Beaches Not Nearly Booked

The Harford Courant reports:

Good news, procrastinators: It's not too late to plan your summer beach vacation - especially if you want to be on Cape Cod.

A confluence of factors - including the boom in second- and third-home purchases - is creating opportunity for summer vacationers, especially those seeking moderate-price rentals.

Many of the more luxurious homes in hot locales were snapped up early, but real estate agents said there are hundreds of listings still available on the Cape, and even closer to home on the Connecticut shoreline and on the lakes in Litchfield County.

And they are not just available in less desirable June, but the prime vacation season - July and August.

"There's still a ton of properties available and a ton of weeks available in July and August," said Melissa Morris, an agent with Century 21 Seaside Properties in Osterville, Mass. "There's so much more inventory now. We're saturated with it."

Morris, who has about 100 listings this year - about 10 percent more than last year - and other agents say there are two main reasons for the abundance of available homes.

Many people have gotten tired of sitting for hours in traffic on the way to the Cape, which in peak months turns into a giant parking lot. At the same time, hundreds of former summer renters have purchased second homes on the Cape, and those new owners are now looking to rent their homes out to help make their mortgage payments - flooding the market with inventory. In previous years many of those new owners would have been also looking to rent.

Another part of the real estate market.You'll want to read the whole thing.