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I guess it’s one of those dreams, when retirement finally comes, buying a coastal property and living by the sea. It’s an appealing scenario, and a lot of people make the leap to live their best life at the coast. But if you’re thinking about it, have you considered the extra weather and environmental risks of living near the sea?
Although I don’t permanently live at the coast, I do have a vacation property within a few hundred feet of the sea. When I arrived a few days ago, I was met with a slightly storm-damaged roof and an imploded furniture storage box, the contents scattered to goodness knows where. This, alongside other damage over the years, has given me some hard-won experience with the issues worth thinking about.
With changing world weather patterns and the trend toward more extreme weather events, particularly damaging winter storms, insurers are increasingly raising premiums, sometimes dramatically, or withdrawing coverage entirely. In my case, insurance for my coastal property has more than doubled over the last five years compared to a 30% increase for my permanent home. That’s real money, an extra $2,000 annually in my case. Although I’m confident that coverage will always be available in my instance, withdrawal of coverage should be a consideration, particularly in high-risk flood zones.
My insurance deductible has also increased from a flat $1,500 to 2% of property value. On a $400,000 coastal home, that’s $8,000 out of pocket before insurance kicks in. That’s a substantial increase in my potential out-of-pocket costs for even minor storm damage. Risk mitigation is difficult and basically boils down to keeping the outside structure in good repair and paying particular attention to the roof and entry points to the house.
Beyond the elevated storm and flooding risks, another overlooked point is the environmental impact of having a coastal property. The naturally salty conditions can quickly do a number on the exterior finish of your property. Repainting sidings and other external surfaces is an ongoing battle that’s expensive to maintain. I’m repainting exterior trim every 2-3 years versus 5-6 years at my permanent home. Simple things like BBQs and outdoor furniture really don’t last as long. I’ve replaced my coastal BBQ twice in the time my home BBQ is still going strong.
Take the decking around my property. I originally thought of using outdoor-grade lumber, but every contractor recommended composite decking because of the environment and high maintenance costs of wood in the salty sea air. The result was more than double the installation costs, about $35,000 versus $15,000 for comparable wood decking.
Living in Ireland, I don’t need A/C, but I would guess salt air corrosion would be a consideration that could reduce the working life and increase maintenance costs of outside compressor units for those who do. Basically, in all areas, coastal living brings unique financial challenges.
When I add it all up, the extra insurance, more frequent maintenance, shorter lifespan for everything exposed to salt air, my coastal property costs me roughly 40% more annually to maintain than a comparable inland property. That’s a significant chunk to factor into your retirement budget. I’m not saying don’t chase the dream, but do run the numbers first. As the old saying goes: forewarned is forearmed.
My husband & I could never agree on a beach we both loved. I grew up with North Myrtle, SC, he had Outer Banks & Florida.
an anniversary trip brought us to Hilton Head Island & it clicked. Having put 3 kids through college & advanced degrees, medical school as well, debt free, it was our turn. After researching costs with insurance, HOA comparisons, upkeep in ocean front, & rental market, we took the plunge on a condo. As Michael said, a wee one. Rental market has slowed way down and having only 900 sq ft with a king bed & sleeper sofa, we are not at the top of many rental lists. No pets allowed, I might add. However, it’s one of the best decisions we ever made. Yes, there have been repairs, but it’s small enough not to eat into our budget. We bought with the idea that we can afford everything within the family budget so as to not depend on the rental markets. The best part is, after Helene wiped out most of WNC where we reside, we had a place to go & still be able to work. I’ve found in my lifetime, WNC has more tropical storms than HHI.
I grew up in Chatham, MA (when it was a quiet little town). I remember a historical note from someone that “sea captains always built their homes (usually the largest homes in town with those beautiful widows’ walks on the roofs) away from the water on high ground. Wise old men…
Our vacation home is in Chatham. Not a quiet little town now except maybe Jan to March, but since we bought in 1987 it has changed and not for the better. It seems every square inch of open space must built on. Now they are working on plans to charge higher property taxes to non-resident owners. They seem to want to kill the golden goose that allows that small town to have facilities most towns that size could never afford.
