Guys-n-Gals, there are a lot of jealous people who lacked the courage to ever buy a piece of property at the beach, and nothing is going to ever fix those folks way of thinking. They just try to spin their negative thinking on everyone else. My father always told me that you will always have people who will tell you can't do something, because they lack the courage to do it themselves. The beach real estate market down goes up and down. You get the occasional hurricane adjustment, the market slows down and people with money take advantage of these slow times, while they skeptics sit back and throw darts at everyone else.
During an up market your RE agent will tell you how great of investment you are making but during a down market, they tell you should lower the price so they can make an living. In a couple of months the media will announce RE is hot, and investors will be back to drive the market up again and agents will again be singing the investment song-n-dance.
To win in the long run, you must consider real estate as a long term investment. My father purchased a lot in western Panama City one mile from the beach for three hundred dollars in 1960's and sold it in 1998 for forty five thousand dollars. If he had waited until 2004, he could have even doubled that amount. As a child, I remember my mother telling him how stupid he was to invest in a piece of sand one mile from the beach during a time when we were doing good to buy new school cloths. Still today, it was the best investment he ever made!
I have flown up and down the east and west coast of Florida, and one thing is for certain, there is no place such as this piece of paradise! It's not just the property, but the people who have an absolute love for the beaches and community. People fight against over development, seawalls, paved roads, etc.. Nothing like it anywhere in this country, and that is why it's so unique and valuable. The people who realize this are still buying today, because the record shows, hurricanes come and go, but the bottom line is that there is less than 5% of Florida beaches that have beautiful white sand and high elevations above sea level.
So find you a piece of paradise and just hang on to it for 5-10 years, maybe longer. In the long run, it will be the best investment you will have ever made!