Michigans blue-collar dream of owning a vacation home is going the way of the gas guzzler.
Thanks to a scaled-back auto industry and dwindling family incomes, northern summer houses for families in urban areas like Detroit and Flint are now the province of executives, professionals and business owners with more disposable income, said real-estate agents in one of the states recreation havens. Its a reflection of a changing economy.
Sales have plunged along the Lake Huron shore, and on inland lakes and forests, with some prices dropping as much as 40 percent since 2008. Many homes had been built decades ago with auto-industry wages that exceeded the national average for manufacturing, and were handed down through families.
Those wages supported a lifestyle of multiple cars, recreational vehicles, college educations and second homes, especially for families with two paychecks that, in the 1990s, could each be $100,000 with overtime.
Maybe they were upper middle class and didnt know it, said Craig McMurray, a real-estate agent and city councilman in East Tawas on Lake Hurons southern Michigan shore. They worked hard, played hard and they are a huge part of growth here in northeast Michigan.
Michigan doesnt keep data showing how many people own second homes, said Terry Stanton, a treasury department spokesman. Locals say auto-company retirees have become more prevalent as year-round residents on the eastern shoreline, with pensions and benefits better than those of new hires.
Difficult Dream
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