"Location! Location! Location!" is indeed the ultimate real estate mantra. It is known that homes situated in front of water bodies are more expensive than others, but by how much?
To answer that, Zillow Inc. - the property firm - recently conducted a study to find out how much more would it cost to buy a waterfront home and found that currently, one could buy 10 houses for the cost of one waterfront home in the most expensive area.
The price of a median single-family home in the U.S. is about $171,600, while the median price of a waterfront house is $370,900, a premium of 116.1 percent.
To arrive at the results, Zillow analyzed 250 communities across the U.S. with about 100 waterfront homes that sat within 150 feet of oceans or large lakes that spanned more than 10 square kilometers.
These are the top five areas that had the most expensive waterfront homes (median price):
- Laguna Beach, Calif - $10,068,500
- Malibu, Calif - $6,317,700
- Hermosa Beach, Calif - $4,766,500
- Great Neck, NY - $4,649,200
- Kailua, Hawaii - 4,511,100
And, the most affordable waterfront homes are available in (median price):
- Holiday, Fla. - $103,000
- Spring Hill, Fla. - $105,100
- Dunnellon, Fla. - $111,700
- Hernando, Fla. - $114,800
- Keystone Heights, Fla. - 116,800
"The allure of ocean and lakefront living is powerful and undeniable, and millions of homeowners nationwide dream of one day owning a home on the water. But those dreams come at a price," Dr. Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, explained.
"Waterfront properties are both relatively scarce and highly coveted, and that high demand and limited supply leads to higher home prices. Additionally, added insurance, floods, environmental mitigation and infrastructure costs are often part of the tab when buying a waterfront home. Still, as long as buyers understand the added costs and potential headaches, waterfront living is likely to remain one of life's simple pleasures for many, many years to come," he added.
But, it's not just the exorbitant price that home buyers will have to deal with while buying a waterfront home. Safety is also a huge hurdle here. The rising sea levels could pose a great threat to waterfront living.
More recently, the beach at Malibu Colony - an affluent waterfront strip that is home to several stars like Tom Hanks, Pink and Nicholas Cage - was lapped up by the waves of the sea and no amount of sandbag was helping. TMZ has some photos.
