Vacation home sales rose 4.7% to a record 1.07 million homes in 2006 from 1.02 million in 2005, according to the National Association of Realtors annual survey.
The profile of a typical vacation home buyer in 2006 was a 44-year-old Baby Boomer with a median household income of $102,200. Typically, these vacation homes were a median of 215 miles from the owner's primary residence, though 42% of vacation homes were closer than 100 miles and 32% were at least 500 miles away.
The most popular location for the homes was in rural areas; 29% of the homes were purchased in the country. But 24% were located in resorts, 22% in a suburb and 10% in an urban area or central city. Sixty-seven percent of the homes were detached single-family houses, 21% were condos and 8% were townhouses or row houses.
79% of vacation home buyers wanted the property as a vacation or family retreat and 28% planned to use it as a primary residence in the future (such as in those retirement years). The median price of a vacation home was $200,000 and the share of second-home sales were 36% of all existing and new residential real estate transactions in 2006.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2007
Click here to visit the Blogging Boomer Carnival #22