I bought a house on winni about a decade ago before getting married or having kids. At the time (2003) I could rent it for most of the summer and pay almost all of the expenses. I used the house personally one week in the summer then a lot in June/Sept and the winter. At that time it made a lot of sense.
Then I got married and we moved here year round..... I did the math and there was no way I could justify it. I calculated it was costing me $6,000 a month all in to live on the water (vs. an off the water house) and there was just too many other things I could be doing with that money.
We had kids about 4 years ago and I really started to miss being on the lake. Without kids a boat and a slip was good enough but now we wanted easier more convenient access.
For us the right choice was a house in a water access community that had decent views of the water (we are about 150 feet from the lake). It cost us about 1/4 what a non-access type of community would and the only loss is we share the beach. And actually the community has a much nicer beach than we could have possibly afforded if we bought our own private beach.
Because my wife and I are both self employed its easier to take a sunny wednesday off and work on a saturday when its too crowded. If we absolutely had to have all our friends up for a 4th of July BBQ it would be problematic.
Its still not easily justified financially but its a lot better than a straight up "house on the lake".
Oh and what I really wanted was an island place but the boss said no way no how!
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