largest club in terms of number of members, with more than 1300 members. (Number One is Exclusive Resorts, with more than 3,000 members.) The club has handsome homes in desirable locations such as Nevis, pictured above.

The deal means that Ultimate Escapes not only gets a cash infusion but becomes a public company. Time will tell if that is good for members. In the short run, it undoubtedly is good for Ultimate Escapes, which lost over $15-million last year,according to the Washington Business Journal. As for Secure America, its previous acquisitions have been in the field of homeland security. Guess you could call this one "vacation homeland security."

Vacation Home Inventory Glut in Steamboat Springs, Colorado

One real estate agent in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, notes that at the recent pace of property sales in that mountain second home community (163 sales in the first 2 quarters of 2009) he expects to see only about 320 sales in 2009 total. Yet there are more than 2,300 listings available in the community, including commercial. This, says Doug Labor, broker-owner of Buyer’s Resource Real Estate and manager of MLS statistics as quoted in the Steamboat Pilot, translates into an inventory that would last about seven years, he said. A typical rate of supply is about a year, Labor said.

Aspen Cheap -- $475,000 for 355 sq. ft Studio

So what's the least you can spend for full ownership of your Colorado dream hideaway in Aspen? Looks like some studios have shown price drops to below $500,000, including this one on the Original Curve of Main Street (in what's known as Aspen's "Core"). The online offering from Morris & Frywald shows a handsomely redecorated space including a full bed, although it is not clear whether that's the living room couch artfully made up or a separate piece of furniture within the 355 square feet.

Note to buyers: the MLS for places like Aspen and Vail is chock full of listings that seem to be going nowhere. Price drops, anyone?

Home Sales in Aspen Decline 34 %; $43-million Mansion Still Available

You can still buy this $43-million vacation estate here in Aspen, but why hurry? According to an analysis by Land Title Guarantee Company as reported in today's Aspen Times, the dollar volume of real estate sales through June was down 34 % from the same 2008 period, to a mere $471.57 million.

Sound like a lot of dough? Not by Aspen's lofty standards. Since 2003, the Pitkin County (Colorado) market has topped a billion dollars every year. If the second half of 2009 parallels the first, the yearly total won't reach that mark.

Wnat's selling? According to the analysis published in the Aspen Times, the answer is fractionals. They've accounted for $139 million so far this year, a jump of 396 % over last year.

The $43-million property? There were two! The first, a 21,400 square foot 11-bedroom "mountain palace," in the phrase used by the Aspen Daily News, was sold in early July. It's got 15 bathrooms and is located in the Pitkin Green area of town. The broker said the views are spectacular. Could they be anything less for that price? It was said to be the most expensive house sold in the U.S. this year.

But since you missed it, how about another $43 million house, the one pictured above, in West Buttermilk? On the other side of Aspen It's only 16,000 square feet and 7 bedrooms, but it is "Tuscan style" and "18th-century inspired" It includes a theater, exercise room and wine seller and comes furnished.

Vail's Four Seasons said to be on track for winter opening

One of the biggest new projects still under construction in Vail, Colorado is on the fast track to a "winter" finish line. The building includes a 121-room hotel, 19 fractional residences and 16 whole-ownership condominiums.

A few days ago, I toured the site, which is located not far from the main Vail roundabout, and can be seen clearly from Interstate I-70. Jeff Meier, the director of sales for Playground Destination Properties Inc., the official sales agent, showed me the 10-story property. Although it is huge (500,000 square feet), some of the massiveness is concealed by having four of its floors below the level of the inner Vail Village road. When completed it will have a spa and pool at that lower level.

The building has been framed and the pool area as well as the lobby and spa were being worked on when I visited. The 1/12th fractional ownership interests come with 21 days of primary time. Four Seasons is offering 2, 3 and 4 bedroom units priced from $405,900 to $715,000.

Will Four Seasons be ready for the 2009-2010 season? Playground (which is a part of Intrawest, an ironic choice at Vail considering that the ski resort arm of Intrawest is a big competitor of Vail) would not be pinned down on a specific month, saying only that it expected to welcome its first guests "this winter."

Home Price Slide Eased in April

The latest from a trailing indicator -- Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index -- is that the decline in home prices slowed in April in 20 major cities. The index numbers released today show that 13 metropolitan areas had price gains in April, led by Dallas, Denver and Cleveland, where prices rose 1% or more from the previous month. In some second home areas, prices continued to drop. Las Vegas prices fell 3.5% compared with March, while Phoenix prices fell another 2.2%

VRBO Touts Mid-Atlantic Seaboard

Summertime, and the living is easy along the Mid-Atlantic shore, says vacation-rental giant VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner). Its headliners: Ocean City, Maryland, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Virginia Beach, Virginia.

