Resort towns filling up during Coronavirus with Second HomeOwners?

[Amii]

I live in a small rural area of California that gets a lot of tourists. So far it seems that all of the vacation homes are full. These second home folks are buying out our grocery stores to the point where some stores are requiring an ID with a local address on it in order to shop. We only have 31 hospital beds in this county so if they start getting sick...

I mean, yeah it's technically their home and they're entitled to use it but at what cost?

That is what it is like in my area. We live in a touristy beach area and people who own second homes and tourists are coming down and filling everything up. We have very few hospital beds compared to the people who have come.

My husband and I own a plumbing business. We shut down a lot of houses for the winter and open them again when the people call in the spring. You would not believe what I hear from some of the people who are having their houses turned on. They think they are coming to enjoy a vacation. They are not going to stay in their houses and they don't care about social distancing. They care about coming to their vacation home and having fun. This includes people who were told they need to be self-isolating for 2 weeks because of possible exposure. They are going to come down but they aren't going to stay in their house. They are looking for a good time. Should they be allowed to come and put everyone at risk? I know not everyone is like that but you would be surprised how many people have that attitude.

A lot of the houses are not occupied by the owners all summer either. It is off season now so many of the owners are coming down but in a few weeks most of the houses will be rented by the week with people coming and going all summer looking to have their fun vacation. How do you stop the spread of the virus when there are that many people coming and going weekly?

 

[Hikergirl]

That is what it is like in my area. We live in a touristy beach area and people who own second homes and tourists are coming down and filling everything up. We have very few hospital beds compared to the people who have come.

My husband and I own a plumbing business. We shut down a lot of houses for the winter and open them again when the people call in the spring. You would not believe what I hear from some of the people who are having their houses turned on. They think they are coming to enjoy a vacation. They are not going to stay in their houses and they don't care about social distancing. They care about coming to their vacation home and having fun. This includes people who were told they need to be self-isolating for 2 weeks because of possible exposure. They are going to come down but they aren't going to stay in their house. They are looking for a good time. Should they be allowed to come and put everyone at risk? I know not everyone is like that but you would be surprised how many people have that attitude.

They should be allowed to come to their property.

I am wondering how you know exactly what every person coming is planning to do?

 

[Amii]

They should be allowed to come to their property.

I am wondering how you know exactly what every person coming is planning to do?

Because the business we own has been in business for 54 years and my husband worked for the business 21 years before we bought the business 5 years ago. We have had many of the same customers (sometimes several generations) for 54 years and we know them enough to chat with them and know who they are when they call. It's also a relatively small town where people know each other or know of each other.

I didn't say I know what every person is going to do. Many people who have called have asked me what is open, what restrictions are, etc and flat out told me they were not going to follow them.

 

[Hikergirl]

Because the business we own has been in business for 54 years and my husband worked for the business 21 years before we bought the business 5 years ago. We have had many of the same customers (sometimes several generations) for 54 years and we know them enough to chat with them and know who they are when they call. It's also a relatively small town where people know each other or know of each other.

I didn't say I know what every person is going to do. Many people who have called have asked me what is open, what restrictions are, etc and flat out told me they were not going to follow them.

Ok, sure.
They have every right to come to their homes.
They are subject to the same restrictions as everyone else, they aren't being allowed any special privileges.
What they decide to do is on them, but no it isn't right to keep them from their legally owned property because what you think they might do when they get there.

 

[Searc]

Exactly and there is no easy way to prove who lives there full time or not.

Sure it is.

 

[HeatherC]

OP here. This a huge topic on my Facebook page and people are getting really worked up over it. Like I said before, I can see both sides. But people who are complaining now certainly weren’t when these homeowners helped keep property taxes lower.

Where my sister lives they have a huge amount of vacation homes there and that has enabled their town to have the lowest property taxes in the state. People seem to forget that. Now everyone wants the homeowners to go.

Hopefully, people will just have the sense to self quarantine for 14 days at this point.

 

[morgan98]

I live in a small rural area of California that gets a lot of tourists. So far it seems that all of the vacation homes are full. These second home folks are buying out our grocery stores to the point where some stores are requiring an ID with a local address on it in order to shop. We only have 31 hospital beds in this county so if they start getting sick...

I mean, yeah it's technically their home and they're entitled to use it but at what cost?

It may be their second home but they purchased it and pay property taxes just as you do. They could send kids to your schools too. Tourists staying at hotels may be one thing, but property owners really are something different.

I guess it is okay to collect property taxes from them, but not expect them to use any services?

For the record, I do not own a second home.

 

[MillauFr]

Sure it is.

How?

 

[Amii]

OP here. This a huge topic on my Facebook page and people are getting really worked up over it. Like I said before, I can see both sides. But people who are complaining now certainly weren’t when these homeowners helped keep property taxes lower.

Where my sister lives they have a huge amount of vacation homes there and that has enabled their town to have the lowest property taxes in the state. People seem to forget that. Now everyone wants the homeowners to go.

Hopefully, people will just have the sense to self quarantine for 14 days at this point.

