Predicting the future of the Real Estate Market on the Outer Banks pt.2 - What will "The Bridge" do to the area?

This is another question I am hearing more and more as it appears that the Mid-Currituck Bridge is actually going to become a reality.  Again, my "crystal ball" is far from perfect, but it will be interesting to look at these posts years from now and see just how accurate I was.  As I said in Part 1 "whether we want it or not, It looks like the Mid-Currituck Bridge will begin construction within the next 12 months.  This will definitely spur on real estate sales, and prices along the Currituck Outer Banks".  I believe that if this happens, we will see some interesting trends in values along all the Outer Banks.  These trends will be effected by timing, location, and type of real estate. The greatest impact at the beginning of the construction will be the areas of Duck, NC north a the 25MPH zone all the way up to the Virginia state line.  This "Mini Boom" just as the previous boom will be driven by the speculators who will want to buy now to flip when the bridge is completed. I say "speculators" because in my mind, the "investors" have already started buying in anticipation of selling to the speculators.  For this reason, I believe we will see a bigger percentage increase at the beginning of the construction than we will see at the end for those areas.  Also, since the people buying at the beginning to sell at the end may need to hold onto the property for 4 to 5 years, I believe that the real estate of choice will be vacant lots.  We are still in a tight economy and raw land has many advantages for this type of scenario.  One is that land offers a much more affordable price point for "getting into the game".  Many people will find it easier invest in a $50,000 lot rather than a $500,000 house, even if the house is generating it's own income.  Two raw land has much lower carrying costs.  Where that  $500,000 house may have yearly expenses of 2,000 - $3,000 in taxes,  $4,000 - $5,000 in insurance, and untold thousands in maintenance payments  that little piece of dirt will have taxes ranging in the hundreds of dollars, zero insurance, and zero maintenance.  In Part 3 we will look into the possibilities for the other areas of the Northern Outer Banks.