[ghaff]

>Buy a vacation home, and you're going to have a mental barrier going on vacation somewhere else.

I would probably agree with OPs sentiment in the context of vacation homes. They're not necessarily a great investment. They sort of lock you into a location. They're another thing you have to manage. And so forth. I'd much rather just get a hotel room, a B&B, etc.

I've even thought of buying a small place in the city. First of all, I'm really glad I didn't do that in the last year or two. But, really, while I wish I had done it 10 years ago knowing what I know now about property values, I also don't miss having another property to manage and I can always get a hotel if I want to spend a weekend in town every now and then.

[samatman]

This is, in turn, where AirBnB and companies like it add value to the world.

There are some really bleak effects on affordability in urban areas, but for someone who owns a vacation home they use two or three weeks out of the year, it's great: employ someone local to handle keys and cleaning, cover mortgage/taxes, maintenance, and maybe enough profit that you don't feel so bad going somewhere else once in a while.

In turn, someone like me can rent it! The best of my experiences with AirBnB have been this exact sort of rental, while the worst were situations where I discovered that the rental was illegal.

[asdff]

The only problem with AirBnB in high cost of living cities is that it gobbles up supply zoned for housing and uses it for ostensibly commercial purposes, which hurts the people living there who might have had the chance of signing a lease for that vacant apartment you don't use. Instead it goes to people looking to save $30 a night on a hotel.