A boat! Yes, I know....two best days about owning a boat....blahh blahhh blahhh
Here's my analysis:
A vacation home on the beach when we live in the Midwest is not a good purchase given the distance to the vacation home, say in Florida or the east coast. We could buy a lake house on Lake Michigan, but it'd be 4 hours or more to get to it, and the cost is still not great...to be on the water that is. I'll never be able to justify the cost to myself. I could buy a house "near" the lake for less, but I don't see the point of owning a second home up north, then still having to drive to the water. Basically, I wouldn't want a vacation home that isn't on the water, but the numbers won't add up for me to own a vacation home. I'd never use it enough to justify the cost. I'd rather just rent a house on the beach a couple weeks a year.
When I was younger I had the (maybe not so crazy) idea that I would graduate from college, and then buy a boat to live on on Lake Michigan along the Chicago coast. In the winter, I'd live with the parents or in some dump of an apartment while the boat is in storage.
Anyhow, that never happened as I ended up working no where near Lake Michigan or Chicago for several years. So now, with kids and a nice home in the burbs, I thought what if I had the boat (house) now as a weekend home on the water?
Something over 30 feet can sleep the family on weekends during the summers. The cost of a used 30'+ cruiser is $20K and up, but a good one doesn't appear to be over $50k. I've seen some vacation homes up north that are not that great go for several multiples of $50K. They'd need work to meet my expectations for that much money, and I'd have to hire someone to maintain it during the summer when we're not there for the few weekends of the yr. So a $50k boat doesn't look so bad. I wouldn't be spending $50K, but some 20-30K boat would do, and they appear to be in better shape than some homes I've seen. I'd also do my own maintenance on the boat.
The dock and storage fees are a killer though. In Chicago I calculated over $1600 a month for a downtown harbor and dry storage isn't any cheaper. So Chicago is out of the question, but there are plenty of lakes and water ways in the northern Illinois area that are within a couple hour's drive. The rates there have to be better. So if the rates are say $800/mo for dock and storage, it'd be $9600 a year, and it would be 20+ yrs before the total cost would come close to what a house on the lake or on the beach cost today.
So.. a house: lawn care, worries over the winter when we don't visit the home for months, home maintenance, etc. Large intial cost and propertie tax. Several times higher initial cost than a boat. Potentially long drive to get to the house and we'd probably not use it that much.
A boat: operating cost during the summer months...that's it (besides the harbor fee). A harbor on a nice body of water isn't that far, and we'd likely use it more weekends than a house.
We just had a baby, so this is not going to happen anytime soon, so I have a year or two to research and plan, but what do you guys think? I'm I nuts? What's wrong with a house ON the water?
I would probably spend more money on a racing hobby per year than what a boat would coat me, and I'd be able to get the whole family involved (wife won't go to the race track with me). I won't give up motorsports, but I'd do less of it.
Here are some local examples of a boat that I tink can be used as a weekend home...
36' Trojan TriCabin Flybridge Cruiser - $29600 (Northern Illinois)
31.5 Bayliner - $20000 (Racine WI)
1977 Trojan *** house boat *** - $25000 (foxlake)
34/39 ft cruisers express $30.500.00 OBO - $30500 (seneca il)
35' Chris Craft Aft Cabin - $39000 (chicago)
2000 30' Bayliner Cierra Sunbridge - $28500 (Fox lake)
I really like this one:
1974 Trojan F-32 (Super Clean) - $30000 (Fox Lake in IL.)