A virtual hopscotch through VRBO listings in Rehoboth Beach indicate that demand is strong for big houses that sleep 10 or more, with many properties already rented for all of July and August. But there are available weeks and weekends for smaller properties and the price can be as little as $175 per night.

In Ocean City, there seems to be greater availability. But with so many families staying closer to home because of the tough economy, homes from New York's Hamptons to the Jersey Shore all the way south to virginia are looking mighty appetizing.

For example, the house shown above, in Rehoboth Beach, sleeps 8 to 10 and has prime weeks available for up to $4,200. Sounds like a lot of money? Not divided up among 4 couples.

Santa Fe still magnet for art, opera, adobe house lovers

The real estate market in Santa Fe, that ever-growing favorite of second-home owners who love art, opera and turquoise, is not what it was before the housing bubble burst, but there are buys to be had, as I learned last week. Example: a house with both a studio and a guest house on the property in the desirable South Capitol district (walking distance from the Plaza, if you're accustomed to lengthy walks) is offered at $625,000, which is $50,000 less than the original January price.

That may still sound high to bargain hunters, but the guest house is rented out for $775 per month and has private access, so income is already in place to help you pay the mortgage. It's a tri-level house with 2,443 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, as pictured above. Interested? Call agent Laura Lichtenstein at Santa Fe Properties (505) 470-1098. And yes, we're related. (She's my cousin.)

No Smoking Cabins available in Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smokies are a bargain this summer, says Money Magazine. In a feature on last minute deals, it recommends the gorgeous area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee/North Carolina border, with an assist from Christine Karpinski, author of How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner. You can rent a wonderful cabin in these woods for as little as $80 a night (for a two-bedroom 1 bath cabin with fireplace and satellite TV) from companies such as Bearly Rustic. I love the fact that this bear-friendly property management firm specifies that some of its rentals are "no smoking."

Value House Shopping in Hamptons, Sanibel, Cape Cod and Other Locations

When is a million-dollar vacation home considered a bargain? When it was first listed at $2-million, of course.

To analyze the plummeting price of fancy second, third or fourth-home real estate, Business Week's Prashant Gopal and Zillow.com got together and gathered intel sampling some prime property areas and how well they were holding up.

Among those faring the best in the sampling included Laguna Beach, CA, Newport, R.I., Chesapeake Beach, MD, Lake George, NY, Destin, FL, and Oahu Hawaii

On the other hand, in the Hamptons, New York's platinum coast, BW quotes two brokerages as saying "home prices have dropped 23.5% to $675,000 in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier." And what can you get for that price? The 2006-completed house shown here, with 3 BR and 3 1/2 baths, on half an acre in East Hampton.

Here are a few other places to hunt -

Arizona
Hard-hit vacation market: Scottsdale
Annual home value change: -27%
Q4 home price: $437,423

Connecticut
Hard-hit vacation market: Mystic
Annual home value change: -17.2%
Q4 home price: $256,000

California
Hard-hit vacation market: Napa
Annual home value change: -21%
Q4 home price: $405,000

Florida
Hard-hit vacation market: Marco Island
Annual home value change: -27%
Q4 home price: $437,423

Florida
Hard-hit vacation market: Sanibel
Annual home value change: -18.1%
Q4 home price: $516,892

Florida
Hard-hit vacation market: Bonita Springs
Annual home value change: -19.8%
Q4 home price: $251,757

Massachusetts
Hard-hit vacation market: Cotuit (on Cape Cod):
Annual home value change: -14.2%
Q4 home price: $375,740

New Jersey
Hard-hit vacation market: Point Pleasant Beach
Annual home value change: -15.6%
Q4 home price: $513,659

Oregon
Hard-hit vacation market: Sunriver
Annual home value change: -15.7%
Q4 home price: $256,000

Bargain Hunters Heat Up Vegas Home Sales

More interesting than national numbers on sales of existing homes, both primary residences and second homes, is the growing appetite among shoppers in snapping up foreclosed properties at fire-sale prices.

"Homebuyers shrugged off economic worries and pounced on sharply discounted foreclosed homes in California, Nevada and Arizona, driving up sales last month across the West, according to two reports," the AP reported yesterday.

But the median price for these homes sold in the 13-state West region was down 11 % to $252,400. The red hot center for sales: Las Vegas, which in March saw its median home price fall "about 42 percent to $135,723."

