Why is Provincetown SO EXPENSIVE??

if the market will bear, the market will bear

Supply & demand. A small area with a limited number of properties, and a lot of interest in owning said properties—not least from rich people.

Buy it, and rent it out to gays with more money than sense.

But if I'm buying for myself to live there in the peak months, I wouldn't be renting it out.

If you won’t go to experience P’town for yourself OP, you’ll never get it whether we explain it to you or not.

The pricing is driven by the rental income.

What r6 said. CAP rates darling.

The front door goes right to the bed? Perfect for my gentleman callers.

We call it "The Suicide Suite".

[quote]But if I'm buying for myself to live there in the peak months, I wouldn't be renting it out.

Umm....yes, that's correct.

Supply and demand.

The HAPPY PLACE pillow is a bit overstated...

[quote]if the market will bear, the market will bear

Bear and Stearns it.

I live in a studio like this and I haven't gone mad, yet.

Can someone that hates circuit parties and hooking up with strangers enjoy Provincetown?

My partner/husband went there end of last week, first time. A lot of the bars and restaurants weren't yet open for the season (later this month), but we really enjoyed it. The natural beauty, the architecture, the small town charm.

But we wondered how people can live there for months on end, let alone year round. Doesn't it get boring? There's only so many places to eat, one little Stop n Shop supermarket as the only place nearby to get groceries and supplies. I'm curious how many people buy something there with the intent to live there end of leaving after 1 or 2 years from boredom.

Yes, R14, you don't have to be a meth head, IV drug user or alcoholic to appreciate Provincetown. I've been going there for 40 years, and in that time, I've attended Tea Dance exactly once. When I go, I stay at places far on the edge of town, and avoid the bars and dance clubs like the plague. Yet I still consider Ptown one of my favorite places on earth.

Because it's a Province and a Town, so you get double the experience.

R15: that’s why there’s booze. It gets them through the winter.

R14: you can definitely enjoy Ptown with no party scene. It’s a really lovely place to be.

My greatest regret was not going in with my ex on a three family that needed work for $150,000, about 30 years ago. Probably worth $3,000,000 now.

[quote]But if I'm buying for myself to live there in the peak months, I wouldn't be renting it out.

Then don't buy it.

OP - you are "a poor". We only have rich and poor now. That's why.

My husband and I bought a small, one-bedroom cottage in Truro in 1993 for $20k. It's primarily an investment property, but we use it ourselves a couple of weeks in the summer. Best investment we ever made. We plan on living there in the summer when we retire. We were hoping to get something a little bigger, but with prices so nuts, our little cottage will be just fine.

Because rich gays live there i

Why is Provincetown SO EXPENSIVE??

Because every summer it's dick city.

For a glimpse of year-round residency, I recommend you watch AHS: Double Feature.

OK let me rephrase: we are looking at retirement destinations (we are about 15 years from retirement). We could afford to buy in Ptown, but why would we want to other than the wonderful summers and the charming atmosphere?

R15 Provincetown has a full sized supermarket and several small speciality grocery stores. Why do you need more grocery options than that?

It can be a long winter there.

OP, R24 If money is no object, I recommend good ol Saint-Tropez. There are plenty of eldergays, yet also young sexy young people. Nice international crowd. No yahoos. Or perhaps Bodrum, for a twist. And why not winter in a quieter station de ski, Megève, or the lovely Saas-Fee?

[quote] My greatest regret was not going in with my ex on a three family that needed work for $150,000, about 30 years ago.

But is he's your "ex" would you want to be owning a property with him now?

R15- that's where the rental income comes in. Take the rent and go someplace new.

AirBnB and VRBO are destroying our country. Real estate is now out of reach for most people in any town that is worth visiting, as you have to compete against the investors buying properties based on anticipated cash flows. Normalizing the short term rental of homes in any decent community makes it hard to buy a house and also affects the quality of life of the neighbors, due to noise and disturbance from renters who don't give a rat's ass about their effect on the neighborhood. I wish towns would outlaw short term rentals, but too many voters dream of selling their own houses for these new higher prices so it won't happen.

[quote]AirBnB and VRBO are destroying our country. Real estate is now out of reach for most people in any town that is worth visiting, as you have to compete against the investors buying properties based on anticipated cash flows.

Mary, PLEASE. Are you seriously suggesting that PTown and every other gay mecca would somehow magically be affordable today but for the evil Airbnb and Vrbo "destroying our country"? Ridiculous. (Also, short-term rentals are obviously legal in PTown, otherwise it'd get very few visitors, given its paucity of hotels. Airbnb merely makes it easier to find a vacation rental.) Housing prices have risen for a wide variety of reasons, but none of them have diddly to do with Airbnb. (For one thing, the two priciest real estate markets in America – NYC & SF – have the strictest prohibitions on Airbnbs, and each city has far fewer than ones where short-term rentals have been legalized. And yet the prices are just as astronomical as ever.)

R31, I know I was being a tad dramatique. While P-Town wouldn't be cheap without short term rentals, the problem now extends all over the county. Any town near any body of water, mountain or other attraction now has to deal with short term renters they weren't handling in such volumes just a few years ago. I'm looking for a retirement home in Michigan - really anywhere in an entire half of the state - and all the ads tout how you can make so much money buying the house and renting it out for short term vacationers. This wasn't the case before the apps made it so easy.

It’s called supply and demand OP. Similar prices at similarly sought and desired destinations. Ptown is one of them. At a certain point with climate change this will end for Ptown.

