Massachusetts man buys beautiful seaside house for 67% off - but there's a major catch

A Massachusetts man bought his dream beach house at an extremely discounted price, but there is a shocking cost that puts the entire property at risk.

David Moot, 59, purchased the stunning property on Cape Cod for $395,000 - 67 percent less than the original $1.195 million asking price - and there's a serious reason why it sold so cheaply.

The Eastham home could be destroyed and washed away by the tides within a decade. It is located just 25 feet away from an eroding sand slope, according to Bloomberg .

Due to warming oceans, more storms and increased sea levels, more than $106 billion in American coastal properties could be destroyed in the next three decades, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported.

But Moot's decision to buy the property was not swayed by the risk.

He told Bloomberg: 'Life's too short, and I just said to myself, "Let's just see what happens."

'It's going to eventually fall into the ocean, and it may or may not be in my lifetime.'

Since he bought the house, Moot estimates he already lost about five feet of his front lawn overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

In an interview with NBC10 , Moot appeared to shed tears when talking about his investment.

He told the outlet: 'I truly feel blessed.

'People say, "You're crazy," and I said, "Well, I am."'

Moot, who lives in Pittsburg and works as an interior designer and painter, said before he did plenty of research on coastal erosion bought the home in December 2023.

He wants to plant beach grass to stabilize the sand and is even willing to move the front of the house to the back of it, according to the Boston Globe .

Alison Bowden, director of conservation science and strategy at the Nature Conservancy, revealed some steps Moot could take to protect his property for as long as he can.

She told The Guardian Moot should use a combination of oyster shells, native plants, sand, stone and live shellfish to stabilize the land.

In Eastham, a house was torn down and another was moved back because of the erosion. Another property was destroyed because the road it was on went completely underwater.

The land near Moot's house has already eroded drastically. In 2013, there was 100 feet between the house and the water, 75 feet more than the current distance.

Experts weighed in on the situation, explaining how this erosion could impact coastal properties in the future.

Professor and director of the laboratory for coastal research at Florida International University Stephen Leatherman told The Guardian: 'Along the East Coast of the United States, 80 percent to 90 percent of the beaches are eroding so it's only just limited areas where the beach is fairly stable, at least for now.

'The average [rate of erosion] has been a little over two feet a year but that's just an overall average.'

He added that Cape Cod's rate is closer to three feet each year.

Owning a Cape Cod home has always been an aspiration for Moot. The thought has not left his head since he first visited in 2004.

Leatherman told The Guardian: 'This house may look good right now because the beach is wide. Wait till that beach narrows up and the waves are hitting the edge of that bluff just below the house.'

'It's a perception problem too, in terms of people understanding this erosion problem.'

Moot told the Boston Globe: 'There's always pros and cons and negatives and positives in everything in life.'