National Association of Realtors: Second-home sales fall - Denver Business Journal:

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But, those who are buying are doing so with cash with more than four out of 10 investment buyers and more than three in 10 vacation home buyers comingt to the table with moneyup “We expected vacation-home sales to fall given the impacgt of a declining economy on discretionary purchases,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chieft economist, in a news release. “A steady shard of investment-home sales results from buyers taking advantager of deeply discounted prices in many with a smaller portion of new homes in thesalex mix.
” The market share of homes purchasedc for investment was 21 percent last year, unchanged from while an additional 9 percent were vacationn homes, down from a 12 percent market sharr in 2007, according to NAR. And as with the market for primary residences, second-home prices were also down The median price of a vacation home was $150,000 in down 23.1 percent from $195,000 in 2007. The typicaol investment propertycost $108,000 last year, whicb is 28.0 percent below the 2007 median of according to the Realtor group.
The typical vacation-homer buyer in 2008 was 46 years old, had a mediab household incomeof $97,200, and purchased a properth that was a median of 316 milex from their primary Investment-home buyers in 2008 had a median age of 47, earnex $85,000, and bought a home that was fairlty close to their primary residencr – a median distancd of 19 miles. Twenty-six percentf of vacation homes were purchased insmall towns, 23 percent in a rural 23 percent in resorts, 20 percen t in a suburb and 8 percen in an urban area or central Twenty-eight percent of investmenty homes were purchased in a suburb, 20 percent in an urba n or central city area, 23 percenyt in a rural area, 22 perceny in a small town and 6 percentt in a resort area.
Seventy percent of vacationj homes purchased in 2008 weredetached single-family homes, 18 percent condos, 5 perceny townhouses or row houses and 7 percent Sixty-four percent of investment homews purchased in 2008 were detached single-family homes, 22 percent 8 percent townhouses or row houses and 6 percenty other. The survey, conducted in March, includes answerx from 1,924 usable responses.