$500,000 to $1 million

Cannon Beach, Oregon
Population: 1,600
Median home cost: $582,500

A few miles can make a big difference. Seaside, Oregon, just south of the point where the Columbia River meets the Pacific, has honky-tonk, Saturday-night-at-the-beach ambience—but nine miles down the coast, Cannon Beach shows an entirely different face to the world. It’s popular with Portlanders, who make the 80-mile drive for quiet weekend sojourns, and with folks from farther away, who take up full-time residence. They’re drawn to the compact, arts-oriented village, where planners have zoned out big chain stores to protect a community surrounded by some of the Oregon coast’s most spectacular scenic wonders. The sandy shoreline south to Tillamook Bay and north to Seaside and beyond is lined with state parks, beaches, and recreation sites, many linked by foot trails.

The coast’s most outstanding feature looms just offshore. Haystack Rock, a basalt pile that rises 235 feet, ranks as the world’s third-largest freestanding coastal monolith. Puffins, guillemots, oystercatchers, cormorants, and many other species nest on the rock and, with the help of binoculars, are easily visible from shore.

Cannon Beach, with its bistros, bookstores, and galleries, has the look of a New England coastal village—not surprising, because so many Pacific Northwest settlers came from that part of the country. They’ve created a cozy, inviting little nook on the continent’s western doorstep.

Insider Tip
Those seeking a romantic, secluded spot should head to the town beach’s north end (Chapman Beach) or south end (Silver Point). Tourists tend to congregate close to town, in the middle, where there are facilities. Parking is permitted on side streets, and the beaches are close by.

Duxbury, Massachusetts
Population: 14,578
Median home cost: $630,000

Of all the upscale communities that line Cape Cod Bay south of Boston, Duxbury may be the poshest. Of course, the town has been working at it for a long time.

You might even call it America’s first bedroom community. Within a decade of landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620, several of Massachusetts’ first permanent English settlers had left Plymouth and moved a few miles up the coast to what became Duxbury.

Today, Duxbury is all about preservation, because there is a lot to protect. The treasures include North Hill Marsh, a 117-acre Massachusetts Audubon Society preserve of woodlands, wetlands, trails, and a lovely secluded pond. Duxbury’s beaches are probably the best on the South Shore. The Outer Beach on Saquish Neck attracts swimmers, while Bayside Beach and the calm, enclosed waters of Duxbury Bay draw birders, clammers, and kayakers.

The town was once a leading New England shipbuilding center. Later, summer hotels supported the local economy, and today cranberries are a prominent industry—the bogs are especially picturesque in autumn. The town’s lovingly tended housing stock includes splendid examples of Georgian, Federal, and later-19th-century styles, as well as newer homes that derive inspiration from Duxbury’s past.

But ever since Route 3 connected Boston to Duxbury in 1963, it has become a bedroom community for affluent commuters who make the 33-mile run to the city each day. And the luckiest live in houses that were already old when much of Beantown was still young.

Mendocino, California
Population: 2,223
Median home cost: $800,000

It’s hard to imagine, when you look around Mendocino and check its real estate offerings today, that 30 years ago this gorgeously situated little community was a counterculture haven. Mendocino, Caspar, Littleriver—all were towns where refugees from the overripe atmosphere of hip San Francisco or “back East” came to live a free and easy life with the Pacific at their doorstep and the big woods out back.

Perched on headlands overlooking the ocean, this town was just too pretty to stay undiscovered for long. Mendocino started out as a utilitarian enough place in the mid-1800s, when it served as a depot for the forests of redwood timber harvested inland—in fact, much of the lumber used to build San Francisco during the boom years following the Gold Rush, and the great earthquake and fire of 1906, came from nearby forests. Fortunately, a lot of lumber stayed right here and was used to build a town with a core that is now a National Historic Preservation District. If any of the homes and commercial structures on and around Main Street look familiar, it might be because the hit 1980s and ’90s TV series “Murder, She Wrote” was filmed here.

The Mendocino lifestyle centers as much on leisure hours as on work. But leisure is decidedly active: This is a terrific place for biking, hiking, kayaking, and the popular fall and winter wild-mushroom harvest. Natural areas in the immediate vicinity include three state parks—Van Damme, Russian Gulch, and Mendocino Headlands; Jug Handle State Reserve; and Caspar Headlands State Beach. The 50,000-acre Jackson State Demonstration Forest attracts mountain bikers.

The hippies certainly knew what they were on to. And, if the occasional prosperous-looking fellow with a gray ponytail is any indication, some are on to it still.

Insider Tip
The Highlight Gallery on Main Street exhibits works by artisans from throughout Northern California, and features furniture made by craftspeople who graduated from the Fine Woodworking Program started at Fort Bragg’s College of the Redwoods.

Ono Island, Alabama
Population: 1,000
Median home cost: $1 million

As recently as the 1960s, Ono Island was considered a semiwilderness best left to ospreys and live oaks. The 6-mile-long island, barely a half-mile wide, lies near Alabama’s southeast corner between Old River and Bayou Saint John, separated from the Gulf of Mexico by the dunes of a barrier beach. Things stayed sleepy here until the late 1980s, when a developer got serious about turning the island into the plush private enclave it has become.

Cross the bridge from nearby Orange Beach (with permission) and you’ll enter a gated realm where the roads are closed to the public and common areas belong to the Ono Island Property Owners Association. The island has 1,425 residential lots, roughly 70 percent of which are developed. They’re grouped into 31 subdivisions, each with its own covenants. Most of the less-pricey options are in the interior, but on a narrow island, “interior” is a relative term. More-expensive properties hug the 5 miles of man-made canals that open onto the Intracoastal Waterway on the north side of the island, facing Bayou Saint John. Choice lots on the south side look across Old River to Perdido Key, which protects Ono Island from Gulf storms. By design, the island has no businesses except the Ono Realty office, but the services of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores are only a short drive to the west. Pensacola, Florida, is roughly 25 miles distant, and Mobile is 55 miles away. There are no schools, which isn’t a problem when the average age of residents ranges between 50 and 60. But there has been a recent influx of younger buyers, who are attracted to the island’s security.

Development of Ono Island has largely preserved the natural surroundings. The live oaks and the ospreys are still here, and Perdido Key Wildlife Reserve and the Gulf Islands National Seashore are nearby. It’s all enough to give backwaters a good name.