In New Jersey, a lot of people (well, wealthy people) had houses down the shore. And some families had places in the Poconos.

They were the exception, rather than the rule, though, at least among my friends.

In southern Ontario they have them in less-southern Ontario.

In Quebec, people had places up north. I'm not quite sure I'm the sort of person who'd have a second home anywhere other than Jamaica without having CRAPLOADS of money.

Huh. Now that I've typed that ... I wonder how much modest not-on-the-beach property costs in Ja?

kashi: Who wants to go in on it with me?

The thing with the cabins, though, and I'm guessing many of the places in Maine and even on the shore, is that they're not locations where many people would want to live year round. Many of them (for the Wisconsin/Ontario/etc. ones, anyway) don't have services year round like snow removal. So cost-wise, it's a lot more plausible for people without bags of money than it would be in more temperate climes.

In New Jersey, a lot of people (well, wealthy people) had houses down the shore. And some families had places in the Poconos.

Yup, my parents bought land in the Poconos when I was a kid with an eye to doing just that. Never followed through, though.

Rhode Island does the shore thing, too. And Mass. has the Cape.

And for a long time, in New Jersey, no one wanted to be at the shore. So some forward-looking beach-lovers bought shore places long before the prices skyrocketed. It's hard to even find a place to rent reasonably now, much less buy.

My favorite was a house right. on. the. beach. in Bayhead that friends of my parents bought when he retired from teaching math. It was a ramshackle basic Victorian, and it *was* before shore houses were fashionable, so they bought it cheap. It had at least five bedrooms, all with slatted *breeze* door and transoms, and the back ones had balconies overlooking the ocean. I loved that place. Oh, and they named it the Aftermath. They'd probably get close to a million for it now.

So cost-wise, it's a lot more plausible for people without bags of money than it would be in more temperate climes.

As opposed to Rhody, where the value of those summer homes is going through the roof, forcing a lot of folks to sell homes that have been in their family for generations, because they just can't afford the taxes anymore.

Another thing that happens here is that URI is close to the shore, so a lot of folks rent their houses to students in the winter.

I'm thinking of buying a weekend home upstate. Strangely enough, few people in Phoenix had them, but I think it's relative to how close comfortable weather (or a freaking beach) is to your city. There's a million weekend homes within 2-3 hours of NYC.

People here in the Cities have Up North, which includes everything from the Boundary Waters to Lake Superior. Some people go over to South Dakota.