The whole Homeaway/AirB&B industry has caused the walking distance ocean front real estate to increase exponentially in the last five years. Any house within walking distance to the ocean has increased much faster than houses inland.
One of my buddies owns a house in York Beach, ME. It is a five minute walk to the beach. He rents it in the summer by the week for over $5000. He bought it five years ago for $550K. It is now worth over $1MM. He lives in it during the off season. The summer rental pays the mortgage the entire year. He originally rented through Homeaway. Now, he has a website because it is basically just repeat customers.
I have a pal who bought a house in seaside, florida, at the dead nadir of the financial crisis for $410,000. He had vacationed in Seaside and thought it was an absolute Paradise, so he knew more than a little bit about the area. That house has solidly quintupled in value, and he rents it quite regularly on VRBO. That was one hell of a gutsy move.
And I might add, that he got paid a tad under $50,000 by BP for lost rentals when they had that big oil rig blowout in the gulf, 2010 I believe.