Fripp Investment Property

Fripp Island realestate has been a popular tourist destination for many years. With a limited rental inventory, many investors are looking at Fripp investment property, and especially Fripp waterfront property, as a potential transition investment/reinvestment strategy. This article looks at the pros and cons of this market.

Located in Beaufort County, South Carolina, Fripp investment property has many of the same real estate and economic dynamics of other barrier islands in the area. First, it is home to many resorts and golf courses and only has a small number of full time residents. Indeed, out of all of the residential properties on Fripp, only a small percentage are used for primary residences. You will find that most of the 450 permanent residents live in the island?s upscale gated communities and homes. The rest of the island is devoted to the tourism industry, and in the peak season, the amount of people who flood the island looking for vacation accommodations can range anywhere from 2 to 3 thousand. With only one 290-room hotel, the demand for Fripp rental properties is extremely high.

Overall prices are as follows: according to published reports, median prices for new and existing homes have risen dramatically from $127,500 in 1999 to over $600,000 in 2006. Fripp Island ocean front property prices now range from $750,000 to 1.7 million and up ? still about 30% less than those on neighboring islands. Land values are currently higher than structure values, and as the demand for homes to help accommodate the influx of tourists continues to grow, many property owners are demolishing their current homes in order to build larger ones, or selling the newly vacant lots to developers.

Whether this represents a good opportunity for those looking to reinvest their real estate portfolio is an open question. There is no clear consensus as to whether property values will continue to rise, stay flat, or decline. But if you can make the numbers work for cash flow purposes, owning Fripp investment property might still make smart business sense because Fripp island rental properties have this supply and demand imbalance.

To help you further decide if this is a good market, consider the following information:

The island is also home to a wide variety of wildlife including the spring nesting ground for a population of endangered Loggerhead turtles limiting future land available for development.

Another thing to keep in mind is that although Fripp Island?s natural wildlife helps to make it a popular spot for vacationers; for homeowners the same wildlife can present many day-to-day problems. Indeed, according to a recent survey, many homeowners have experienced recurrent problems with deer depleting the grass and shrubbery on residential lawns and golf courses. Other animals, like gulls and herons, are so numerous that they reportedly also encroach on private and public residences.

Finally, in these times of global warming, exposure to hurricanes on Fripp waterfront property should remain an important factor.