NOW is the Best Time to Search For and Buy an Ocean City MD Beach Home

Want a Beach Home This Summer? Better Get Started Now

By  Yuqing Pan

It happens every year: Right around the time we finally throw out the desiccated Christmas tree, put away the broken toys, and get back into the swing of work, we look up to find ourselves deep in the dark, dank, bone-chilling portion of winter that never seems to end. So it’s the perfect time to start the search for sandier and sunnier pastures!

It may seem counter intuitive as you’re snow blowing your front walk or drying out your socks, but now is a great time to begin thinking about buying a beachfront home that you can use throughout the summer—or rent out to pay the mortgage and then some.

“Buyers have more choice and more leverage in negotiations in the off-season,” says our chief economist, Jonathan Smoke. “So even though total inventory is lower, there are far fewer buyers for what is on the market, and that gives buyers an upper hand.”

And the off-season is a much better time to engage local contractors to take care of any repairs or upgrades—especially critical if you’re thinking of leasing the place out, Smoke points out. Taking action before the peak season will ensure it can capture as much of the peak rental revenue as possible.

To find the nation’s hottest (figuratively speaking) beach towns, our sand- and surf-deprived data team looked up cities and towns within 2 miles from a coast, using data from NOAA’s National Ocean Service, and filtered out the ones that are on inlets or without direct access to a beach. We excluded cities with over 100,000 population to focus on the ones that have a “small town” vibe, which left us with more than 1,000 beach towns. Then we cherry-picked from these to fit the criteria below.
Whew, we could use a beach vacation right now!