Keeping the family's summer home

The camp was up for sale, which sparked the conversation between my parents as to whether or not they should save up to eventually buy a camp to eventually pass on to my brothers and me. Then, as the owners passed the house keys over to my parents so my family could enjoy a week long vacation, my mom began probing them with questions. "What has the process of putting the camp up for sale been like?" "Have there been many people interested in buying?" "How long have you had the camp?" It's this last question that gets the owners talking. The camp has been in their family for multiple generations. Their grandparents once played as children in this house as well as their own children. But the upkeep has become too much. Somewhere along the way, things got more expensive and taking care of the camp and renting out became a full time job. This is an all too common pattern when it comes to summer homes and may be even more prominent in the Adirondacks thanks to the hard winters that bring higher maintenance costs.

When buying real estate in the Adirondacks, the real question becomes centered on how long the family can hold on to their camp. As of right now, some Adirondack families have been holding on to their cherished summer home for about a century. For example, in Adirondack Life, a member of the Sheppey family describes the hardship of letting go of a family summer camp on Tupper Lake after 90 years (link is below!). She describes the struggle of spending time at her camp while simultaneously saying goodbye to it all yet, never knowing when a sale will take place and the goodbye will be the real one. This is more tragic side of the real estate pattern: families being forced to sell a camp filled with love and memories.

Today, new families continue to go up to the Adirondacks looking for a place that will become common ground for their own families to enjoy for years to come. Tourism websites are often centered on family activities and real estate listings describe cabins as perfect for the family. But the reality behind this dream is that families grow and evolve, sources of income change, camp costs go up and down. Personally, I've told my parents that I would never want them to pass on a camp to us knowing that it would become a source of fighting between my brothers and I. But there is also a more positive way to look at it. The higher turnover rate of ownership leads to a forever changing population within the Adirondacks. The families that have owned in the Adirondacks for generations will always hold sentimental ties to the landscape but there is also a greater chance for new families to enter the park and grow equally attached.


Citations:
http://www.adirondacklifemag.com/blogs/2015/10/15/the-long-goodbye/