No surprise here. Investors with cash see rock-bottom prices as a chance to take advantage of the opposite end of the Vegas home-building boom. One broker told Alex Veiga of the AP that his buyers were chiefly Californians. ""The biggest difference between now and the investors from '04 is these investors are buying them in full cash, and in '04 it was everyone buying them with zero-down loans."

Takeaway point: We seem to be entering the vulture phase of real estate enterprise.

Vacation Home Prices and Sales Plunged in 2008, says NAR. This is News?

Surely nobody following the economic crisis was surprised when the National Association of Realtors announced recently that second-home prices and sales fell in 2008.

The real question is: what now? Is there any good news that might pull sellers and real estate agent out of the mire?

In three words, I don't know... and I doubt anyone else does, either. There is anecdotal evidence that banks are beginning loosen up their purse strings a wee bit for primary homes. But vacation or second homes are being sold in large measure either for cash or with seller finanding, say experts.

The data from 2008 itself: bleak.

"The median price of a vacation home was $150,000 in 2008, down 23.1 %from $195,000 in 2007. The typical investment property cost $108,000 last year, which is 28 % below the 2007 median of $150,000," according to the NAR press release. The actual number of vacation homes purchased last year was down more than 30 %, while investment-home sales dropped more than 17 %.

The most important stat: "more than 4 out of 10 investment buyers and more than 3 in 10 vacation-home buyers paid cash for their properties. That's heartburn territory for sellers.

Reefs Club – Landmark Bermuda Hotel Sells Fractionals

Guests of the Reefs, a 62-year old family-owned boutique luxury hotel on its own idyllic beach in Bermuda, are known for their loyalty. Some have vacationed there 20, 30 and more times. Now the Reefs is counting on loyalists as well as newcomers to buy into its 19-unit private residence club. The Reef Club -- fractional-ownership two- and three-bedroom “villas” adjoining the hotel -- are nearing completion and will open July 3. (Photo above shows what it will look like when villas are completed.)

By Bermuda standards, the 1/10th ownership furnished fractionals are “affordable” -- $350,000 for a 2-bedroom, $410,000 for a 3-bedroom. (Another 13 % is tacked on in fees, taxes and closing costs.) Full ownership condos elsewhere on this adorable, expensive island start at over $1-million, although one real estate agent, Buddy Rego, said last month that no Americans went to closing on condos anywhere in Bermuda in the first quarter of 2009.

Bermuda’s restrictive laws on non-Bermudian ownership of property keep prices high. Yes, the worldwide recession is taking its toll. Since Reefs Club fractionals were first offered, 30 out of 80 early birds who had put down “soft” $5,000 deposits have opted to pull out, according to Chrissy Frith, membership director.

Nevertheless, Reefs president David Dodwell told me that he has no plans to lower prices, although he might consider some “value-added” incentives, such as rebates on certain homeowner fees for a period of time. The villas give Reefs fans a “rare opportunity,” he said, adding that some units might be used for overflow hotel guests during peak times. The villas building will also house a much expanded spa and fitness center.

To Buy, Or Not To Buy A Vacation Home Now?

An article from CNBC now circulating suggests this is the time to buy the vacation home you've always wanted. Why? Prices down... inventory up... interest rates low.

Nevertheless, those I've spoken to urge caution.

It's still difficult to get a second-home mortgage (CNBC's reporter agrees). Buyers must be ready to come up with a good chunk of cash-- at least 25 % in most cases, say experts.

Long-term trends positive?

CNBC quotes Walter Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, as saying that the market is“fundamentally healthy,” with a median price in 2007 of $195,000. He argues that while middle-age, middle-income folks -- i.e. baby boomers, are the main buyers now, Gen X and Gen Y (younger people) will come into the market right after them and will "fuel" the demand.

But you need to ask yourself how quickly those 20-to-45 year olds will recover from the current economic crisis. The older ones among them typically would be in their prime earning years. Instead, many are collecting unemployment insurance and more are sure to be in the same hole soon.

As CNBC concludes, buy for enjoyment first and investment value later. And "first-hand knowledge of the market will also help you avoid buying into a community that’s on the outs."

Trump in Trouble in Mexico and Las Vegas

The Donald is in the dumps. One Trump development project in Baja California, Mexico has gone belly up. Investors there who paid up to $150,000 to reserve a condo in a condo hotel there that was using his rightfully licensed name have been told that there's no way to get their money back. The local developer, PB Impulsores, has not built anything yet. Trump has told the angry buyers that because he is not the developer, he's not liable.

