The Cheapest Places In America To Build Your Luxury Vacation Home

While this may come as somewhat of a shocker, the life of a travel writer is more than swanky dinner parties and African safaris. Like many other jobs, the life of a travel writer involves many behind-the-scenes moments that aren’t enviable at all: long layovers, mind-altering jet lag and all-night sessions in front of a computer screen.

Of all the problems faced by travel writers, however, one of the peskiest ones I keep running into is how to efficiently use the stacks of cash that occupy entire bedrooms of my house (please notice my tongue deep into my cheek on this one).

This is why I’m so relieved to see that CNBC just released this list of America’s best places to build your high-end vacation home. I mean honestly, I have been grappling with this for years. Once the recession hit I made the decision that I would shun purchasing “necessities” such as food and clothing and instead invest my nickels towards the purchase of an ultra-luxurious vacation home.

Now that I weigh 87 pounds and only wear underwear, I was able to reference this list and learn that if I opt to build my spacious SECOND home in Kiawah Island, SC, I can do so for nearly a third of the cost versus building the same house in somewhere like say, Hawaii ($585/square foot versus $1300/square foot).

So if you, too, are grappling with this ultra-dilemma, I suggest you check out the post and educate yourself on the benefits of constructing a place (where you’re only going to spend two weeks per year) in a state such as Wisconsin versus somewhere oh-so-typical such as Malibu.

You know where I want my second home? In a yurt on a pasture in Pucon, Chile, where my only possessions would be an alpaca wool sweater and a coffee maker. Wait – that would be my only home.

Despite scouring the article, however, I couldn’t find a yurt in Patagonia anywhere on the list. Shucks.

[Image credit: chefranden on Flickr]