I also have seen considerably more people putting down more than 20 percent. They've taken money out of the stock market. We pause now in the midst of all this exuberance to mention a report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which late last month issued a study of the nation's coastal erosion, with some dire predictions of beaches washing away and taking houses with them, particularly along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. The report, conducted in collaborations with the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, foresees one out of four houses within 500 feet of the U.S. shoreline being swept away in the next 60 years. In the Great Lakes, much of it depends on the lake levels, and lake levels are down now.
People can breathe a sigh of relief now.
But when lake levels go up, that's when the erosion will appear. It's not a problem this year. But if you have a significant fear of ending up in the water instead of in front of it, you might be interested in little Grayling, Mich., population about 2,700. Another Coldwell Banker survey, of vacation destinations around the country, just dubbed Grayling, which is about 315 miles from Chicago in the upper end of the Lower Peninsula, to be the least expensive place to buy a vacation home in the country. It's about 70 miles from Lake Michigan.