do kids hate the beach? I feel like 'relatively meager compared to HN' could be low 100k and that would be plenty livable, 2-3x the household median income at non super fancy beach towns in the east/south US.
As someone whose kid loves the beach - beach time with small children is very different from beach time as a childless couple. You have to constantly watch the kid to make sure they're not running into the waves, or eating sand, or throwing sand at other beachgoers, or about to fall into the creek. It's not at all as relaxing as going to the beach as a single person or couple is, for reasons entirely unrelated to how much going to the beach costs.