Second Homes

By: Spencer Rascoff CFO & VP of Marketing | April 5, 2006

According to a study of 2005 home purchases, 40% of sales of existing homes last year were to buyers of second homes — 28% of homes were bought for investment purposes and 12% were bought as vacation homes. Wow, that’s amazing. There are of course demographic factors driving this trend, as well as favorable tax treatment for real estate investment (e.g., tax deductibility of mortgage interest). Still — it’s a staggering statistic — 4 out of 10 homes are sold to people who don’t intend to live in the home full-time.

I guess that’s what drive Zindexes in places like Vail to 2x the US.

Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Nubricks on April 11, 2006 9:34 am

    Interesting statistics; we have seen a large increase in Americans looking to buy abroad, but specifically in the Caribbean and Costa Rica. Second homes are very fashional in the UK and it has become reality for many investors.

  2. Peter on April 11, 2006 11:42 pm

    Wow that’s some great stats …
    unfortunately 8 of 10 sellers
    right now in my part of California are sellers who has second homes.
    seeing some bad trend of pre-foreclosures right now

    http://www.theforeclosuresinfo.com/index.html

  3. Rudy Upchurch on April 12, 2006 12:48 pm

    Information on 1600 Twin Ridge Road, Lincoln, NE, seems to be in error. It has 2 stories, and was previously valued much higher. I have an interest in this house since I designed and built it, designed the landscape and lived there for 8 years.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to the Zillow Blog feed or get updates via e-mail

Delivered by FeedBurner

Search

Homes for Sale

Brought to you by the employees of Zillow.com.

Mortgage rates

Latest Mortgage Rates 30 Year Fixed 15 Year Fixed 5/1 ARM See local rates Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Get this widget
Current Mortgage Rates See local rates Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Get this widget

Recent Comments

  • Layla: That's amazing. I can't believe there is some appreciation i...
  • WILLIAM: DO U HAVE ANY MORE BEFORE AND AFTER PICS IF NOT COULD U SUGG...
  • jon: i agree 100%...
  • articles: good,many thanks...
  • arjun b: this is awesome....
  • Amy B (from Zillow): Hi Adam, About 40% of Zillow users identify themselves as bu...

Zillow.com

Sign Up via E-mail

Delivered by FeedBurner

RSS

Subscribe via RSS

Life at Zillow

Find Homes

Zillow.com
Find Homes



Top 5 Links

Real Estate Blogs

Community

Geek Estate

Categories

Blogroll

Dueling Digs Favorites

Stats

Total Comments: 3898

Admin