Darfur Orphan

Also, it’s built on a very compact land mass and housing is in relatively short supply — although when I visited last year, it seems like overdevelopment is rampant and new properties are going up everywhere. This doesn’t bode well for an already fragile ecosystem.

[quote]Also, it’s built on a very compact land mass and housing is in relatively short supply — although when I visited last year, it seems like overdevelopment is rampant and new properties are going up everywhere.

Where did you see that?

I don’t know how anyone could tolerate living there during the summer. It’s so crowded and so noisy. It’s fabulous as a vacation spot, but I would get so sick of the congestion and the skanky tourists and the not being able to get restaurant reservations. If you live right on Commercial or Bradford, it’s gotta be so noisy every night during the summer, with twinks and bears hooting and hollering and vomiting until the middle of the night.

Off-season though, it seems like paradise to me. Far-flung, desolate, beautiful but barren, delightful picturesque solitude.

[quote]I don’t know how anyone could tolerate living there during the summer. It’s so crowded and so noisy. It’s fabulous as a vacation spot, but I would get so sick of the congestion and the skanky tourists and the not being able to get restaurant reservations. If you live right on Commercial or Bradford, it’s gotta be so noisy every night during the summer, with twinks and bears hooting and hollering and vomiting until the middle of the night.

First of all, relatively few people live full-time on or very close to Commercial Street. The only parts of the town that are packed with tourists are right on Commercial, and only the centrally located part of the street -- not the east or west end. Although there is lots of vehicular traffic on Bradford Street during the height of the season, it's never jammedy with vacationers, because there are very few if any restaurants or bars on Bradford, and only a few other types of businesses like drug stores and markets. Also, even at the height of the season, the town winds down fairly early, so you don't have to worry about " twinks and bears hooting and hollering and vomiting until the middle of the night. "

Honestly, it almost sounds like you've never been there. Have you?

[quote] AirBnB and VRBO are destroying our country. Real estate is now out of reach for most people in any town that is worth visiting, as you have to compete against the investors buying properties based on anticipated cash flows.

Isn't this a version of capitalism? It wouldn't exist if there wasn't a large consumer group willing to pay the price, regardless of the cost.

Rampant consumerism is destroying our country, driven by the vapid idiots willing to finance their immediate desires and experiences at the expense and great cost that comes with interest charges to their credit cards that those idiots can barely understand. The best (and probably, most responsible) thing AirBnb/VRBO owners can do is figure out when to get out on top, so they may lead us all to the next level of riches.

The top would be now.

Not sure why anyone would buy in Ptown except as a rental property. A week there is sufficient. I was debating a trip to Boston on the ferry just for an escape. It’s beautiful and fun - but not a place I would love even for the summer. I would live in Fire Island though - even though there is less to do, it’s physical perfection. Ptown is a town - yet limited.

OP, why are you looking to buy there?

Gather your thoughts.

Then ask yourself: “am I the only person to feel this way about living in PTown?”

[quote]Can someone please explain the appeal?

You’re the one who wants to live there FFS! You want US to tell YOU why it’s appealing? Sometimes I feel like Ripley fresh out of the shuttle in Aliens.

[quote] At a certain point with climate change this will end for Ptown.

Huh? If it gets warmer, PTown will be livable year-round and be even more popular.

Under water Rose

[quote]Not sure why anyone would buy in Ptown except as a rental property. A week there is sufficient. I was debating a trip to Boston on the ferry just for an escape. It’s beautiful and fun - but not a place I would love even for the summer. I would live in Fire Island though - even though there is less to do, it’s physical perfection. Ptown is a town - yet limited.

What a weird comment. It sounds like you've never spent much time off of Commercial Street in Provincetown. The surrounding areas, including TWO separate beaches, the biking and hiking trails, etc., are just as beautiful if not more so in their own way than what you'll find on Fire Island. Maybe the real reason you prefer Fire Island, though you don't want to admit is, is that you're really into drugs and dancing and partying, which is all there is to do there, given the almost total lack of decent restaurants, shops, galleries, and live entertainment?

In my opinion, the only real minuses of P-Town for New Yorkers is that, of course, it takes so much more time to get there than to the Pines or the Grove, and also, for those who like to actually spend time in the water at the beach, rather than just sun bathing, the water temperature tends to remain quite cold until much later into the summer.

I've been to New England quite a few times, and absolutely love it. I haven't been to Provincetown, but while I love seaside environments & the ocean (even in winter: my first two trips to Maine were in January, and November), it sounds like the crowding and overpriced EVERYTHING will prevent me from ever enjoying it during the summer season.

I'm glad it's still there and continues to be a gay mecca (especially in these strange and sometimes scary times), but I would never want to live in a place like that. A weekend would probably be way more than enough for me.

R46, since you admit that you haven't been to Provincetown, you probably should avoid complaining about what you THINK the experience is like until you actually have it. But, for what it's worth, if you ever do decide to try P-Town, of course you can avoid the worst of the crowd depending on what time of the summer you go, and of course, if you go during the week rather than on weekends. As for the beaches there, I have never seen any of them looking like anything I would ever describe as "crowded."

Ptown can be trashy.

Your Mom can be trashy too. Doesn’t mean we oughtn’t try them both out!

Who is this nasty cunt who keeps spewing angry responses to everyone? Just give your opinion - no need to belittle others.

R50, if you are referring to me -- R47, etc. -- I'm sorry, but I have a big problem with people whose opinions are based in ignorance. Most definitely including people who have an opinion about a place like Provincetown when they admit THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE.

New York and Boston queens have a distorted view of real estate prices so even the shocking prices of P Town seem like a deal to them.

"I can get a 2/2 with a balcony for under a million? Amazing!"