IMHO, the real waterfront dream is really “getting up in the morning, drinking your coffee while looking out at the view, and appreciating its ever-changing beauty, every single day.” You don’t need to be by the ocean. But any waterfront property comes with special risks – erosion, pollution, invasive animals and insects, higher maintenance, noisy or inconsiderate neighbors, higher insurance, and usually some distance from stores and services you need. And one pays a premium for that “dream” anyway. For some, it is worth it. I live about a quarter mile from that view, and I can walk down to a park and appreciate the water. Nevertheless, I might still one day get a condo where I can drink my coffee and look out at that view every single morning.
For some people, the pull of coastal living is compelling enough to justify the premium price and extra hassle. That said, even though I’m retired and own a coastal property, I don’t think I’d ever relocate there full time. I appreciate the beauty, but I like my urban comforts and convenience too much.
There are alternatives. For example, we summer at a campground at the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. We’re annuals and we have been doing this since 2014. We travel in a small class B RV and live in a 31 ft. Travel Trailer, parked at that campground. Think of the trailer as a nice cabin with furnace, HVAC, hot & cold running water, a covered deck, etc.
We pay an annual fee and for our metered electricity. No taxes, etc. but we do insure the trailer (about $250 per year). If we decide to move we’ll probably sell the trailer and set up elsewhere.
Most of the sites are annuals as are we. So the neighbors are considerate and friendly.
You would enjoy a recent podcast by the Freakonomics people, in the Economics of Everyday Things series, on “Campgrounds”. It partly features a guy who owns a campground just outside St. Joe and Benton Harbor.
We’ve only ever had one house and two vehicles. Never a second home, RV, boat, timeshare, or pool — if we need it, we rent it.
We never wanted to live on the coast. Our priority has always been living in a city with quick, reliable healthcare. Our subdivision is quiet and well-maintained, with 13 tennis courts, 4 pickleball courts, bike lanes, 3 pools, and a beautiful man-made lake with a 2.5-mile walking path — half paved and half through the woods. It’s just a 10-minute walk from our house.
For all that, we pay just $850 annually. Using the pools and the courts is included.
The weather here is great most of the time. We rarely see snow, and that’s perfect for us. I definitely don’t want to deal with weather disasters.
We’ve got plenty of stores and restaurants — pretty much anything you can imagine and parking is easy everywhere.
Amazon delivers almost anything within hours or a day or two, and returns are just as quick and convenient.
We have been to many European countries. Over the past two years, we’ve spent more than five weeks in the UK and Ireland, 2 weeks in Belgium, 3+ weeks in NZ, and almost 4 weeks in Australia. Nice to visit — but no, thanks.
I often tell people that if they want to live on the coast, Georgia is one of the better choices. Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and states farther north keep getting hit by storms, while the Georgia coast tends to be spared. Florida’s also gotten unbearably hot, expensive, and congested — traffic is terrible in just about every city now, and coastal home insurance is very high. We vistsed FL again a couple of years ago. I couldn’t believe the traffic in small places like Tampa and even Sarasota, where it took me 45 minutes to drive 9 miles at 10 AM and 2 PM.
Agree about Florida. It is no longer the inexpensive place to live. There are cheaper places, but you wouldn’t live in them anywhere else, so why there?Homeowners insurance is costly if you can get it. Auto insurance is extremely expensive as well. From May to October the heat and humidity is unbearable, even on the coasts. If you like cockroaches and fire ants, there are plenty of them there. Not only is traffic bad, but try to get into a restaurant in season. Get there before 5pm or after 8:30 to eat.
We learned a whole different lesson — prepare for disaster.
