Vacation- and investment-home shares hold even in 2010



WASHINGTON – March 30, 2011 – The market share of vacation- and investment-home sales held steady in 2010, although the sales volume declined with the overall market, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).





NAR’s 2011 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2010, shows vacation-home sales accounted for 10 percent of transactions last year while the portion of investment sales was 17 percent – both unchanged from 2009.



“Despite extraordinarily tight credit conditions for purchasing a second home, the market share for vacation and investment homes held steady,” says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “A sizeable number of buyers made deals with all-cash offerings.”



All-cash purchases have become prevalent in the second-home market in recent years: 59 percent of investment buyers paid cash in 2010, as did 36 percent of vacation-home buyers.



With an overall decline in home sales during 2010, the volume of 543,000 vacation-home sales was down 1.8 percent from 553,000 in 2009. Investment purchases fell 7.8 percent to 867,000 in 2010 from 940,000 the previous year. Primary residence sales declined 5.6 percent to 3.81 million from 4.04 million in 2009.



Foreclosure or trustee sales accounted for 17 percent of investment purchases and 11 percent of vacation-home sales in 2010, compared with 5 percent of primary purchases.



“Second home buyers purchased more distressed homes at discount than did buyers of primary residences,” Yun says.



The median vacation-home price was $150,000 in 2010, down 11.2 percent from $169,000 in 2009, while the median investment-home price was $94,000, which is 10.5 percent below the $105,000 median in 2009. By contrast, the median primary residence price declined a relatively modest 4.5 percent to $176,700 last year from $185,000 in 2009.





The typical vacation-home buyer in 2010 was 49 years old, had a median household income of $99,500 and purchased a property that was a median distance of 375 miles from his or her primary residence; 31 percent of vacation homes were within 100 miles and 41 percent were more than 500 miles.



for more on this article go to http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=257430




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