Vacation Destination: Second Home Buyers Are Back and They Say It's A Good Time To Buy

The results of  the 2013 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey conducted in March by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) included positive news for second home markets like Carmel and Pebble Beach -- Vacation home sales are on the rise.

According to the survey's results, vacation home sales accounted for 11% of all transactions last year. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says favorable conditions are driving second-home sales. 

“We had a strong stock market recovery, which helps more people in the prime ages for buying vacation homes. Attractively priced recreational property is also a big draw,” he says.

Additionally, all-cash purchases remain common in the  vacation-home market: 46 percent of vacation-home buyers paid cash. For those with mortgages,  large (27%) down payments held steady.

78% of all second-home buyers said it was a good time to buy, compared with 68 percent of primary residence buyers, which Yun believes suggests, "second-home buyers tend to be a step ahead of general buyers in sensing a market recovery."

80 percent of buyers pointed to the desire to use the property for vacations or as a family retreat as their main reason for purchasing a 2nd home. 27 percent plan to use it as a primary residence in the future, 23 percent plan to rent to others and 23 percent wanted to diversify their investments or saw a good investment opportunity.

All of these results are good news for those sellers who are interested in marketing their Monterey Peninsula home as as a vacation property, especially since one-third of the buyers surveyed by NAR said they were likely to purchase another vacation home within the next 24 months.