Resort towns filling up during Coronavirus with Second HomeOwners?

[TippyThomas]

I'm living in an RV right now and have no choice but to move as campgrounds keep closing all around me. I have nowhere else to go so I have no choice but to move.

 

[monkeydawn]

But you are right that going from a place with a lot of hospitals close by to one with limited resources is risky.

I cant speak for all beach towns but here we dont yet have restrictions. We have requests and guidelines that arent really being followed by an alarmingly high percentage. So if people are coming to here to escape irresponsible behavior they are going to succeed. And they are ending up in an area with far fewer resources to help if they do become ill.

Hopefully by trying to get that message out, maybe a couple of people will reconsider. Which could have an exponentially positive effect for our area.

 

[mefordis]

The bottom line is, they own the home, they pay taxes, they can use the house as they wish.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm assuming people who own the homes who are paying the property tax are also helping paying for such services they may have the possibility of using.

Def. understand the risk of spreading it's deserving of careful consideration for all involved.

 

[yeahdisney]

If I had a second home, and the one I was currently in was in a densely populated area, I would of planned to go to the second home prior to lock down and then that would be my home for the duration. And I would of reduced contact with people when I arrived.

 

[fla4fun]

If I had a second home, and the one I was currently in was in a densely populated area, I would of planned to go to the second home prior to lock down and then that would be my home for the duration. And I would of reduced contact with people when I arrived.

Going before the situation escalated in the area with the primary residence would be the responsible way to do it. Unfortunately I don’t think many people considered that.

 

[fla4fun]

I'm living in an RV right now and have no choice but to move as campgrounds keep closing all around me. I have nowhere else to go so I have no choice but to move.

I have been wondering the past couple days what full time RVers would be doing as areas shut down. That is a demographic I don’t think a lot of people have considered. I know our state parks are closed, so those campsites are off limits.

 

[Searc]

I have been wondering the past couple days what full time RVers would be doing as areas shut down. That is a demographic I don’t think a lot of people have considered. I know our state parks are closed, so those campsites are off limits.

They are coming to counties with few or no cases from out of state...like the one adjacent to me. Campgrounds should be closed.

 

[fla4fun]

They are coming to counties with few or no cases from out of state...like the one adjacent to me. Campgrounds should be closed.

I don’t disagree, but I do wonder where they would go? If you are a full time RVer, you don’t have a home to go back to in order to ride it out. I am legitimately curious about the issue, and have no good solution to offer.

 

[tex1989]

Actually our farm is probably a better place to be in terms of hospital beds. The nearest town from the farm is College Station, home of Texas A&M. Since they sent all the students home there is probably excess capacity on a lot of things around the Bryan/ College Station area since the majority of the 50k plus students have mostly gone home since classes were cancelled. Of course if they all stayed to do online classes then it probably crowded but I am thinking most took off since there is no socia; ;ife to be had.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I don’t disagree, but I do wonder where they would go? If you are a full time RVer, you don’t have a home to go back to in order to ride it out. I am legitimately curious about the issue, and have no good solution to offer.

My in-laws are not full time RVers, but they are currently living in their RV in FL. They bought a spot in a permanent RV park down there to park their RV when not in use, but it is also a permanent community for most who own spots. They are a part of that community right now, but they arrived in January, long before this started.

Honestly, I did not know that there were folks out there who just lived out of RVs without a spot like that, or a home - never considered the implications. They are in a bind right now, to be sure. As are the homeless.

 

[TippyThomas]

I don’t disagree, but I do wonder where they would go? If you are a full time RVer, you don’t have a home to go back to in order to ride it out. I am legitimately curious about the issue, and have no good solution to offer.

I'm heading out to the southwest where I can camp out in the middle of nowhere on Bureau of Land Management public lands. I have to go somewhere so I guess out in the middle of nowhere will work. Hopefully I don't get severely sick because I'm alone and it would probably be the end of my adventure for sure. Really out of choices at this point.

 

[TippyThomas]

They are coming to counties with few or no cases from out of state...like the one adjacent to me. Campgrounds should be closed.

In my case, that's simply not true.

Also, I'm open for options if you know of any. Hadn't considered this when I planned this a few years ago. I doubt anyone did.

 

[TippyThomas]

My in-laws are not full time RVers, but they are currently living in their RV in FL. They bought a spot in a permanent RV park down there to park their RV when not in use, but it is also a permanent community for most who own spots. They are a part of that community right now, but they arrived in January, long before this started.

Honestly, I did not know that there were folks out there who just lived out of RVs without a spot like that, or a home - never considered the implications. They are in a bind right now, to be sure. As are the homeless.

I didn't buy a spot, but I had one rented for the next 3 months. That was until they closed up and told me I had 24 hours to move off property. It's been difficult at best to find replacement facilities so I have no choice but to move out to BLM land where I hope to God I don't get sick out there.

 

[fla4fun]

Honestly, I did not know that there were folks out there who just lived out of RVs without a spot like that, or a home - never considered the implications. They are in a bind right now, to be sure. As are the homeless.

