Cape Cod a renter's market?

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

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Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

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Certain unlikely word combinations—”delicious haggis” or “budget Tuscany,” for example—really stand out. So you can see why the headline, Cape Cod is a renter’s market this summer, just about made me fall out of my chair.

For years, the conventional wisdom has been that if you don’t book your summer Cape Cod rental six months to a year in advance, you’ll be lucky to find a cardboard box to sleep in. But a recent Boston Globe article paints a different picture for this summer, one with more rental options and some major discounts offered by owners desperate to offset steep mortgages with those summer rents.

If you do decide to jump at this opportunity for summer sand and sun, remember to make sure you understand what you’re getting into before renting a house. If you want to be at the beach every waking hour, make sure the house you rent isn’t miles from shore; if you want isolation, check that the rental isn’t along a heavily trafficked stretch; and so on. And, ask about those extra beach-vacation-house amenities such as barbeques and inflatable beach toys so you can pack accordingly.

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