We went Full Coastal with our beachfront home — we bought a big one in 2015 as our primary, fulfilling my lifetime dream of Oregon beach life. We knew we’d have to replace the sagging composite decks, repair the rotted stairs to the sand and maintain the stucco walls, but the inspection showed that the tile roof and foundation were in awesome shape, so we didn’t have major concerns.
And then six weeks after we closed on the house, an early winter storm with winds over 60 mph literally blew through the ocean-facing wall of the main floor and flooded the living room. Turned out an old doorway leak had spread dry rot 30 feet down the wall. The entire wall had to be torn out and replaced, with jacks holding up the second floor wall. We experienced some very cold indoor-outdoor living. 8 months and $80,000 later — a process during which I was extremely ill and Sarah had to shoulder way too much responsibility — the house was sound again.
We did settle down and enjoy the house very much until 2020, when the pandemic trapped Sarah in China for six months and exposed the anti-Chinese biases of a few of our neighbors. The pandemic also set off a mania for oceanfront homes that had realtors knocking on our doors, so we sold. The price covered our storm repair losses and then some.
Parenthetically, Mark, we made the exact opposite decision on decking, going with Canadian cedar over composite because of the cost, and our local experts said cedar would 20 years with some annual staining. We’ll never know if it was the right call, because our buyers pretty much tore the house down and replaced it with a monster 50% larger. In the photos I’ve seen, their massive new deck looks like composite.
I still miss the pounding of the waves. And the otters and herons. And low tide.
Mike, I grew up in Eugene and used to visit Florence, Newport, etc. on a regular basis. From 1998-2003 I lived in Astoria–loved it. Our first fall/winter there, from October to March, there were winds recorded of 100 mph or more, every one of those months, somewhere along the Oregon Coast. U.S. 101 was blocked north of Garibaldi by a landslide for a while. Unless you’ve spent some time there, you’ll never know how extreme the weather gets because the storms have no names.
Oh man. Talk about spectacular bad luck, I would have been gutted. Last night we had 50mph northerly winds, the roaring of the waves was awesome!
Good article, and good timing. Presently enjoying morning coffee in a coastal town in The East Neuk (Scotland), and my wife has found a wee cottage for sale two villages down…
That’s near St Andrews from memory. A nice part of the world, enjoy. Although if the weather is anything like the North Coast of Ireland at the moment, it’s kind of windy!
Correct on all counts! We spent winter before last in Cornwall; not going to be fussed about a little wind 🙂
On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a number (maybe 20?) of houses have been destroyed by storm surges and high tides over the last two months.
All of the homes were unoccupied, as beach erosion had been creeping towards them for years, and they were condemned. A quirk in insurance law or regulations prevented anyone from preemptively removing the at-risk homes. The only way for insurance to pay was if they were claimed by the ocean.
Unfortunately, letting the ocean do the demolition work means that debris is distributed over miles of beach.
See here. Some of these houses were originally two or three rows back from the (now missing) dune line. Of course, building on the Outer Banks was always problematic, they shift over time. The beach didn’t attract me, I was more interested in the mountains. I looked seriously at moving to Asheville, but the medical situation isn’t as good, and the two non-profit CCRCs are out of town.
The go-to spot for second homes or a permanent move for folks in my neck of the woods is Folrida. The depth of our pockets isn’t sufficient for us to comfortably afford a second home there. Although we love sunshiney weather and the ocean, we have no desire to relocate. Frequent vacations to various islands in the Caribbean satiate our beach habit. The frequency of severe tropical weather is also a deterrent to living by the ocean.
Our home town, Toledo, borders on the Lake Erie shoreline, sometimes referred to as the ‘north coast’. There’s lots to do there, especially in the summer.
Could we buy a place on the lake? We could, but a house equal to the one we now have, would cost at least twice as much.
We love to travel to Magee Marsh to watch warblers on that ‘north coast’. It was stunning to see all those beautiful birds!
Indeed. Do you come in for the festival in May?
