Shoreline Bahamas Testimonials


Testimonials.

Mike & Stephanie Stomberg
Deefield, Illinois

With South Florida's real estate market booming, many buyers have chosen to bypass the sunshine state for other, more exotic locales. Tropical islands like the nearby Bahamas offer beautiful ocean views but with more of a laid-back vacation feeling than in the United States, for less money and best of all without the property taxes.

Like many couples searching for a vacation home, Mike Stomberg, CEO of a Chicago-based pharmaceutical consulting business, and his wife Stephanie, an attorney, looked at property in South Florida. "But the real estate prices had just gone nuts and we couldn't get the same house that we could get in the Bahamas…and frankly, we wouldn't want to." said Mike, who was hooked after spending a weekend on Grand Bahama Island.

"It's a different feel than Florida-it's a little more laid back and that's what we liked about it," said Mike, who wanted to a vacation home far away from the hectic, fast-paced lifestyle in the United States. "The ocean is bluer there, and beaches are beautiful. My wife and I work really hard, so when we get away we really want to get away and you definitely feel like that in the Bahamas."

The Stombergs decided on a four bedroom, ocean-front home in the Shoreline community on Grand Bahamas Island. The new community caters to a growing homebuyer market with 10 neo-traditional styles and prices ranging from $680,000 to more than $2.5 million for 2,800 to 4,500 square-feet of ocean-front property-prices that Florida's real estate market can't even touch.

Mike said he and his wife, along with their eight-year-old son enjoyed the convenience of the community, and that the seven swimming pools and "quick walk down the beach to grab a bite to eat" were big selling points for the family.

"Grand Bahama is very close to the states. We can hop right down there from Chicago and the community is in a perfect location with the Lucaya airport right there," said Mike. "The infrastructure was also really important to us, services such as high-speed internet access are a necessity because my wife and I both have jobs where we need to stay in-touch."

The Stombergs decision to purchase a vacation home just outside of the United States is indicative of a real estate shift for second home buyers, according to demographers who say that most Baby Boomers feel they can negotiate a better deal outside of the U.S.

"And modern communications and transportations make it that much easier to stay in touch or catch a last-minute flight to enjoy a long weekend at the beach," said Steve Jervis, owner and president of Shoreline, a 26-acre master-planned gated community on Grand Bahama Island.

Studies show Shoreline has tapped a hot and emerging market. U.S. sales of second and vacation homes surged to 2.82 million properties in 2004, up 16.3 percent from the year prior, noted the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Vacation homes accounted for 13 percent of all homes purchased.

Although the laid-back and friendly Bahamian lifestyle might have been the final selling point for their new vacation home, the Stombergs said the tax-break was also hard to resist. Tax freedom is an often-overlooked benefit in the coastal real estate market.

"For people from places like Florida, where property tax rates have skyrocketed, this tax-free environment is becoming an increasingly attractive area to purchase coastal real estate," said Jervis.

That translates to an extra $20,000 of pocket money on a million dollar home, which can be a big savings.

"The tax situation certainly had an impact," said Mike. "But most importantly was the lifestyle-the look and feel and the people on the island. When we get away to the Bahamas it's always a different feeling and that's what we wanted."