Whether you are looking to buy your first home or invest in a rental property, it is important to consider where you will get the most for your money.
In May, Realtor.com ranked the US cities where buyers will find the most affordable homes near water.
And while places like the Hamptons and Malibu aren’t on the list, beach towns made the rank from small communities to large cities.
To rank each city, Realtor.com aggregated its listing data for every home placed on the market in the past year within a one-mile radius of the coastline, picked out the most affordable based on price per square foot, and At least 50 properties listed in the locations.
According to Realtor.com, Gulfport, Mississippi, ranked as the cheapest city to buy a beach home.
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Top 10 cheapest places to buy a beach house in America
- Gulfport, Miss.
- Newport News, Va.
- New London, Conn.
- Grand Isle, La.
- Corpus Christi, Texas
- Atlantic City, NJ
- Navarre, Fla.
- North Beach, MD
- Crescent City, Calif.
- Shirley, NY
Gulfport, Mississippi, is the most affordable city to buy a beach home. It is located about halfway between Mississippi’s borders with Louisiana and Alabama and has 26 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Realtor.com, the average sale price of a home within one mile of the beach is $224,900, with the average price per square foot within one mile of the beach being $144.
Gulfport offers residents a good mix of a small town community and city life. It has become a tourist center for its fishing tours and boat charters, as well as for its casino city neighbors of Biloxi.
Newport News, Virginia, is home to beaches on both the Atlantic Ocean and the James River.
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Newport News, Virginia, ranked second on the list. The city is located at the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula and is approximately 25 miles from historic Jamestown.
The Virginia city is home to beaches on both the Atlantic Ocean and the James River. If you’re willing to drive for oceanfront options, Newport News is about 40 miles from Virginia Beach, which is among the best in the state, according to Realtor.com.
In Newport News, the average price within a mile of the beach is $200,000 and the average price per square foot within a mile of the beach is $150.
New London, Connecticut is third on the list. It’s also home to one of the state’s best public beaches, Ocean Beach Park, which is located on Long Island Sound.
The average price within a mile of beach in New London is $257,000, while the average price per square foot within a mile of beach is $175.
New London, Connecticut, is a port city and home to one of the state’s best public beaches, Ocean Beach Park.
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“New London is like a little gem of affordability,” mortgage lender Keith Turner with Homestead Funding told Realtor.com. “See prices in some cities near here.”
Mystic, Connecticut, which is only a 15-minute drive from New London, has homes near the beach selling for more than three times as much per square foot, with an average listing home price of $544,500, according to Realtor.com.
New London is an authentic port city that offers a classic New England vibe without being an overly touristy destination.
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