Her research shows that the Hill Country meets each of the factors below and is a great place to purchase a vacation or second home.
Popularity is a mixed bag when you’re looking for vacation property. A hot destination means more crowds, more traffic, longer lines. But if you’re keeping an eye on investment potential -- and more than one out of three second-home buyers say they are -- then you want to buy where others want to be. What you really want, though, is to buy today in an area that's going to be hot tomorrow, so what are the ingredients that will turn a sleepy village into the next Aspen or Hilton Head?
A beautiful setting is a must, but here are some other important factors:
Proximity to growing urban centers.
Vacation towns typically need to be within a two- to three-hour drive of a major city, or at least reasonably close to a
big airport.
Plenty of recreational opportunities.
There has to be lots of stuff to do beyond shopping, which is why most thriving resort towns are near ski lifts, beaches or mountains. Some cultural cachet -- a theater or film festival, galleries or museums -- is also nice.
Decent weather.
You have to be able to get outside to enjoy all that recreation.
Significant commercial investment.
The old-timers may grouse about the new hotels or malls, but these are good indicators that others think the community is on the way up.
The "it" factor.
The community gets “discovered” by movers, shakers and celebrities -- or at least enough other folks like you -- for prices to get bid up.