Yes, we come with friends, who are originally from outside Detroit. They attend every year. We came up once when we were working a few years back and loved it. Now that we are retired, we hope to get back there, and to many other birding hotspots.
Oh yes, I have the same retirement dream … add fresh seafood each day, heaven. I’ve always thought about the extra expense (for California, ideally) of home cost, real estate taxes (quadruple vs where I live), insurance and state taxes! Never thought or knew about the house upkeep, thanks for sharing your experience. I’ll keep dreaming 🙂
Keep dreaming Suzee. My neighbour has lobster pots, a few days a week he baits and sets them on the rocky shore near our home. Fresh lobster , grilled or straight from the BBQ…. yummy.
We have had a house near the ocean since 1987. My homeowner insurance has a $30,000 deductible if related to hurricane damage. Otherwise the premium would skyrocket so I take my chances with the deductible.
Last year replaced the deck from wood to composite- $32,000. So far no problems with the AC unit which is over 20 years own. The cedar shake siding is holding up after all the years.
We also keep trees trimmed to minimize the risk of falling. In fact, the insurance requires they be cut back so they don’t hang over the roof.
We have a service where someone visits the house inside and out each week and sends a report with photos. If something needs to be fixed they arrange it.
But being 340 miles away, there is always something to worry about.
Despite living in California, we live inland and long for the ocean. But I think we’re pretty set on renting places for a few weeks here and there in coastal California or Hawaii rather than buying a retirement home or second home by the ocean.
Plus for the truly seaside there is the coastal erosion problem. As my teenage niece astutely said when watching some show about luxury properties with drone footage “Xm for that when the garden is already falling off a cliff – you’re joking!”
Points to desirability of lakes over sea though rivers can be problematic of course re flooding.
I lived in Pacifica, California in the 1990s. I watched a whole row of 13 houses below me simply fall off Esplanade Drive into the sea. Three apartment buildings followed. The entire area from the post office to the Safeway will disappear in the next 75 years or so. The ocean wins every time.
I’m definitely thinking about that for when we purchase a permanent retirement home. I don’t want anything with a flood risk, will be looking at fire risk, and of course earthquake/landslide possibilities.
I plan on renting in areas we’re interested in to get a good feel before committing to a purchase.
I love Incline Village, NV, but the fire risk has caused premiums to soar in recent years. As buildings age, snow damage is also a concern.
We may end up somewhere like Bend, OR, or somewhere in Colorado.
My parents’ house is right by a beach, but they’re elevated above flood risk. They’ve been there since 1973 and the only storm damage has been a couple of roof tiles and a fence in the back yard.
Back in the late ’70s/early ’80s you could watch Japanese and Italian cars dissolve in the salty air 🙂
There’s definitely been an uptick in coastal storms in my neck of the woods. Two winters ago, three severe storms within a short period stripped the mile-long sandy beach beside our home right down to the bedrock; it was a depressing sight. Mother Nature took two years to return the beach to its former glory.
Cape Cod is gradually disappearing. They moved a lighthouse 300 feet back from the edge. A few years ago several houses were washed into the sea. The beach we use has lost twenty feet or more. Give it a few hundred years and we will have beachfront property.
I think I saw a documentary about the lighthouse being moved. Front line property, just think about the property tax lol
Sound like a man after my heart. A while back I toyed with the idea of where I’d want to live if I moved to US – Truckee/Incline, Bend, Sandpoint ID, Kalispell MT, Glenwood Springs CO area were my picks
I wish the taxes weren’t so high on the CA side of Lake Tahoe. I really like Truckee too. Apart from cycling around the lake, one of my favorite rides out there was a 100-mile ride from Incline Village to the end of the old Donner Pass Road and back.
I haven’t actually been to CO or OR yet, but I love the mountain vibe. That 4,000-5,000 elevation point seems to be a sweet spot for me.
Have you ever been to those places?
Yep. Of course.