Meanwhile, a joint project -- Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas-- involving Trump and casino tycoon Phil Ruffin is foundering. Word is that the three-quarters of the buyers of its condo hotel rooms have failed to close on their deals. That leaves the project $200 million short in paying off the its construction loan, which comes due this summer, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Utah's Zermatt -- Gemutlich Whole Ownership Resort near Deer Valley at Fraction of Cost

On a Utah ski trip last week, I was introduced to Zermatt. Nope, I was not teleported magically to Switzerland. Zermatt is a 2 1/2 year old, 4-diamond, full-service ersatz Alps resort with 150 hotel rooms and spa plus 2-BR condos and 24 townhomes (minimum of 3 BR each) on the other side of the Deer Valley ski area. It is only an hour from the Salt Lake City airport but a world away from Park City/Deer Valley in terms of mood, people and prices.

Located in Midway, Utah, Zermatt has a lederhosen look and an apple-cheeked, eager-to-please staff. Lift a phone and the switchboard operator says: "Guten tag!" The atmosphere is centuries removed from the sophisticated, contemporary chic of its neighbors over the mountain (although it must be said that the Deer Valley and Park City work force is typically just as courteous.)

However, while Zermatt is only a 15-minute drive from Deer Valley's Jordanelle gondola, it is not in Deer Valley. Thus real estate is seriously cheaper. Broker Drew Fuller, son of Zermatt's developer, told me resales of "studio" hotel room condos are available for $175,000.

As is true everywhere, sales are suffering from the awful economy, with a few short sales of 2-BR villas in the low $300,000 range, said Fuller. There are 1800+ square-foot townhomes available in the mid-$600,000 range. In Deer Valley, that price tag on that kind of space could be for fractionals, not whole-ownership units.

Zermatt owners who are in financial difficulty are "trying to get the banks to work with them," Fuller said. He is nevertheless hopeful that "this is a property that will rebound very quickly" once the economy starts to climb out of cellar, whenever that may be.

Zermatt's high seasons actually are spring/summer/fall, especially for Utahans, and it is big on conventions and meetings. All in all, it offers an intriguing alternative to Park City/Deer Valley glitter.

Prices Going Down on New Hyatt Beach Fractionals near Sarasota

The Hyatt Siesta Key Beach, a 44 unit, $100-million fractional ownership resort now under construction has lowered its prices significantly in a move to find buyers in the moribund Florida economy, the Sarasota Herald Tribune has reported. Some units sold in six-week segments that were priced last year ranging from $250,000 to $750,000 have been reduced to a starting level of $150,000.

Hyatt acknowledges it's a response to market demand -- or non-demand, as the case may be."Our new pricing reflects a superior product at a fraction of the cost of what is selling in today's market," said David Lehrman, director of sales and marketing for the resort. "It allows people to be fiscally conservative and responsible without giving up the luxury they have come to expect." He said four segments had been sold with the reduced price tag.

Krueger Commons Jump-Starts Sales with Below Cost Condos

Krueger Commons, a small, attractive "New Urbanist" condo community in Coupeville on Whidbey Island, in Washington, seems to have the right approach to selling its newest units. There are a total of 20, four per building in 5 buildings. Each unit is a comfy size for a vacation home or empty-nest retreat -- not quite 1250 square feet, with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths each.

To pump up sales, the developer is not selling all, but only 3 units right now, at the remarkable price of $210,000. "At that price, buyers get $30,000 in equity--current appraisal about two weeks ago," said spokeswoman Stephanie Meehan this week. "And yes, it's below our cost."

A big selling point is that there is a lot of open space for bicycling, walking, jogging and enjoying nature in Krueger Commons. Whidbey itself is in the rain "shadow"of the Olympic range and thus gets less rain than metropolises such as Seattle, with a temperate year-round climate. Those houses shown above are a short stroll from the beach.

Defying Recession, Cape May NJ Summer Visitors Will Return, Poll Suggests

Cape May, New Jersey is optimistic that people interested in the summer shore area last year will return, recession notwithstanding, says the Cape May County Herald.

Among the 2,000 visitors queried in a recent poll, 77 percent of the respondents said they are planning to vacation in Cape May County this year. One reason: lower gas prices.

Many Cape May vacationers live one tank of gas away from this area. “The lower gas price is going to help put their budget back in order,” said Diane F. Wieland, tourism department director.

What's more, the region will benefit from the large number of second home owners.

Wieland noted that 50 percent of all second homes in the state are in this county and 47 percent of the county’s dwellings are considered vacation homes. A majority are used by owners but others are often rented out.

Vacation home owners "are going to save the day again for the fact they are committed,” Wieland told the paper. “They may not be able to take that cruise or go somewhere else on vacation but they’ve got a vacation home in Cape May County and they are going to come.”
(Photo: 4 BR West Cape May house for sale -- $699,000)