Will upscale resort increase property values in tourist town?

[Account Closed]

A guy is building a 200 room upscale low impact (ecologically appropriate) resort in our tourist town. Will this help or hurt housing values? It will be the "biggest" thing in the town of population of 2600.  There are many airbnbs (private residences) and  several small resorts, but nothing of this scale.  Will this affect home prices if it increases the "draw" to the town?

[Patricia Steiner]

The answer is "it depends."  If the resort brings more people to the area seeking housing, then yes. Will it hurt Airbnb currently in place?  Most likely it will for a while as the resort will be the place to be.  Generally commercial development is economically good for the municipality providing jobs, tax revenues, and more if successful.  It can also lead to increase traffic and consumption of limited resources.  In Tampa, the development/re-development of our Channelside and Downtown districts have dramatically increased the demand for housing and both property values and rental prices have increased year-over-year.  Those developments attracted other businesses to relocate here and the impact on housing was intensified and so was traffic, road construction, etc.  A good thing?  For us, absolutely.  And, Airbnb ventures survived just fine as they readjusted their marketing to "be in the middle of the action."  The resort project sounds exciting to me...I admire the investor for seeing the opportunity in a niche market.  That's true real estate investing and wealth creation. Hope it is all of that for all of you.