Ocean front property - good investment?

Scanning through the print edition of the NY Times this morning the Escapes section feature is titled "Water, Water Anywhere". Vacation homes or second homes are being snatched up left and right and water front properties are reportedly a hot commodity. The feature article also mentions that these vacation/second/retirement homes are also increasing in popularity in non-coastal regions such as Arizona (a water deprived region I might add).

My take: I suppose this would be a good short term investment - but if you're looking to resell that property down the line or pass it on to your grandchildren it might not be such a wise move. But then, I'm not an economist, or a real estate analyst or anything like that - I just think buying ocean front property or land in an area where demands on water and electricity are rising (possibly beyond adequate supply) is similar to buying property in a flood plain - kind of stupid.