I would love for everyone to come down and stay. At this point I think it is about realistically looking at resources and saving people's lives. If there was a way to be sure people who owned houses were following the rules for safety and people were being punished for not following the rules (self-quarantining, not coming if they were sick, etc) I would be all for it. My area also has a huge population of elderly people. If the virus hits here hard I fear a lot of people will die because of their age and not being enough hospital beds for them. I feel at some point we need to look at the greater good and not what we would like to do.

Most of the people who own summer houses here rent them because they make a killing. The owners come down early and then starting in April they start renting weekly until September with the exception of 4th of July week. Most of the homeowners come up for that week. That is not homeowners coming down and staying down for the summer. I understand they can do whatever they want with their house but that is a lot of people turning over every week. Puts our community at a much higher risk of the virus.

 

[tex1989]

Guess it depends on where you are from and where you are going. I have a farm that is not in what you would call a resort area and I have gone there the past two weekends. I live in a suburb of Houston and while the county Houston is in is shelter in place, ours is not. My farm is not in a county declared shelter in place either. Texas has gotten a lot of grief because the governor has not made the declaration for the entire state. But he has said that part of the problem is we have counties out west in Texas that only have 300 to 400 residents and realistically they are fairly safe from a lot of what is going on and declaring stay at home for them makes little sense. Instead he is letting the cities, towns, and counties make the calls on what to do. The funniest part of the whole thing to me is what they are saying are essential businesses and which are not. My understanding is marijuana shops are essential but many other businesses like gun and ammo stores are not. Funny what people think they need and don't need in times like these.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

So here is another topic we can all agree to disagree on during this crisis.
Anyway, thoughts on people going to their second homes during this pandemic?

My brother and sister both live in towns that are right near the ocean and who have a lot of second homeowners. People are livid with people coming to their homes now.

I can see both sides. It puts even more burden on the smaller hospitals serving these comminities and exposes more people if they don’t stay home.

On the other hand, they have every legal right to be there if they arrived before any stay at home orders were given. (if they came after, then I think that is just wrong.) They pay taxes and the towns are happy to have them do so.

What do you guys think?

Well what are portrayed as stay at home orders are mostly stay at home pretty pleases with sugar on top. And some places are late to do that or anything at all for that matter. It certainly would stink to be in an area that wasn't affected too much only to have a bunch of sick people from other areas coming down. But on the other hand, many touristy areas didn't seem to care and even stayed full open for spring break. Others closed up shop.

 

[pryncess527]

My understanding is marijuana shops are essential but many other businesses like gun and ammo stores are not. Funny what people think they need and don't need in times like these.

That’s at least in part because some people have a prescription for marijuana. If oil stopped your kids seizures, you’d consider it necessary too.

 

[skyblue17]

Thinking about this more and anyone that wanted to change homes during this should have done it earlier. Anyone doing it now is doing so knowing more about the risks of exposure. If you own multiple homes, pick one and stay there, and stay in it.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

My understanding is marijuana shops are essential but many other businesses like gun and ammo stores are not. Funny what people think they need and don't need in times like these.

Gotta smoke up to lower the stress from not being able to buy more guns.

 

[tcufrog]

There's a huge vacation ranch in Montana that has second homes and vacation homes there that you can rent. We've stayed there a few times and loved it so much that we considered buying a home there but ultimately decided not to because it's so difficult to get there. When this first started they sent an email out suggesting that guests come and stay there to wait out the crisis because there weren't any cases in the state. The nearest city is so small that the airport has 3 gates.

 

[Feralpeg]

Anyone coming to Florida from New York and surrounding areas must isolate for 14 days. They cannot stay with family to do this. They are gathering information as people fly into Florida and the governor says they will fine people who do not comply.

I'm not sure how they are going to police this and there isn't a way to gather info on people driving down.

 

[Hikergirl]

Anyone coming to Florida from New York and surrounding areas must isolate for 14 days. They cannot stay with family to do this. They are gathering information as people fly into Florida and the governor says they will fine people who do not comply.

I'm not sure how they are going to police this and there isn't a way to gather info on people driving down.

From NY or NYC?

 

[monkeydawn]

At the same time, if you live in a crowded place and have somewhere else to go, it makes sense to leave.

Does it really though? Most of the places people are coming to our area from have a higher ICU bed rate. The sense Ive gotten from most is that they like the idea of here because we have fewer restrictions. For instance, not all of our beaches are closed yet. No shelter in place order yet, etc. They are leaving places with several hundreds to thousands of ICU beds to go somewhere with 19 ICU beds.

And, frankly, the NE (where most of our part time residents are from) is likely to get much more supplemental help that we are in Nowheresville, NC. Odds are their bed count will increase and ours will stay at 19. There are homes that still have tarps of their roof from Hurricane Frances in September of 2018 if that gives a hint as to what our infrastructure can handle.

Yes I get that but if those people own a property in that area don't they have as much right to access hospital facilities as others?

I guess they can be right and wrong all at once.

 

[Searc]

How?

Easiest is license, another is car registration.

 

[MillauFr]

Easiest is license, another is car registration.

Neither proves anything. People in New York get Florida licenses and claim they are Florida residents all of the time to avoid taxes. People in Washington frequently get Oregon drivers licenses to avoid paying sales tax.