If owning a home has long been called the American
dream, then what would you call the dream of owning a vacation
home, or holiday home, next to Walt Disney World in Orlando? The
American Dream Phase II? It may be more accurately called the
International dream. Vacation home community developers report
that well over 50% of their buyers are not U.S. residents. Why
do they buy? More importantly, why would you buy?
Everyone knows that home ownership presents many
challenges and headaches. But why would you purchase a second
residence, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, thousands
of miles from home, that you will only use for a few weeks or
less per year? That’s qualifies as down right crazy…right?
Not so fast! These crazy people might just be building an impressive
real estate portfolio that capitalizes on vacation contributions
by millions of Walt Disney World visitors. Could individuals like
you and me have figured out how to profit from those same tourists
who year after year spend hundreds of millions of dollars to rent
their vacation accommodations near The Mouse? Have they just looked
at the example set by the hundreds of hotel owners and said, “why
not me?” Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and
where there are millions of vacation renters, there’s a hot
short-term rental vacation ownership market!
So why have so many international investors purchased
holiday homes in comparison to US buyers? The answer is simple.
Travel wholesalers abroad have for years packaged the airfare,
rental car, and holiday home together for one discounted price.
In the United States, travel agencies have almost exclusively
combined a hotel with the airfare and rental car. Now that the
traveling public in the US has realized the added value of renting
a single-family residence, complete with a private pool and other
amenities, for the price of a hotel room, the trend is accelerating.
The vacation home ownership industry in Florida
is also being driven by another critical factor. The baby boom
generation is ten years, or less, from retirement. Income producing
vacation homes in a retirement friendly state like Florida (no
state income tax!) are an ultra attractive way to both invest
and secure the retirement homestead before the prices escalate.
If you think that vacation home ownership next to Walt Disney
World might be for you, then do your homework, so that your experience
is as good as it gets.
