RE: Converting Europe Into Open Air Museum (Real Estate Mania) .:. Late Night Blogging

each July the tiny town we live in by the sea explodes 10x. the rest of the year is far more relaxed so locals grin and bear it as the tourist income makes it possible to run locally owned businesses cafes/bars, restaurants, construction trades and even supermarkets and a gas station year round. we have lost the post office, all bank branches and much more due to centralization and lack of year round income. that keeps away the chains also. so folks here tend to be glad to see the tourists come and glad to see them go.
rents are high but that is mostly due to the recently established higher education in town. the most profit is made by unregulated renting to students for ten months and tourists for six weeks. that leaves little available for long-term contracts. long term contracts are annually adjusted for inflation. once every three years they can be raised significntly more if the market has gone way up. which it has consistently for decades. so the percentage of home ownership is very high but the mortgage loans are scary.