Marginalizing The Oceanfront Home

First, I must update y'all on our friend, the local speculator. He's dropped his listing price twice since our last update to $749,000. Remember 800k was his *breakeven*.

Last week I met a guy at church whose house was oceanfront. He told me the winter is BRUTAL - that his toilet shakes all winter long from the howling wind. Meanwhile, if he walks 50 yards away, out of the direct line of the water, the wind is practically non-existent.

The thing is, on the South Shore of Boston, oceanfront homes face NORTH.

We were driving down Jerusalem road yesterday - near the home pictured above which, coincidentally, is currently listed for $2.5 million - and came across a *moving sale*. This was a rather large place; it had to have sold for around $3 million smackeroos I'm guessing. I asked the re-locating owner, "Where in Florida are you moving to?" He laughed. He was moving inland just a bit, in fact only a couple of miles away, where "...the heating bills are a lot lower."

The more evidence I gather, the more I am concluding that oceanfront homes in my hood are complete jam-jobs. The summer is too short; maintenance from salt-air erosion is incessant; AND homeowners freeze to death in the winter. It doesn't well matter how high you jack the thermostat up when that northerly breeze is bearing down on you, 24 hours a day, for six months straight, every year.

And just wait, one year heat will finally get expensive!