My dad — a real estate lawyer — likes to dispense advice about home ownership that I only sort of pay attention to because millennial writers can’t buy homes in New York City, silly. But the general gist is that a second home is not a great investment. (I know. A second home? In this economy? But go with it.) At least in a strictly financial sense. It’s illiquid and unpredictable and generally a stressful way to try to move money around in the hopes of ending up with more of it.
The caveat to this advice, the overwhelming exception that keeps the real estate market afloat in certain areas, is if you actually want to be able to go on vacation there.