I have looked into full time RVing a few times, but figured it would have to wait a while. One of my favorite shows is Going RV, which is kind of like House Hunters on wheels. I would say a third to half of the people on the show are selling their homes or have no permanent residence to begin with, and plan to travel the country permanently. Some are families with children that they homeschool and have jobs they work remotely. Some are retirees. It all sounds wonderful until something like this happens and they don’t have anywhere to go. It’s not so easy as just rolling up to a relative’s home because so many neighborhoods have restrictions regarding RVs and how long you can park one at your home (it’s 48 hours in our neighborhood, basically enough time to load or unload one for a trip).

I hope they, and the homeless, are taken care of.

 

[CarolAnn856]

I can't believe how myopic some people are. Just because someone pays taxes in a resort town doesn't mean that the local infrastructure can handle an influx of people in the off-season. Beach town hospitals, for example, don't keep the level of staffing up over the winter as they do in the summer. They don't order as many supplies, because they simply would go to waste. Property owners in resort towns love to whine about the taxes they pay as it is. How much higher would those taxes be if those towns staffed police, fire, and rescue all year round like they do in the summer?? I wish some people would stop being so incredibly selfish and look at the bigger picture for once.

 

[Deb & Bill]

From NY or NYC?

NY, NJ and CT. Add Louisiana to that list. State Troopers will be watching cars on the interstates looking for plates from these states as well as checking people flying into Florida.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I can't believe how myopic some people are. Just because someone pays taxes in a resort town doesn't mean that the local infrastructure can handle an influx of people in the off-season. Beach town hospitals, for example, don't keep the level of staffing up over the winter as they do in the summer. They don't order as many supplies, because they simply would go to waste. Property owners in resort towns love to whine about the taxes they pay as it is. How much higher would those taxes be if those towns staffed police, fire, and rescue all year round like they do in the summer?? I wish some people would stop being so incredibly selfish and look at the bigger picture for once.

Seems like there are two very valid sides to this bigger picture.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I can't believe how myopic some people are. Just because someone pays taxes in a resort town doesn't mean that the local infrastructure can handle an influx of people in the off-season. Beach town hospitals, for example, don't keep the level of staffing up over the winter as they do in the summer. They don't order as many supplies, because they simply would go to waste. Property owners in resort towns love to whine about the taxes they pay as it is. How much higher would those taxes be if those towns staffed police, fire, and rescue all year round like they do in the summer?? I wish some people would stop being so incredibly selfish and look at the bigger picture for once.

Maybe not all places are the same as in this issue.

I can think of the Lake of the Ozarks. In the wintertime you won't find nearly as many visitors. You won't find as many water patrol..because well..it's wintertime people aren't out in the water. But people do still like to go to the Lake in the late fall through winter, the Lake itself is pretty, you get away, etc. There are restaurants that shutdown for that time frame but many stay open.

Under normal circumstances I can't ever see anyone actually saying "you can't come here in the off season because you'll put a strain on the system". The realistic aspect is they have the freedom to come and go as they please. Someone paying property taxes is paying into the system on a 12month time frame. They can go to that place any time they want even if some times of the year will have more as it becomes seasonal. At least in my comments that's why I framed them that way because they are actually paying into the infrastructure.

That's all to say that if you consider that where someone primarily lives could be a case in the reverse where their primary residence is actually the place that has less.

I guess I don't see it as wrong by principle. It takes careful consideration into all the risks but not wrong on principle. I think there's something to be said for too much movement either way. People who went to their secondary property to escape for the winter have to be careful about going back to their primary residence and thus may need to realistically stay at that secondary place. People who are at their primary residence have to consider too much movement if they are going to their secondary or vacation property. Not every place is a summer destination. Some places are winter destinations and people may still be caught on the tail end of that.

 

[monkeydawn]

I didn't buy a spot, but I had one rented for the next 3 months. That was until they closed up and told me I had 24 hours to move off property. It's been difficult at best to find replacement facilities so I have no choice but to move out to BLM land where I hope to God I don't get sick out there.

I'm sorry. This never would have entered my mind with respect to full time RVers. FWIW, your situation is not what I was talking about. I hope you were able to get well stocked with whatever your cold medicines of choice are. This way if you do get sick you can hopefully self treat and be OK. Take care and I hope you wont be so remote that you cant check in every so often.

I can't believe how myopic some people are. Just because someone pays taxes in a resort town doesn't mean that the local infrastructure can handle an influx of people in the off-season. Beach town hospitals, for example, don't keep the level of staffing up over the winter as they do in the summer. They don't order as many supplies, because they simply would go to waste. Property owners in resort towns love to whine about the taxes they pay as it is. How much higher would those taxes be if those towns staffed police, fire, and rescue all year round like they do in the summer?? I wish some people would stop being so incredibly selfish and look at the bigger picture for once.

Thank you for understanding some of the problematic issues small tourist towns face. Even if we were fully stocked and staffed we are still so much less prepared here. We are one of the fastest growing counties in the US and its been a problem for awhile now that our infrastructure has not been kept up. Things that the builders are supossed to do, they dont or do so poorly that the town has to come in a few years later and redo. The builders never get punished in any way that matters so the residents end up with the burden of a lot of things that we shouldnt be paying. Our taxes are low so when we have to spend a lot of our money fixing what the builders didnt do correctly, that leaves very little money for other things. Additionally we have a huge water crises here that's been pulling attention from other issues and wasting much of our tax dollars. Our area in particular I feel is a poor choice for someone that has other options and perhaps that is coloring my perception of the problem.