In your grandfather's time - let's assume 50 years ago - living in such a place wouldn't even be comparable to now. Most likely no convenient place to buy groceries, poor communications, poor amenities generally. The value of that land is significantly improved now - not just because of evil moneygrabbing property owners like myself, but because it's significant better to live in remote places thanks to modern technology, so it's under heavier demand.
I could argue that in your grandfather's time, you could have bought land at bargain rates in Orlando or Las Vegas whereas now the prices suck.. but it's not comparing two compatible realities.
I disagree. People populate areas and the technology follows them, not the other way around.
One example of this is a place my family has vacationed since I was an infant: Crosslake, MN. Crosslake started as a small, sleepy fishing town with gorgeous views, nice people, lots of fish, and lots of wilderness--basically heaven for a Minnesotan. Because it was heaven, people started moving there in droves and drove the property prices to absolutely absurd levels. It went from a place where your grandfather might own a little fishing cabin, to a place littered with multi-million dollar estates that have $250,000+ boats parked in front of them.
This had nothing to do with technology. Only recently (within the last decade or so) has the town started getting "modern". This didn't prevent people from flocking there.
I think the relationship is more symbiotic. The technology that enables more remote living includes : better cars, roads, communications, food storage. While none of this probably appealed to your grandfather, it does appeal to today's families. In addition, you can overlay two trends : a trend toward environmentalism and 'enjoying nature' and a trend towards increasing amounts of leisure time. Even the expensive boats you talk about are part of the scenario. Boats that are reliable, easy to use and run, and built primarily for pleasure are a relatively recent invention. Because of the boats, the lakes are more enjoyable, hence more people want to enjoy. They have more time, more money and it's easier for them to do so - and they probably would rather now spend the money on a pleasure boat and holiday cottage than on other forms of consumption, simply because that's the current trend of what you do with spare time and money.
And don't forget that other technological trend : the camera. Ever since a photo could show the beauty of a natural place, the visitors followed. Arguably it was the photos of Yosemite that sparked the initial nationwide interest in visiting such a place. I could theorise that this same trend has worked it's way through into every beautiful piece of wilderness - many people will visit a place simply because they've seen a picture of it. Some of those visitors will choose to stay as residents.
So my theory is that because of the technology and the demographic trends, people populate areas that were once considered remote, and it was increasing awareness of the beauty of remote places that drove the visits in the first place.
> Most likely no convenient place to buy groceries, poor communications, poor amenities generally.
Incorrect on all points. We're not talking about a remote place. We're talking about a one hour drive from a major city.
Come off it. A spacious and fairly pristine spot on the beach was once affordable. Such a spot would now be worth millions because of overpopulation. There is no interesting twist to do with technology.
I'll also add the fish and crabs were plentiful, where now they are quite scarce.
In your grandfather's time - let's assume 50 years ago - living in such a place wouldn't even be comparable to now. Most likely no convenient place to buy groceries, poor communications, poor amenities generally. The value of that land is significantly improved now - not just because of evil moneygrabbing property owners like myself, but because it's significant better to live in remote places thanks to modern technology, so it's under heavier demand.
I could argue that in your grandfather's time, you could have bought land at bargain rates in Orlando or Las Vegas whereas now the prices suck.. but it's not comparing two compatible realities.