1920 Colonial on 20 Acres in Tangier Island Town Center — $125,000

Tangier Island sits in the Chesapeake Bay, roughly twelve miles from the nearest shore. You get there by ferry. There are no cars to speak of. The population is small and has been shrinking for decades. If you know all that and you're still reading, then this property is probably worth your attention.

The house is from 1920, colonial in form, and it sits on 20 acres in the center of town. That last part matters because the zoning allows for mixed residential and commercial use, which gives you more options than a straight residential lot would. At $125,000 for 20 acres, you're paying $6,250 per acre, which reflects where Tangier is more than what the land is.

The house itself is 1,360 square feet across two floors. On the main level there's a sitting room, a dining room, a kitchen, a bedroom, a utility room, a full bath, and an enclosed porch. Upstairs are two more bedrooms and a small bonus room the agent suggests could become a second bath. That would require work, but the bones of the layout are clear and functional.

The agent notes the home has "excellent presence in the town," which is subjective, but a 1920 colonial on 20 acres in a town this size probably does stand out. The description is thin beyond that. What you know going in: the sunroom roof needs repair, the bath roof needs repair. Budget for that before you budget for anything else.

This is a place where you'd be buying into something much larger than the structure. Tangier has its own dialect, its own culture, its own complicated future given sea level projections. People have strong feelings about the island in both directions. The house is the easy part of the decision. Whether Tangier makes sense for what you're trying to do is the harder question, and only you can answer it.