Another great article about the recovery of the second home market in places like DeBordieu and Pawleys Island, South Carolina showed up in the Wall Street Journal yesterday!
This year-over-year increase in vacation home sales mentioned in the article is due to low mortgage rates, higher incomes, and the desires of baby boomers to own second homes in places like DeBordieu, with private access to miles of beautiful beach, private, Pete Dye Golf, and boating opportunities.
(The pictures on this page are of homes that would make excellent second homes at DeBordieu. Click the pictures for more information.)
Written by Kris Hudson, below are some excerpts from the article. To read it in its entirety, CLICK HERE.
“Continued stock-market gains and low interest rates drove sales of vacation homes to the highest level on record last year, putting one segment of the housing market above its pre-recession peak.
The National Association of Realtors estimates that vacation-home sales amounted to 1.13 million properties last year, up a robust 57.4% from 2013, which itself marked a 30% increase from 2012.
Last year’s estimated tally topped the previous high from 2006 to become the biggest year for vacation-home sales volume since the Realtor association started tracking the market in 2003. Vacation homes accounted for 21% of all sales last year, the highest share since the survey’s inception.”
“The number of buyers is likely to grow in the years ahead as 76 million-plus baby boomers advance in age and buy vacation homes that eventually will become retirement homes.
Meanwhile, the prospect of rising prices has spurred buyers to act sooner than later. Rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, which have hovered below 4% since November, are poised to rise later this year as the Federal Reserve increases short-term rates. And median resale prices on all homes, which increased by 7.5% from a year ago to $202,600 in February, are likely to rise further if the overall inventory of homes available for sale remains tight.”
“Kris Anderson, team leader with Your Premier Team at ReMax Excalibur in Scottsdale, Ariz., said her team of six agents handled 10% more vacation-home transactions last year than in 2013. Most buyers are purchasing properties to live in for a few months a year before moving into them full-time in retirement a few years later. Many are buying now to avoid higher prices and rates later, she said.”
“Regionally, 46% of vacation homes bought last year were in the South, up from 41% in 2013. Elsewhere, 25% were purchased in the West, down from 28% in 2013; 15% in the Northeast, down from 18%; and 14% in the Midwest, unchanged from 2013.”
